Catalogue: Alchemy

Sharḥ Shudhūr al-dhahab   (MS A 65, item 1)

(Commentary on the poems 'Nuggets')

شرح شذور الذهب

by Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Anṣārī (2nd half of 12th century)

ابو القاسم محمد ابن عبد الله الانصارى

This is an alchemical-mystical commentary on an allegorical poem titled Shudhūr al-dhahab (Nuggets of Gold) or Dīwān al-shudhūr (Poems of the Nuggets). The poem being commented upon was composed by the alchemist Ibn Arfa‘ Ra’s, who died in 1197/593 and consisted of 1460 verses having as rhymes the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet. The commentator, Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Anṣārī, was a pupil of Ibn Arfa‘ Ra’s.

Only two other copies of this particular commentary are recorded (now in Berlin and Dublin); see Ullmann, Natur, p. 232 note 2.

NLM also has a copy of another commentary on this same set of poems by Ibn Arfa‘ Ra’s, in this case a commentary by the well-known alchemist al-Jaldakī (MS A 14).

Sharḥ Dīwān al-shudhūr   (MS A 65, item 1)

MS A 65, fol. 80b (old 81b)

MS A 65, fol. 80b (old 81b) An alembic or still-head (lower illustration) and a metal alembic with boiling vessel, illustrated in the margins of a copy of Sharḥ Shudhūr al-dhahab, a commentary by Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Anṣārī on an alchemical-allegorical set of poems by his teacher Ibn Arfa‘ Ra’s (d. 1197/593). The copy was completed in Jumadá I 1123 (= March-April 1712) by the copyist Muḥammad Ṣādiq ibn Muṣṭafá al-Anṭākī al-Istanbūlī al-Ḥanafī.

MS A 65, fol. 81a (old 82a)

Stylized illustrations of three alembics with cucurbits occur within the text in a copy of Sharḥ Shudhūr al-dhahab, a commentary by Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Anṣārī on an alchemical-allegorical set of poems by his teacher Ibn Arfa‘ Ra’s (d. 1197/593). The copy was completed in Jumadá I 1123 (= March-April 1712) by the copyist Muḥammad Ṣādiq ibn Muṣṭafá al-Anṭākī al-Istanbūlī al-Ḥanafī.

MS A 65, fol. 81b (old 80b)

More elaborate distillation equipment illustrated in the margins of in a copy of Sharḥ Shudhūr al-dhahab, a commentary by Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Anṣārī on an alchemical-allegorical set of poems by his teacher Ibn Arfa‘ Ra’s (d. 1197/593). The copy was completed in Jumadá I 1123 (= March-April 1712) by the copyist Muḥammad Ṣādiq ibn Muṣṭafá al-Anṭākī al-Istanbūlī al-Ḥanafī.

MS A 65, fol. 83b (old 84b)

A glass alembic or still-head illustrated in the margins of in a copy of Sharḥ Shudhūr al-dhahab, a commentary by Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Anṣārī on an alchemical-allegorical set of poems by his teacher Ibn Arfa‘ Ra’s (d. 1197/593). The copy was completed in Jumadá I 1123 (= March-April 1712) by the copyist Muḥammad Ṣādiq ibn Muṣṭafá al-Anṭākī al-Istanbūlī al-Ḥanafī.

MS A 65, fol. 84a

The upper marginal illustration shows a retort resting in a brick furnace, while the lower one shows a rather complex brick furnace. From a copy of Sharḥ Shudhūr al-dhahab, a commentary by Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Anṣārī on an alchemical-allegorical set of poems by his teacher Ibn Arfa‘ Ra’s (d. 1197/593). The copy was completed in Jumadá I 1123 (= March-April 1712) by the copyist Muḥammad Ṣādiq ibn Muṣṭafá al-Anṭākī al-Istanbūlī al-Ḥanafī.

MS A 65, fol. 148a

The last page with colophon of a copy of Sharḥ Shudhūr al-dhahab, a commentary by Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Anṣārī on an alchemical-allegorical set of poems by his teacher Ibn Arfa‘ Ra’s (d. 1197/593). According to the colophon, the copy was completed in Jumadá I 1123 (= March-April 1712) by the copyist Muḥammad Ṣādiq ibn Muṣṭafá al-Anṭākī al-Istanbūlī al-Ḥanafī.

Arabic. 149 leaves (prelim [7b], fols. 1-148a). Dimensions 20.7 x 14 (text area 15.4 x 8.7) cm; 17 lines per page. Title taken from opening of main text (fol. [7b] line 3); the title appears in a later hand (fol. [7a]) Sharh Mukhtasar al-shudhur. The author of the allegorical, mystical poems being commented upon is given as Abū al-Hasan ‘Alī ibn Abī al-Qāsim Musá ibn ‘Alī ibn Musá ibn Muḥammad ibn Khalaf al-Anṣārī al-Andalusi known as (al-mushtahar bi-) Ibn Arfa‘ Ra’s (fol. [7b], lines 4-5).

The alchemical commentary on the poems is stated to be by the pupil of Ibn Arfa‘ Ra’s named Abu al-Qasim Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Ansari (fol. [7b] line 6).

The manuscript is dated in the colophon (fol. 148a) Jumadá I 1123 (= March-April 1712), and the scribe's name is given as Muḥammad Ṣādiq ibn Muṣṭafá al-Anṭākī al-Istanbūlī al-Ḥanafī (fol. 148a line 16).

The text is written in a medium-small naskh script, using black ink with headings in red and red overlinings. The text is written within a frame of single red ink lines. There are catchwords. The folios have been numbered, incorrectly, in Arabic numerals, recently renumbered in Western numerals .

Stylized illustrations of alembics occur in the text of item two (fol. 81a (old 82a); more recent and well delineated illustrations of alchemical equipment occur in the margins of fols. 80b (old 81b), 81b (old 82b), 83b (old 84b), and 84a (old 84a); they are drawn in red and black inks.

The are considerable marginalia written in several hands.

The very glossy, thin, biscuit paper has thin vertical laid lines and single chain lines (no watermarks observed).

The volume consists of 151 leaves and 7 preliminary leaves of similar paper. Preliminary fol. [1a] is blank except for contents notes and owners' notes in a much later hand. Preliminary fols. [1b-7a] contain a table of contents in chart form in a later hand. Prelim fol. [7b] to fol. 148a (item 1) is the commentary here catalogued. Fols. 148b-151a (item 2) contain an otherwise unrecorded short alchemical treatise titled Miftāḥ al-ḥikmah by al-Ṭughrā’ī (MS A 65, item 2).

The volume is bound in a modern orange-tan leather binding over pasteboards. The covers has a gold-tooled border. There are marbled paper pastedowns and endpapers.

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library apparently from A. S. Yahuda.

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., entry A 65, pp. 318-9.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-125 no. 2

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