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Catalogue: Prophetic Medicine

Nukat wa-asrār kafīyah fī al-ṭibb (MS A 50, item 1): (Aphorisms and Secrets Sufficient for Medicine); نكت واسرار كافيه فى الطب; by Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Walī ibn Naṣr ibn Ḥusayn al-Ḥanafī (fl. 1593/1001); حسين ابن ابراهيم ابن ولى ابن نصر [ ...] ابن حسين الحنفى

This is a unique copy of a treatise on prophetic medicine and astrological medicine by an otherwise unknown author named Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Walī ibn Naṣr ..[?] .. ibn Ḥusayn al-Ḥanafī. There is one word following 'Nasr' that is not clear.

The author clearly states that he transcribed (harrara) and completed the treatise in the year 1593 (1001 H), and presumably the copy at NLM is in his own handwriting.

No other copy is recorded.

Nukat wa-asrār kafīyah fī al-ṭibb (MS A 50, item 1)

Illustrations

Folio 1b from Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Walī ibn Naṣr ibn Ḥusayn al-Ḥanafī's Nukat wa-asrār kafīyah fī al-ṭibb (Aphorisms and Secrets Sufficient for Medicine). The dark ivory, lightly glossed paper has vertical laid lines, single chain lines, and watermarks. The text is written in a small, awkward naskh, using dark-brown ink with some headings in red.

MS A 50, fol. 1b

The beginning of a treatise on Prophetic Medicine by an otherwise unknown writer named Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Walī ibn Naṣr ibn Ḥusayn al-Ḥanafī. He states that he also transcribed the copy and completed it in the month of Jumadá I 1001 (= 3 February to 4 March 1593). It is presumably a copy in his own handwriting. No other copy is recorded.

Folio 9b, the final folio from Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Walī ibn Naṣr ibn Ḥusayn al-Ḥanafī's Nukat wa-asrār kafīyah fī al-ṭibb (Aphorisms and Secrets Sufficient for Medicine). The dark ivory, lightly glossed paper has vertical laid lines, single chain lines, and watermarks. The text is written in a small, awkward naskh, using dark-brown ink with some headings in red.

MS A 50, fol. 9b

The final page of a treatise on Prophetic Medicine by an otherwise unknown writer named Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Walī ibn Naṣr ibn Ḥusayn al-Ḥanafī. He states, in the last three lines, that he also transcribed the copy and completed it in the month of Jumadá I 1001 (= 3 February to 4 March 1593). It is presumably a copy in his own handwriting. No other copy is recorded.

Physical Description

Arabic. 9 leaves. (fols. 1b-9b). Dimensions 21 x 15.3 (text area 14.5 x 11); 23 lines per page. The title is taken from near the beginning (fol. 1b, line 8-9); a shortened form of the title appears on a modern owner's label on the front endpaper: Nukat wa-asrār fī al-ṭibb. The author and compiler is named in the colophon (fol. 9b line 15) as Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Walī ibn Naṣr ..[?] .. ibn Ḥusayn al-Ḥanafī; there is one word following 'Naṣr' that is not clear.

The copy is dated in colophon (fol. 9b line 17) Jumadá I 1001 (= 3 February to 4 March 1593), where it is stated that he transcribed (harrara) and completed the treatise at that time. Presumably the copy is in his own hand.

It is a unique copy by an otherwise unknown author.

The text is written in a small, awkward naskh, using dark-brown ink with some headings in red. There are occasional catchwords.

There are some marginalia correcting the text in same hand as text itself; a later note in a different hand occurs on fol. 8b.

The dark ivory, lightly glossed paper has vertical laid lines, single chain lines, and watermarks. It is quite worm-eaten with some damp-staining.

The volume consists of 10 leaves. Fol. 1a is blank except for a few later miscellaneous notes and calculations and a pencilled note regarding the title and author. Fols. 1b-9b is the treatise on prophetic medicine here catalogued. Fol. 10 (MS A 50, item 2) is a small fragment of a theological treatise by Nūr al-Dīn ‘Alī ibn Ghānim al-Maqdisī. There is also a Persian poem on fol. 10b.

Binding

The volume is bound in a recent binding of brown leather over pasteboards that incorporates one cover from an earlier Persian/Turkish binding of the 18th or 19th century. This cover is brown leather with a scalloped mandorla panel, blind-stamped in the center, with two pendants. The field of the panel stamp is filled with twisting cloud-band ribbons and vines with small flower heads. There are modern paper pastedowns and endpapers.

Provenance

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A. S. Yahuda who acquired it in Baghdad along with NLM MS A 28 (ELS 1667 Med. 108).

References

Schullian/Sommer. Cat. of incun. MSS., 1950, A50, p. 314, where the author is given as 'Ḥusain ibn Ibrāhīm Walī ibn Ḥusain al-Ḥanafī (?)'.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-122 no. 2