Catalogue: Prophetic Medicine

Kitāb al-Raḥmah fī al-ṭibb wa-al-ḥikmah   (MS A 29)

(The Book of Mercy Concerned with Medicine and Wisdom)

كتاب الرحمه فى الطب والحكمه

by Muḥammad al-Mahdawī ibn ‘Alī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ṣanawbarī (d. 1412/ 815)

محمد مهدى ابن على ابن ابراهيم الصنوبرى

This treatise on prophetic medicine by al-Ṣanawbarī, in 196 chapters (babs), proved very popular, judging by the large number of preserved copies and the number of printed editions that have been issued. It also has often been falsely attributed to Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 1505/911).

For other copies, see GAL, vol. 2, p. 189; GAL-S, vol. 2, p. 252; Dietrich, Medicinalia, pp. 207-8 no. 96; Ullmann, Medizin, p. 188; and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Oriental Collections, MS Bruce 4 and MS Hyde 16 (Savage-Smith, "Bodleian").

It has been printed several times, often under the name of al-Suyūṭī. For example, Jalāl al-Dīn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Suyūṭī, al-Raḥmah fī al-ṭibb wa-al-ḥikmah, 2nd ed. (Cairo, 1938/1357).

Kitāb al-Raḥmah fī al-ṭibb wa-al-ḥikmah   (MS A 29)

Illustrations

A copy probably made in India of the treatise on Prophetic Medicine titled Kitāb al-Raḥmah fī al-ṭibb wa-al-ḥikmah by al-Ṣanawbarī (d. 1412/ 815). According to the colophon shown here, the copy was completed at the end of the month (salkh) of Rabi‘ II 1226 (= about 19-23 February 1811).

Physical Description

Arabic. 19 leaves (fols. 1a-19b). Dimensions 21.5 x 17 (ca 17.5 x 13, variable) cm; 23-26 lines per page. The title is found near the beginning of the text (fol. 1b line 9) and in the colophon (fol. 19b lines 20-21). The author's name is given on the title page (fol. 1a) as Shaykh Mahdawi ibn ‘Ali ibn Ibrāhīm al-Yamanī al-Muqrī, where it is also stated that he died in 815 (= 1412).

The copy is dated in colophon (fol. 19b line 21): salkh (end of the month) of Rabi‘ II 1226 (= about 19-23 February 1811). It appears to have been made in India.

The text is written in a very casual and ill-formed small naskh, using black in and headings in red. The lines are rather irregular and the margins variable. There are catchwords. The script, paper and marginalia very similar to NLM MS A38, also on Prophetic Medicine. Both manuscripts are probably from the same workshop and provenance.

There are marginalia in several hands, some quite extensive. Notes indicate that it has been collated against another copy.

The green-grey paper is has laid lines and single chain lines, with visible watermarks. Three of the four slips that have been tipped into the volume are a darker blue watermarked paper. The paper is waterdamaged.

The volume consists of 20 leaves. The title page (fol. 1a) also contains an anonymous poem. On fols. 20a and 20b there are miscellaneous recipes and notes in Arabic and Persian with an astrological chart of days of the week and planets. Several unnumbered sheets have been tipped into the volume: between fols. 12 and 13, a sheet with recipes; between fols. 13 and 14, a small sheet with notes in Persian on therapy for stomach ache; between fols. 16 and 17, a slip with two therapeutic notes on melancholia and ulcers; and between fols. 18 and 19, a slip with notes on poisonous insect and scorpion bites.

Binding

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

Provenance

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library apparently from A. S. Yahuda. No further information is available on its provenance.

References

Schullian/Sommer. Cat. of incun. & MSS., 1950, A29, p. 307, where author given as Mahdi ibn ‘Alī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Yamanī al-Muqrī'.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-118 no. 2