Kitāb sharḥ Fusūl Ibuqrāṭ
By: li-Abī al-Qāsim ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ṣādiq
Contributors: Rafīʻ, Muḥammad, former owner; Kar, ʻĪsá, fl. 1485, former owner; Masʻūd, al-Sayyid Muṣṭafá, former owner; Pruner, Franz Ignaz, 1808-1882, former owner; Mott, Valentine, 1785-1865, former owner; Ṭanṭāwī, Muḥammad ʻAyyād, 1810-1861, expert; Baghdadī, Abū Bakr, associated name
Language: ara
Number of pages: 120
Subjects: Arab Medicine; Greek and Roman Medicine; Arabic Manuscripts
Work titles: Sharḥ Fusūl Ibuqrāṭ
Description: Text is a commentary on the Aphorisms by Hippocrates.
Notes: Ms.

Title on container: Sharḥ fuṣūl Abiqrāṭ.

Paper:  thick yellowed cream, no visible watermarks, in poor condition, particularly the first three or four folia and last leaf (cuttings, torn edges, repairs, etc.). Some termite damage.  The leaf prior to the last one is misplaced, and the last three leaves indicate that some leaves are missing. Fol. 1a records that the manuscript was examined by Abū Bakr al-Baghdadī.  Traces of humidity on outer edges of paper.  Black ink throughout the text; some later red underlining and some marginal notes.  Catchwords on rectos.

Library of Congress. Arabic manuscripts, SM-9.

Naskhī script; 21 lines in written area, 20 x 17 cm.

Fol. 1a-120b.

Title page records former owners:  Muḥammad Rafīʻ, Kātib Zādah (not apparent), ʻĪsá al-Kar (dated 890 H [1485]), al-Sayid Muṣṭafá Masʻūd (dated 1224 H [1809]); other ownership signatures/stamps erased or illegible. A note attached to the front pastedown records that in 1838 Muḥammad ʻAyyād al-Ṭantāwī examined the book and judged it to be 300-400 years old.  The note also records the presentation of the manuscript to Dr. [Valentine] Mott by Dr. [Franz] Pruner, the head physician of Cairo hospital (after 1838).

Note on pastedown: "The Aphorisms of Hippocrates com̄ented by an Arabic physician Abderrahman the son of Ali--the son of Abi Saadek. The manuscript is judjed by the famous  Sheikh Moham̄ed Aiād e Thanthoui to be old 3-4 hundred years. Cairo the 1 June 1838  Dr Pruner.  Presented to the most honourable Doctor Mr Mott by his most humble servant Dr Pruner head-physician of the central hospital at Cairo."

Binding:  beautiful old leather (original binding recut and rebacked) with blind tooling and gold design on front and back covers.

Fihris al-makhṭūṭāt al-ʻArabīyah fī maktabat al-Kūngris, 13.

Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.

Arabic.