Catalogue: Alchemy
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Masā’il / Risālat Mariyānus al-Rāhib
al-ḥakīm lil-amīr Khālid ibn Yazīd (MS A 70, item 19) - (Questions / Correspondence of Marianos the Monk with the prince Khālid ibn Yazīd)
- رسالة مريانس الراهب الحكيم لامير خالد ابن يزيد
- attributed to Khālid ibn Yazīd (7th cent. A.D.)
- خالد ابن يزيد ابن معاوي
Khālid ibn Yazīd (7th cent.)
An Umayyad prince (son of the second Umayyad caliph), Khālid ibn Yazīd is said to have learned alchemy from a Byzantine monk named Maryānos (Marianos) and is also said to have ordered the translation into Arabic of Greek and Coptic writings on alchemy. Though alchemical writings and various legends, such as these, are attributed to him, there is in fact no direct evidence to suggest that he had anything to do with early alchemy.
The treatise preserved in this manuscript purports to consist of the alchemical correspondence between Khālid ibn Yazīd and the monk Marianos. Much has been written and disputed about the sources and authenticity of this treatise. The writing was subsequently translated into Latin, possibly by Robert of Chester in the 12th century; see Lee Stavenhagen, A Testament of Alchemy, Being the Revelations of Morienus, Ancient Adept and Hermit of Jerusalem to Khalid ibn Yazid ibn Mu'awiyya, King of the Arabs, of the Divine Secrets of the Magisterium and Accomplishment of the Alchemical Art (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England for Brandeis University, 1974).
Two other Arabic copies are recorded, both in Istanbul, with a possible third in copy now in Hyderabad, and some fragments are preserved elsewhere; see Sezgin, GAS IV, p. 111 no. 2; Ullmann, Natur, p. 193 note 2; and J. Ruska, Arabische Alchemisten: I. Chalid ibn Jazid ibn Mu‘awiya (Heidelberg, 1924), pp. 31-52.
For the alchemical correspondence purported to have been exchanged between Khalid ibn Yazid and the Byzantine monk Marianos, see Ullmann Natur, pp. 191-2. See also M. Ullmann, 'Halid ibn Yazid und der Alchemie: Eine Legende', Der Islam, 1978, vol. 55, pp. 181-218.
Arabic. 5 leaves (fols. 53b, line 16-57b, line 2). Dimensions 21.3 x 16.8 (text area 15 x 10) cm; 20 lines per page. The title, Masā’il, and the author, Khālid ibn Yazīd, are given on fol. 53b, line 16. Maryānus al-rahib (Marianos the monk) is named in line 17 of the same folio.
The copy is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a date of the 17th or 18th century.
Physical Description
(MS A 70)
All twenty-seven items in the volume have been transcribed by the same unnamed copyist. Dimensions 21.3 x 16.8 (text area 15 x 10) cm; 20 lines per page.
The copy is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a date of the 17th or 18th century.
The text is written in a small, compact naskh script using black ink with headings and overlinings in red. There are catchwords. On some leaves there are instructions written vertically in the margins to the person who later inserted the rubricated headings; most have been cut off as the edges were trimmed, but on some folios (e.g., 37a, 38a) traces can still be seen.
There are copious marginalia throughout in several hands, with some interlinear notes. A later hand has written the titles of various individual items in the volume in the upper left corners of the recto of some folios. One of the person adding marginalia to the volume frequently cites the alchemical authority al-Jaldakī.
Folios 1-40 are composed of a biscuit, fibrous paper having a nearly matte finish, with neither laid lines nor chain lines. Fols. 41-67 are composed of paper dyed a light gray, of structure and finish similar to the first group. The edges have been trimmed from their original size. The volume is damp-stained and soiled through thumbing.
