Catalogue: Prophetic Medicine

al-Manhaj al-sawī wa-al-manhal al-rawī fī al-ṭibb al-nabawī   (MS A 41)

(An Easy Manual and Refreshing Source for the Medicine of the Prophet)

المنهج السوى والمنهل الروى فى الطب النبوى

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

جلال الدين السيوطى

This popular treatise on the medicine of the Prophet by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī is preserved in many manuscripts and is still available in several printed editions today.

NLM has a particularly fine and early copy of the treatise (MS A 41)

For other copies, see Hakim Altaf Ahmad Azmi, 'A new manuscript on Prophet's medicine by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyū, Studies in History of Medicine and Science, vol. 9 (nos. 3-4) (1985), pp. 95-112. See also, Anton M. Heinen, Islamic Cosmology: A Study of As-Suyuti's al-Hay'a as-saniya fi l-hay'a as-sunniya, with Critical Edition, Translation and Commentary (Beiruter Texte und Studien, 27) (Beirut: In Kommission bei Franz Steiner Verlag, 1982).

The text has been published several times, for example: Jalal al-Din ‘Abd al-Rahman, al-Manhaj al-sawī wa-al-manhal al-rawī fī al-ṭibb al-nabawī, edited by Hasan Muhammad Maqbuli al-Ahdal, (Beirut and Sana, 1986). This edition was based on only four copies of the treatise, and the NLM manuscript (MS A 41) was not employed in the edition.

al-Manhaj al-sawī wa-al-manhal al-rawī fī al-ṭibb al-nabawī   (MS A 41)

MS A 41, fol. 1b

An illuminated headpiece in a copy of the treatise on Prophetic Medicine, al-Manhaj al-sawī wa-al-manhal al-rawī fī al-ṭibb al-nabawī, by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 1505/911). The copy is undated; the appearance of the paper, script, inks, and illumination suggests a date of the 16th century.

MS A 41, binding

The binding of this manuscript has been reconstructed using the covers from a Persian/Turkish binding of the 16th or 17th century. The upper cover has a delicate guilloche roll border overpainted in gold with an inside single gold fillet. At the center of the cover is a deeply impressed panel stamp having a shallow scalloped ovoid outline. The field of the panel stamp has the a gold-painted background with a relief pattern of undulating cloud-ribbon forms intertwined with fine vine work. The vine is studded with large and small carnation flowers and buds. The scalloped outline of the panel stamp is emphasized by a gold-painted line and radiating gold flecks.

Arabic. 129 leaves (fols. 1a-129b). Dimensions 19.8 x 12.2 (text area 12.2 x 6.5) cm; 14 lines per page. The title is given on title page (fol. 1a) and in text (fol. 2a, lines 1-2). On the title page (fol. 1a) of the manuscript the author is incorrectly given as al-Qasṭallānī (i.e. Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Qasṭallānī, d. 1517/923), who was a writer also concerned with Prophetic traditions. The author's name does not appear in the manuscript, but the text corresponds completely to that in London, Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, MS Arabic 90, where Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyū is named on the title page as the author.

The copy is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, handwriting, ink, and illumination suggests a dating of about the 16th century.

A complete and illuminated copy.

The text is written in a professional, elegant, medium-small naskh, using black ink. Blue ink has been used for headings and emphasized words. On all the folios, the text is written within frames of gold and blue and black ink. There are catchwords.

Fol. 1b has an illuminated opening in gold and opaque watercolors.

The paper is a light-brown, semi-glossy, fibrous paper, with vertical laid lines but with scarcely any visible chain lines. Preliminary fol. [1] is of different yellowed paper with laid lines and slightly irregular single chain lines.

The volume consists of 129 leaves and one preliminary leaf. The preliminary folio is blank; fol. 1a is a title page.

The binding of this manuscript has been reconstructed using the covers from a Persian/Turkish binding of the 16th or 17th century. Both covers, of dark-red leather over pasteboards, have a delicate guilloche roll border overpainted in gold with an inside single gold fillet. At the center of the cover is a deeply impressed panel stamp having a shallow scalloped ovoid outline. The field of the panel stamp has the a gold-painted background with a relief pattern of undulating cloud-ribbon forms intertwined with fine vine work. The vine is studded with large and small carnation flowers and buds. The scalloped outline of the panel stamp is emphasized by a gold painted line and radiating gold flecks. The spine and edges of the binding are reconstructed of brown leather. There is gilt lettering on the repaired spine giving the author as al-Suyūṭī and the title as al-Manhaj fī al-ṭibb al-nabawī. The doublures are of dark-brown leather with gold tooled borders. There are modern paper endpapers.

The volume was in the collection of the Army Medical Library by 1946. No further information is available on the provenance.

Schullian/Sommer. Cat. of incun. & MSS., 1950, A41. p.311, where the first word of the title is transcribed as al-Minhaj.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-120 no. 1

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