Catalogue: Natural History

[Four Essays on Plants]   (MS A 35)

by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 1505/911)

جلال الدين السيوطى

The National Library of Medicine has a volume containing two short essays and ten maqāmahs by the 15th-century encyclopedist and scholar Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, a maqāmahbeing a type of rhymed prose. The manuscript at NLM (MS A 35) containing the essays and maqāmahs by al-Suyūṭī is closely related to the Berlin MS We. 193, copied about 1800, which contains copies, in precisely the same order. Other Berlin manuscripts contain additional copies of a few of the maqāmahs represented in the NLM manuscript. Specific references to other copies for each item will be given as they are catalogued individually.

Amongst the twelve essays and maqāmahs by al-Suyūṭī in this volume are one on the distinctiveness of the Egyptian garden, in which it is likened to the nightingale of gardens (Maqāmah fī waṣf rawdah misr tasammá Bulbul al-rawḍah), another on aromatic plants (Maqāmah al-rayāḥīn tasammá al-Maqāmah al-wardīyah), one concerned with musk (al-Maqāmah al-miskīyah), and one concerned with apples (al-Maqāmah al-tuffāḥīyah).

None of these essays have been published in modern translations or editions.

Maqāmah fī waṣf rawdah misr tasammá Bulbul al-rawḍah   (MS A 35, item 6)

(The Maqāmah on the Distinctiveness of the Egyptian Garden, called The Nightingale of the Garden)

مقامه فى وصف روضة مصر تسمي بلبل الروضه

MS A 35, fol. 12a

The beginning of a maqāmah, or essay in rhymed prose, concerned with the distinctive features of Egyptian gardens written by al-Suyūṭī (d. 1505/911). The copyist Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥalwānī al-Shāfi‘ī completed the copy on 16 Ramadan 1001 [= 16 June 1593].

Arabic. 4 leaves (fols. 11b, line 12, to 14b, line 10). Dimensions 20.4 x 14.6 (text area 15.5 x 9.5) cm; 23 lines per page. The title is given on the folio facing the start of the essay and on the title page for the volume (fol. 1a). The author's name is given at the end of the second item (fol. 4a lines 12-14) as Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, but on the title page (fol. 1a) and in the other individual items as: Jalal al-Suyūṭī.

Maqāmah al-rayahin tasammá al-Maqāmah al-wardiyah   (MS A 35, item 10)

(The Maqāmah on Aromatic Plants, called The Rose Maqāmah)

المقامة الرياحين وتسمي المقامة الورديه

Arabic. 8 leaves (fols. 30a, line 19, to 37a, line 22). Dimensions 20.4 x 14.6 (text area 15.5 x 9.5) cm; 23 lines per page. The title is given at the start of the essay and on the title page for the volume (fol. 1a). The author's name is given at the end of the second item (fol. 4a lines 12-14) as Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, but on the title page (fol. 1a) and in the other individual items as: Jalal al-Suyūṭī.

al-Maqāmah al-miskīyah   (MS A 35, item 11)

(The Musk Maqāmah)

المقامة المسكيه

Five other copies are recorded: Berlin, Staatsbibliothik, MS We. 193, fol. 34b-38b; MS Pm. 407, fols. 366b-370a; MS Lbg. 326, fols. 16a-25a; MS Pet. 296, fol. 1a-8b; and MS We. 189, fols. 1a-5b (see Ahlwardt, Berlin, entries 8557, 8556, and 8555).

Arabic. 6 leaves (fols. 37a, line 23, to 42a, line 13). Dimensions 20.4 x 14.6 (text area 15.5 x 9.5) cm; 23 lines per page. The title is given at the start of the essay and on the title page for the volume (fol. 1a). The author's name is given at the end of the second item (fol. 4a lines 12?14) as Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, but on the title page (fol. 1a) and in the other individual items as: Jalal al-Suyūṭī.

al-Maqāmah al-tuffāḥīyah   (MS A 35 item 12)

(The Apple Maqāmah)

المقامه التفاحيه

Five other copies are recorded: Berlin, Staatsbibliothik, MS We. 193, fol. 39a-45b; MS Pm. 407, fols. 354a-359a; MS Lbg. 326, fols. 25a-37a; MS Pet. 296, fol. 30a-40b; and MS We. 189, fols. 6a-13b (see Ahlwardt, Berlin, entries 8558, 8556, and 8555).

