Catalogue: Medical Encyclopedias
Encyclopedias
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Tashrīḥ al-a‘ḍā’ al-murakkab min kitāb al-Qānūn
(MS A 27, item 1; MS A 56) - (The Anatomy of the Parts Assembled from the Book of the Canon)
- تشريح الاعضاء المركب من كتاب القانون
- by Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna)
- ابو على الحسين ابن عبد الله ابن سينا
Tashrīḥ al-a‘ḍā’ al-murakkab min kitāb al-Qānūn (MS A 27, item 1)
Illustrations
The central text consists of the anatomical sections of the Canon of Medicine by Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna). In the margins are lengthy quotations from the commentary on the anatomy of the Canon that was written by Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288/678 H)
Physical Description
Arabic. 38 folios (fols. 1b-38a). Dimensions 24 x 13.6 cm; text area 16.3 x 6.8 cm; 19 lines per page. The title Tashrīḥ al-a‘ḍā’ al-murakkab min kitāb al-Qānūn (The Anatomy of the Parts assembled from the Book of the Canon) is taken from the colophon on fol. 38a lines 12-14. The author's name is not given, but the text clearly corresponds to the anatomical sections in the Qānūn fī al-ṭibb by Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna). Galen is named occasionally, but these references occur in the text of the Canon itself. The compiler of the anatomical sections from the Canon is not named. Extensive quotations from the commentary on the anatomy of the Canon by Ibn al-Nafīs, here referred to as Qurashi, are in the margins.
The text consists of only the anatomical portions of the Canon on Medicine.
The copy was completed by an unnamed scribe on 5 Rajab 992 [= 13 July 1584] in Shahr Daylaman. The latter was a town in Persia in the borough of Daylaman, which lay south-west of the large settlement of Lahijan close to the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, in the ancient Iranian province of Daylam ( the article "Daylam" by V. Minorsky in EI (2nd edition), vol. 2, p. 189-194). The colophon occurs on fol. 38a, lines 14-17 and two diagonal lines.
The central text is written in a medium-small, compact, elegant and professional naskh script. Black ink with headings in red and with red overlinings. There are catchwords. The text area has been frame-ruled. The marginal annotations containing extracts from the commentary by Ibn al-Nafīs appear to be by the same copyist. There are also occasional interlinear notes.
The burnished, glossy beige paper has lightly scattered fibres, slightly curved vertical laid lines, and feint single chain lines (but no watermarks). The paper is waterdamaged and stained with thumbing and grease. The edges have been trimmed from their original size, and some of the marginal commentaries have been cut off.
The volume consists of 77 leaves. Fol. 1a is blank except for an incorrect title in a later hand and the trace of an owner's note. Fols. 40a and 77b are blank; fols. 40b and 77a are blank except for an owner's annotations. The first item (fols. 1b-38a) contains the anatomical sections from the Qanun of Avicenna here cataloged; the second item (fols. 38b-39b) is >Kashf ba‘d al-lughah min al-Qānūn wa-ghayrihi, an anonymous commentary on terms in the Qānūn (MS A 27, item 2); and the third item on fol. 41a is a short anonymous essay on oxymel (MS A 27, item 3). The fourth item (fols. 41b-75a) is an anonymous treatise on prognostics (MS A 27, item 4), and the final item (fols. 75b-76b) contains magical procedures and invocations useful for illness (MS A 27, item 5).
Binding
Bound in brown leather library binding; modern paper pastedowns and endpapers.
Provenance
On fol. 40b there is a note stating that the owner (malik) is Isḥāq, the physician in Damascus (tabib fi Damashq al-sham) in the year 1240 [= 1824-5]. On fol. 77a there are various owners' notations, including the statement that this volume is the Kanz al-atibba' (The Treasure of Physicians) belonging to al-faqir Isḥāq the physician (al-tabib) in the year 1251 [= 1835-6] and another statement that this Kanz al-atibba' belonged to one of the skilled wound-healers (ahad min al-hudhdhaq al-sabur) Isḥāq Dhilṭā al-Yahūdī, medical practitioner in Damascus (al-mutatabbib fi Dimashq al-sham); this is presumably the same owner. His assistant (‘abd) is named, on both fol. 77a and in yet another signature on fol. 38a, as Ibrāhīm Rumanu tabib. On fol. 1a the title Kanz al-atibba' is repeated. On the basis of these owner's notes, Sommer incorrectly catalogued this manuscript as a copy of a treatise titled Kanz al-atibba' written by Malik Iskaq, a Jewish physician of Damascus (see Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., p. 306 entry A27).
