Kitāb mafātīḥ al-raḥmah wa-asrār al-ḥikmah
Contributors: Zosimos, of Panopolis
Language: ara
Number of pages: 265
Subjects: Arabic Manuscripts; Alchemy; Early works to 1800
Other titles: Mafātīḥ al-ḥikmah.
Work titles: Mafātīḥ al-raḥmah wa-asrār al-ḥikmah
Description: The ms. is in two parts. Part I, or Introduction by Ṭughrāʼī, and Part II, "From keys of wisdom" is by the Egyptian chemist Zosimos, translated into Arabic by al-Ṭughrāʼī. Part I is written in the form of lectures and is divided into 5 chapters: The science and its materials; Mixing and its way; Fire and its nature; Balances (of properties); Metals and plants and how to recognize them.

Part II entitled "From keys of wisdom" is divided into 7 sections: Definitions and symbols; Promotion and what can be promoted; Distillation, what cannot be distilled; Conversions and synthesis; Degradation and decomposition; How the chemist deduced these facts; and, The stages of work. It is hard to consider this part an accurate translation of Zosimos book "Keys of the craft". It often contains references that are anachoronistic or that are not found in Zosimos' text.
Notes: Ms.

Title from fol. 2a.

Paper: illuminated yellow cream with various watermarks; in moderate condition, stains from humidity and limited termite damage.  First few leaves and last leaf have been repaired. Black ink on title page; text in black ink with some rubricated words. Diacritical marks throughout.  Extensive marginal notes in different hands; catchwords on rectos.

Library of Congress. Arabic manuscript, Mafātiḥ al-raḥmah wa-asrār al-ḥikmah.

Naskhī script; 25 lines in written area, 16 x 7 cm.

Numerous illustrations.

Fol. 1a -120a (vol. I) and fol. 2a-145b (vol. II).

Fol. 120b of Part I and fol. 145b of Part II both have the date Dhu al-Qaʻdah 1148 AH [March 1736 AD]; on fol. 145b there is an inscription "Owned by legal purchase by so and so, son of so and so, in the holy month of Dhī al-Qaʻdah 1148."

Original binding:  blind tooled red leather.

El Khadem, H.S. "A translation of a Zosimos text in an Arabic alchemy book," Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, vol. 84, no. 3, Sept. 1996, p. 168-178.

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

Arabic.