Catalogue: Pharmaceutics

I‘lām arbāb al-qarīḥah bi-l-adwiyah al-ṣaḥīḥah   (MS A 20)

(The Teaching of Those with Talent about the Reliable Medicaments)

اعلام ارباب القريحه بالادويه الصحيحه

by Aḥmad ibn Qāsim ibn Muḥammad Sāsī al-Būnī al-Tamīmī (d. 1691/1103)

احمد ابن قاسم ابن محمد ساسى البونى التميمى

This is an incomplete copy of a treatise composed in the 17th century on drug remedies for various ailments. The author was a North African writer who lived to be nearly 100 years old.

Only one other copy is recorded, in Algiers, where the title is given as: I‘lām ahl al-qarīḥah fī al-adwiyah al-al-ṣaḥīḥah (The Teaching of People of Talent about the Reliable Medicaments); see GAL-S, vol. 2, p. 715.

I‘lām arbāb al-qarīḥah bi-l-adwiyah al-ṣaḥīḥah   (MS A 20)

Illustrations

>

The opening page of I‘lām arbāb al-qarīḥah bi-l-adwiyah al-ṣaḥīḥah (The Teaching of Those with Talent about the Reliable Medicaments) by al-Būnī al-Tamīmī (d. 1691/1103). The full name of the author is given in line 9 of the page, with a slightly different version above that, in lines 4-6. The copy is written in a Maghribi script and is undated and unsigned, but appears to be from the late 18th century. Only one other copy is recorded.

Physical Description

Arabic. 67 pages (pp. 1-67). Dimensions: 21.2 x 15.2 (text area 13 x 8) cm; 19 lines per page. The title is given page 2, lines 11-12, as I‘lam arbab al-qarihah bi-l-adwiyah al-sahihah; on the title page (page [1]) a later hand as given it as Kitāb I‘lām arbāb al-qarīḥah bi-l-adwiyah al-ṣaḥīḥah. The author is named on p. 1, line 9, as Aḥmad ibn Qāsim ibn Muḥammad Sāsī al-Būnī al-Tamīmī, while a few lines above on the same page he is given as Ahmad ibn al-shaykh Qāsim al-Būnī al-Tamīmī.

The copy is undated and unsigned. The appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests late 18th century.

It is an incomplete copy. The text breaks off at p. 67 before the end of the treatise. A page appears to be missing between pp. 3 and 4.

The text is written in small Maghribi script using brown ink. The headings are written in a larger script in brown ink, and there are red and black overlinings, the black ones probably added later when the marginal headings were added. The text area has been frame-ruled. There are catchwords.

There are marginalia in several hands, including the later marginal headings and some annotations in pencil in what may be a European hand. The pages have been paginated in Arabic numerals, with a recent pencilled pagination in Western numerals.

The matte-finished ivory paper is thick and opaque, with no visible laid lines. There is foxing, and the paper is damp-stained and soiled through thumbing. The edges have been trimmed from their original size.

The volume consists of 67 pages and one preliminary page [1]. The preliminary page [1] is blank except for a version of the title written by a later hand and a Turkish owner's note

On the modern bookplate with 'ELS 2359 Med' that is on the front endpaper, there is a note that with this treatise is a different treatise titled: Hall al-rumuz wa-miftah al-kunuz by one ‘Izz al-Dīn ibn ‘Abd al-Salam al-Maqdisī. The latter treatise is no longer in the volume and no such author is recorded in published catalogues.

Binding

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

Provenance

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A. S. Yahuda (ELS no. 2359).

References

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., entry A 20, pp. 303-4.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-116 no. 2