[Risālah-i Muʻīnīyah yā al-Mufīd dar hayʼat, 14th or 15th century?].

Abstract

Fragment from what appears to be a fine copy of Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī's (d.1274) Risālah-i Muʻīnīyah or al-Mufīd dar hayʼat, an astronomical work dedicated to Abū al-Shams Muʻīn al-Dīn, son of the author's patron Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥtasham, governor of Quhistān. Only the latter portion of the second maqālah and opening of the third maqālah are present, including a portion of bāb 4 and bāb 5 (possibly from the second maqālah), the final part of bāb 8 through bāb 14 of the second maqālah, and the opening lines of bāb 1 from the third maqālah.Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center, Isl. Ms. 823Origin: Lacks dated colophon ; hand, paper, etc. may suggest 14th or 15th century.Binding: Unbound fragment ; recycled paper with scratch notes in pencil (appear to be bookseller's accounts) serves as a wrapper ; only one bifolium is intact ; once sewn in two stations, threads lost ; tears, staining, etc. ; housed in stiff cardboard wrapper in envelope.Support: non-European (Persian or Arab) laid paper with thick, even and fairly distinct laid lines (5-6 per cm. or 20 in 37 mm., horizontal) and what appear to be single chain lines, curved and spaced 39-41 mm. apart.Decoration: Section headings and keywords rubricated ; textual dividers in the form of three inverted commas in red ; astronomical diagrams in red and black (see pp.6, 8, 9, 10, 11).Script: Naskh ; clear, compact hand in a medium line ; mainly serifless (though irregular left-sloping head-serifs appear on occasional lām, alif, etc.) with slight effect of tilt to the left, freely ligatured and quite rounded with curvilinear descenders, closed and open counters, kāf mashqūqah (mashkūlah) preferred with left-ward hook often on shaft and shaqq meeting just below forming an irregular v-shape, pointing very casual though typically in distinct dots.Layout: Written in as many as 30 lines per page, varying according to appearance of diagrams.Collation: Five leaves, the final four of which appear to constitute the center portion of a gathering (possibly a quaternion) ; only one bifolium is intact ; pagination in pencil, Western numerals, supplied during digitization (includes paper wrapper).Title supplied by cataloguer.Ms. fragment.Loveday, Helen. Islamic paper: a study of the ancient craft. London : The Don Baker Memorial Fund, 2001.Humbert, G. "Papiers non filigranés utilisés au Proche-Orient jusqu’en 1450: essai de typologie." Journal asiatique, 286, no. 1:1-54.Storey, C. A. Persian literature,Daiber, H. and F.J. Ragep "al-Ṭūsī, Naṣīral-Dīn, Abū Ḏj̲aʿfar Muḥammad." In EI2,Brockelmann, C. GAL,King, D. A Survey of the scientific manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library. (Winona Lake, 1986),Fragment from what appears to be a fine copy of Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī's (d.1274) Risālah-i Muʻīnīyah or al-Mufīd dar hayʼat, an astronomical work dedicated to Abū al-Shams Muʻīn al-Dīn, son of the author's patron Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥtasham, governor of Quhistān. Only the latter portion of the second maqālah and opening of the third maqālah are present, including a portion of bāb 4 and bāb 5 (possibly from the second maqālah), the final part of bāb 8 through bāb 14 of the second maqālah, and the opening lines of bāb 1 from the third maqālah.Mode of access: Internet.Purchased in Cairo, 1933/34.Possible bookseller's accounts on wrapper ; a few marginal corrections