Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn li-ʻilm ghurrat al-shuhūr wa-al-sinīn
Contributors: Yūnus, Aḥmad, d. after 1882, scribe; Ṭanasī, Muṣṭafá ibn Aḥmad, d. 1867, associated name; Manṣūrī, Maḥmūd al-Imām, former owner; Miṣrī, Aḥmad ibn Qāsim, 1814-1856; Mansuri Collection (Library of Congress)
Published: 1883
Language: ara
Number of pages: 30
Subjects: Arab Astronomy; Arabic Manuscripts; Arab Astrology
Other titles: Tuḥfat al-murīdīn bi-sharḥ Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn.
Description: The first four pages are Aḥmad ibn Qāsim al-Miṣrī's poem, Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn, a poem on astronomy and astrology.  It covers the sun, the moon, the planets, the constellations, the signs of the Zodiac and the astrological characteristics of each day of the week. On fol. 3a, the author says that he completed this poem on 18 Rabīʻ al-awwal 1298 (17 February 1881). The author's own commentary (Tuḥfat al-murīdīn bi-sharḥ Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn) on the poem begins on leaf 3, verso, line 10.
Notes: Ms.

Title from line 6 of poem, fol.1b.

Transcribed by Aḥmad Yūnis in 1300 H [1882].

Paper:  yellowed cream, with watermark of Benedetto Gentili Vittorio; leaves are loose from spine but in good condition.  Black and red ink used in text.  Catchwords on rectos.

Library of Congress. Mansuri Collection, 5-768.

Author's full name from ʻUmar Riḍā Kaḥḥālah's Muʻjam al-muʼallifīn (II:50). Author's name at end of the poem is given as Aḥmad ibn Qāsim. Kaḥḥlah lists the title as Tuḥfat al-murīd bi-sharḥ Wasīlat al-mubtadiʼīn.

Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, Supplementband II, p. 866 lists the author as Muṣṭafá ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭanasī al-Khalwatī al-Azharī al-Aḥmadī, who died in a flood in Istanbul in 1284/1867.

Naskhī script; 21 lines in written area, 16 x 9 cm.

Fol. 1b-32a; fol. 32b-34b blank.

Binding:  cardboard covered with cloth; leather spine.

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

Arabic.

Purchase of Mahmud al Mansuri collection, 1945.