The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A. S. Yahuda who acquired it in Cairo. NLM MS A 23 was acquired in Cairo in the same lot. On the front endpaper several earlier labels have been pasted, including one giving the designation "ELS 1665" and two smaller ones "M[ed.] 44".
References
Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., p. 306 entry A27 [this item is incorrectly catalogued as a copy of a treatise titled Kanz al-atibba' written by Malik Isḥāq, a Jewish physician of Damascus]; Hamarneh, "NLM" p. 82, where it is said that it is a compilation made by a "a certain Jewish Physician, Malak Ishaq of Damascus, possibly of the early Mamluk period", and it is stated that the copy was made in Shar Dilman.
NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-117 no. 3
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[Tashrīḥ al-a‘ḍā’ al-murakkab min kitāb al-Qānūn]
(MS A 56)
- (The Anatomy of the Parts Assembled from the Book of the Canon)
- تشريح الاعضاء المركب من كتاب القانون
Illustrations
The colophon in which it is stated that this copy of the anatomical portions from Avicenna's Canon of Medicine was completed on 27 Ramadan 1116 [1 January 1705] by the copyist Muḥammad Rafī‘ ibn ‘Abd Allāh, born in Tabrīz (al-Tabrīzī muwalladan) and resident in Isfahan (wa-al-Isfahani musakinan).
Physical Description
Arabic. 30 leaves (fol. 1b-30b). Dimensions 20.3 x 11.5 cm; text areas 15.5 x 7.3 cm; 19 lines per page. No author or title is given. The text corresponds exactly to MS A 27 item 1. The title is taken from the copy in MS A 27.
The treatise consists of all the anatomical passages occurring in the Canon of Avicenna; in the margins are quotations from the commentary on the anatomy in the Canon written by Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288/678 H), referred to here as Qurashi (see for example fols. 13b, 14a, 15a, 22b). The quotations from the commentary by Ibn al-Nafīs are not quite as numerous, however, as those in NLM MS A 27.
The volume was earlier incorrectly catalogued as a treatise on anatomy (Risalah fi al-tashrih) by Galen (see Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS, p. 316 entry A56). This was based on an owner's note on fol. 1a in a later hand, where the owner, Muḥammad Amīn al-tabib (the physician) has written the title Kitīb fi al-hikmah li-Jalinus (A book on wisdom by Galen), and another owner in 1840 has written the title: Mukhtasar latif fi al-tibb li-Jalinus (Small abridgement on medicine by Galen).
The copy was completed on 27 Ramadan 1116 [1 January 1705] by the copyist >Muḥammad Rafī‘ ibn ‘Abd Allāh, born in Tabrīz (al-Tabrīzī muwalladan) and resident in Isfahan (wa-al-Isfahani musakinan). The colophon is on fol. 30b, lines 17-20.
The text is written in an inelegant but consistent nasta‘liq script. The text area has been frame-ruled. Black ink, with headings in red and red overlinings; red numerals in the margins mark the section headings. There are catchwords. There are marginal corrections and other notes emending the text, in addition to the extensive quotations from the commentary by Ibn al-Nafīs that have been placed in the margins.
The paper of the first 8 folios is different from that used in the rest of the volume. In the opening folios, the glossy biscuit paper has neither laid lines nor chain lines. The semi-glossy biscuit paper of fols. 9-30 is thinner and has unevenly dispersed small fibres, wavy horizontal laid lines, with only the slightest trace of chain lines. Fol. 31 is of more recent paper, watermarked, with laid and single chain lines visible. The paper is waterdamaged at the top and bottom, and the edges of fol. 30 have been repaired.
The volume consists of 31 leaves. Fol. 31 of different paper and essentially blank except for an annotation, added casually and upsidedown, regarding the numerical value of letters.
Binding
Bound in brown leather modern library binding; modern paper pastedowns and endpapers.
Provenance
On fol. 1a there is an owner's note by Muḥammad Amīn al-tabib (the physician) dated 1256 [= 1840] with his stamp as chief physician in Syria; a second owner's note (with accompanying square stamp) by Muḥammad Sa‘īd ibn al-Ḥājj Muṣṭafá al-ṭabīb states that he purchased the manuscript on 10 Rajab 1270 [= 8 April 1854].
The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A. S. Yahuda who acquired it in Cairo (ELS 1718 Med. 61).
References
Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., p. 316, entry A56; Hamarneh, "NLM" , p. 81, where it is suggested that the copyist was also the compiler (which is not possible, since the same compilation is found in MS A 27 copied in 1584/992 H).
NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-123 no. 3