The volume consists of 67 leaves and one loose leaf. Fol. 1a is blank except for some later Turkish poetry and an owner's stamp. The loose leaf is smaller (ca. 18 x 11 cm) and of different paper from the rest of the volume; on it are miscellaneous and very casually written notes. Fols. 1b-12a (item 1) contain Kitāb al-Sirr al-sārr wa-sirr al-asrār by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (MS A 70, item 1); fols. 12a-13b (item 2) Kitāb Jannāt al-khuld by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (MS A 70, item 2 ); fols. 13b-20b (item 3) Kitāb al-Raḥmah al-kabīr by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (MS A 70, item 3); fols. 20b-22a (item 4) Kitāb al-Iḥqāq min sab‘īn [extracts] by al-Rāzī (MS A 70, item 4); fols. 22a-24a (item 5) an untitled treatise attributed to Hirmīs [Hermes Trismegistus] (MS A 70, item 5); fols. 24a-27b (item 6) Kitāb al-Tadābīr by al-Rāzī (MS A 70, item 6); fols. 28a-29a (item 7) Kitāb al-Rāhib by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (MS A 70, item 7); fols 29a-30b (item 8) Kitāb al-Āthar al-‘ulwīyah by Aristotle (MS A 70, item 8); fols. 30b-31b (item 9) Risālah al-Fahm al-thāqib ilá al-fahm al-murāqib attributed to Plato (MS A 70, item 9); fols. 31b-33b (item 10) Risālah Mufākharat al-aḥjār attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (MS A 70, item 10); fols. 33b-37b (item 11) extracts from writings of al-Ṭughrā’ī (MS A 70, item 11); fols. 38a-38b (item 12) untitled treatise attributed to Agathodaimon (MS A 70, item 12); fols. 39a-41a (item 13) Risālah fī ṣinā‘at al-iksīr by Aḥmad ibn ‘Imād al-Dīn (MS A 70, item 13); fols. 41a-45a (item 14) Risālah fī bayān tafrīq al-adyān wa-tafarru‘ al-‘ibādāt wa-al-diyānāt wa-al-i‘tiqādāt by Zosimos (MS A 70, item 14); fols. 45a-47b (item 15) Kitāb al-Fuṣūl attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (MS A 70, item 15); fols. 47b-48b (item 16) extracts from writings of al-Ṭughrā’ī (MS A 70, item 16); fols. 49a-52b (item 17) untitled risālah attributed to Khālid ibn Yazīd (MS A 70, item 17); fols. 52b-53b (item 18) Kitāb al-Mujarradāt [extracts] attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (MS A 70, item 18); fols. 53b-57b (item 19) Masā’il attributed to Khālid ibn Yazīd here catalogued; fols. 57b-60a (item 20) Kitāb al-Sirr al-Maknūn by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (MS A 70, item 20); fols. 60a-63a (item 21) extract (nubdhah) from the writings of al-Ṭughrā’ī (MS A 70, item 21); fols. 63a-63b (item 22) Aqwāl al-mutaffariqāt, anonymous (MS A 70, item 22); fols. 63b, lines 6-13 (item 23), alchemical note, anonymous (MS A 70, item 23); fols. 63b-64a (item 24) Kitāb al-Mawāzīn [extracts] by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (MS A 70, item 24); fols. 64a-64b (item 25) Kitāb al-Sirr al-Maknūn [extract] by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (MS A 70, item 25); fols 64b-67a (item 26) Kitāb al-Aḥjār ‘alá ra’y Balīnās by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (MS A 70, item 26); and fols. 67a-67b (item 27) untitled treatise attributed to Agathodaimon (MS A 70, item 27).
Binding
The volume is bound in a soft brown-leather binding. On each cover there is a blind-tooled design formed of straight lines. There are no pastedowns or endpapers.
Provenance
On fol. 1b there is an impression of an owner's stamp whose date might be 1123 (= 1711), though the middle numerals are not clear, and the name might be Abū Nūr Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī. On fol. 1a there is an unidentified library stamp.
The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A.S. Yahuda (ELS 1701 Med 120).
References
Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., entry A 70, p. 320, where says it a collection of 32 alchemical treatises.
NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-126 no. 3
