Catalogue: Pharmaceutics

Tarjumān al-aṭibbā’ wa-lisān al-alibbā’   (MS A 75)

(The Interpreter of Physicians and the Language of the Wise concerning Simple Medicaments)

ترجمان الاطباء ولسان الالباء

by Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ma‘rūf al-Shamī al-Asadī (d. 1585/993)

تقى الدين محمد ابن معروف الشمى الاسدى

The author of this alphabetical pharmaco-botanical dictionary was better known for his astronomical writings, for Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ma‘rūf was a Syrian-Egyptian astronomer active in Istanbul at the Ottoman court.

Only one other copy of the treatise is recorded: Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, MS Mq. 527 (Ahlwardt, Berlin, entry no. 6431), which was copied in 1819.

The NLM copy is incomplete.

Tarjumān al-aṭibbā’ wa-lisān al-alibbā’   (MS A 75)

Illustrations

The second folio in a copy of a pharmaco-botanical dictionary by a writer better known for his astronomical writings, Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ma‘rūf al-Shamī al-Asadī (d. 1585/993). The title Kitāb Tarjumān al-aṭibbā’ wa-lisān al-alibbā’ fī mufradat al-ṭibb has been added at the top by a later reader. The first folio of this manuscript was apparently damaged and has been replaced by a much more recent copy.

Physical Description

Arabic. 131 leaves (fols. 1a-131b). Dimensions 20 x 11 (text area 13.5 x 6.2) cm; 21 lines per page. The title is given in full in the margin of folio 2b, where it has been added as a correction to the text, at the top of folio 2a (added later), and in a shorter form (Kitāb Tarjumān al-aṭibbā’ wa-lisān al-alibbā’ ) on the title page (folio 1a).The author's name is given as Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ma‘rūf (folio 1b, line 12) and as Taqī al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad Manla Ma‘rūf (folio 1a).

The copy is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, script, and ink, suggests a dating of about the 17th century.

It is an incomplete copy, with the text breaking off at the bottom of folio 131 (old 132) in the middle of the letter ya'. One folio is missing following folio 121; folio 1 is a recent replacement.

The text is written in a medium-small naskh script, using black ink with headings in red and red dots for text separations. The text is fully vocalized. There are catchwords. The handwriting of folio 1 differs from that of fols. 2-131 and appears to be a replacement leaf. Some letters of the alphabetic headings are gold sprinkled. The folios are numbered in Arabic numerals and recently renumbered in Western numerals, which diverge from earlier numberings after folio 121.

There are marginal corrections and numerous marginal annotations and notes in several hands.

The paper of folio 1 is quite recent white paper with visible laid lines and single chain lines. The rest of the volume has semi-glossy beige paper, much of it severely stained brown from water. The paper has laid lines and single chain lines somewhat irregularly spaced, and there are watermarks. Fols. 132 and 133 are similar to the main part of the volume but appear to be slightly more recent.

The volume consists of 133 leaves. Folio 133b is blank. Folios 132ab and 133a contain several recipes written in recent hands.

Binding

The volume is bound in dark brown leather over pasteboards, with gold tooled borders on the front and back covers. The binding has badly deteriorated and has been recently repaired with brown leather edges and spine. There are modern paper pastedowns and endpapers.

Provenance

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A.S. Yahuda who acquired it from a dealer in provincial Turkey (ELS 1719 Med. 79).

References

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., entry A 75, p. 322.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-126 no. 8