Manuscript/Mixed Material Kitāb nukhab al-dhakhāyir fī aḥwāl al-jawāhir كتاب نخب الذخاير في أحوال الجواهر /
About this Item
Title
- Kitāb nukhab al-dhakhāyir fī aḥwāl al-jawāhir
Other Title
- كتاب نخب الذخاير في أحوال الجواهر /
Summary
- Kitāb nuhab al-dahā'ir fī ahwāl al-jawāhir (The selection of treasures regarding precious stones) is a treatise devoted to precious stones and, in particular, to the different kinds of hyacinth (a precious stone of the ancients, sometimes held to be the sapphire). The work opens with a draft of a poem on precious stones on the title page, probably copied at the same time as the manuscript, and proceeds with brief notes on the different kinds of hyacinth, on pearls, and on other precious stones found in water. The author of the treatise, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Akfani, is mostly remembered by Arabic bibliographers as a physician and an encyclopedic mind. He was born in 1286 in the city of Sinjār (present-day northern Iraq) and spent most of his life in Cairo, where he worked in the 13th-century Al-Mansuri Hospital and died a victim of the plague in 1348-49. More than 20 books are attributed to Ibn al-Akfani, half of which are devoted to medicine and related subjects. He is mainly famous among later Arab writers as the author of an extensive encyclopedia of sciences known by the title Iršād al-qāsid ilā asnā' al-maqāsid (The easy guidance to the more shining destinations) and that probably was inspired by al-Fārābī's encyclopedia. Ibn al-Akfani also wrote on logic, astronomy, mathematics, and, as in this work, gemology. World Digital Library.
- Title page has 5 verses on jewels.
Names
- Ibn al-Akfānī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, approximately 1286-1348 or 1349
- Manṣūrī, Maḥmūd al-Imām, former owner
- Mansuri Collection (Library of Congress)
Created / Published
- [17--?]
Headings
- - Manuscripts, Arabic--Washington (D.C.)
- - Mineralogy--Early works to 1800
- - Precious stones--Early works to 1800
Notes
- - Binding: cardboard; leather spine.
- - Fol. 1a-6a.
- - Library of Congress. Mansuri Collection, 5-578.
- - Ms.
- - Nastaʻliq script; 21 lines in written area, 15 x 9 cm.
- - Paper: yellowed cream, with watermarks, in bad condition, with termite damage all over the manuscript. Last leaf repaired. Black ink throughout; some diacritical marks; catchwords on rectos. Violet pencil (in modern hand) on title page.
- - Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
- - Arabic.
- - Purchase of Mahmud al-Mansuri collection, 1945.
- - Incipit: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله على أفضاله والصلاة والسلام على سيدنا محمد وعلى أله. أما بعد .... هذا كتاب لخصت فيه خلاصة كلام الأقدمين والمتأخرين من الحكماء المعتبرين فى ذكر الجواهر النفيسة بأصنافها وصفاتها ومعادنها المعروفة وقيمتها المشهورة المألوفة وخواصها ومنافعها بأوضح لفظ وأصح معنى.
Medium
- 6 leaves (21 lines), bound : paper ; 20 x 15 cm.
Call Number/Physical Location
- QE392 .I25 1700z
Digital Id
Library of Congress Control Number
- 2008401691
Online Format
- image
LCCN Permalink
Additional Metadata Formats
IIIF Presentation Manifest
Part of
Format
Contributor
- Ibn Al-Akfānī, Muḥammad Ibn Ibrāhīm
- Mansuri Collection (Library of Congress)
- Manṣūrī, Maḥmūd Al-Imām