Arabic. 9 leaves (fols. 42a, line 13, to 50b). Dimensions 20.4 x 14.6 (text area 15.5 x 9.5) cm; 23 lines per page. The title is given at the start of the essay and on the title page for the volume (fol. 1a). The author's name is given at the end of the second item (fol. 4a lines 12-14) as Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, but on the title page (fol. 1a) and in the other individual items as: Jalal al-Suyūṭī.

The title of the volume containing these four essays is given as Majmu'at maqamat al-Suyūṭī (A collection of maqāmahs by al-Suyūṭī) in a recent owner's penciled label on the front endpapers.

The first twelve items in this volume appear to have been copied by the same scribe. In the colophon to the ninth item, it is stated that copyist Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥalwānī al-Shāfi‘ī completed the copy on 16 Ramadan 1001 [= 16 June 1593]

The text is written in a medium-small naskh script showing some North African influence using black ink with headings red. There is also red shading of some words; there are red teardrop text stops and catchwords. The text area is frame-ruled.

The biscuit, glossy paper has horizontal laid lines, single chain lines, and watermarks (initials). Fol. 43 is dyed yellow. The paper is waterstained, especially at the top of the volume, and it is soiled with thumbing. The edges have been trimmed from their original size.

The volume consists of 51 leaves and 1 end leaf. Fol. 1a is the title page for the entire volume. It contains three short essays and ten maqamahs (a type of rhymed prose), all by al-Suyūṭī. Item 1 (fols. 1b-2a) is Muṣannaf fī al-ghāliyah (MS A 35, item 1); item 2 (fols. 2a-4a) Nathl al-kattān fī al-kushknān (MS A 35, item 2); item 3 (fols. 4a-6a) al-Maqāmah al-fustuqīyah (MS A 35, item 3); item 4 (fols. 6a-8b) Naḍrah fī aḥādīth al-mā’ wa-al-riyāḍ (MS A 35, item 4); item 5 (fols. 8b-11b) al-Dhararī fī abnā al-sarāarī (MS A 35, item 5); item 6 (fols. 11b-14b) Maqāmah fī waṣf rawdah misr tasammá Bulbul al-rawḍah is here catalogued; item 7 (fols. 14b-18a) al-Maqāmah al-zumurrudīyah (MS A 35, item 7); item 8 (fols. 18a-22b) al-Maqāmah al-yāqūtīyah (MS A 35, item 8); item 9 (fols. 22b-30a) Manhal fī al-kunāfah wa-al-qaṭā'if (MS A 35, item 9); item 10 (fols. 30a-37a) Maqāmah al-rayāḥīn tasammá al-Maqāmah al-wardīyah is here catalogued; item 11 (fols. 37a-42a) al-Maqāmah al-miskīyah is here catalogued; item 12 (fols. 42a-50b) al-Maqāmah al-tuffā is here catalogued; and item 13 (fols. 51a-51b) Risālah fī al-khitān by al-Simillāwī (MS A 35, item 13). Fol. [1] at the end of the volume is blank but for small pious invocations; its paper is of later date.

The volume is bound in a red leather modern library binding. There are modern paper pastedowns and endpapers.

Various owner's signatures are on the title page (fol. 1a), including one by Ismā‘īl ibn Abī Bakr al-Kharrāṭ al-Ḥanafī al-Dimashqī dated 1054 (1644-45) and Muḥammad ibn Sulayman al-Kanāfī (undated).

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A. S. Yahuda (ELS 5043).

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., entry A35, p. 309 (the specific items are not itemized)

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-119 no. 2

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