Catalogue: Chemical Medicine

Ghāyat al-itqān fī tadbīr badan al-insān   (MS A 12)

(The Culmination of Perfection in the Treatment of the Human Body)

غاية الاتقان فى تدبير بدن الانسان

by Ṣāliḥ ibn Naṣr Allāh al-Ḥalabī Ibn Sallūm (d. 1670/1081)

صالح ابن نصر الله ابن سلوم الحلبى

The copy is incomplete, breaking off in the section on diseases occurring from fever (maqalah 4, bab 2, fasl 1); NLM MS A 30 is a complete copy of this version.

MS A 12, fol. 1a

The opening of a copy a version of the treatise on chemical medicine titled Ghāyat al-itqān fī tadbīr badan al-insān by Ibn Sallūm (d. 1670/1081).The title Istikhraj [fi al-]tibb Extract on Medicine) is given in the second line. The copy is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a 19th-century date.

Arabic. 242 pages (pp. 1-242). Dimensions 21 x 15.5 (text area 17 x 11.4) cm; 20 lines per page. The title Istikhraj [fi al-]tibb is given on p. 1, line 2. The author of the treatise is given as Salih ibn Nasr Allah (p. 1, line) and it is stated that he was in the service of al-Sultan Muhammad ibn al-Sultan Ibrahim in the years 1058 (= 1648). Name of book being extracted is given (p. 1, line 4) as: Ghāyat al-itqān fī tadbīr badan al-insān.

The copy is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a 19th c. date.

The copy is incomplete, breaking off in the section on diseases occurring from fever (maqalah 4, bab 2, fasl 1); NLM MS A 30 is a complete copy of this version.

The text is written in a somewhat awkward naskh script, using black ink with headings in red. The text area has been frame-ruled. There are catchwords and red text stops formed of 3 teardrops. There is very little marginalia. The pages are numbered in Arabic numerals with some errors; the volume has been recently renumbered in Western numerals.

The stiff, cream paper has horizontal laid lines and single chain lines; no watermarks were detected. The paper is water damaged at the start of the volume.

The volume consists of 242 pages and one unnumbered folio at the end. The latter is of slightly different paper from the main text and is blank, though a text area has been frame-ruled.

The volume is bound in a tan leather library binding with envelope flap. There are modern paper pastedowns and endpapers.

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A.S. Yahuda (ELS no. 2356).

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., entry A 12, pp. 300-1, where author's name given as Ibn Salam, Ṣāliḥ ibn Naṣr Allāh al-Ḥalabī.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-114 no. 2

Back to Top