A Shelflist of Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Public Health Service | National Institutes of Health History of Medicine Division | National Library of Medicine Bethesda, Maryland 1996 Single copies of this booklet are available without charge by writing: Chief, History of Medicine Division National Library of Medicine 8600 Rockville Pike Bethesda, MD 20894 A Shelflist of Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Public Health Service | National Institutes of Health History of Medicine Division | National Library of Medicine Bethesda, Maryland 1996 Preface In 1994, to celebrate the 900th anniversary of the oldest Arabic medical manuscript in its collection, the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine mounted an exhibit entitled "Islamic Culture and the Medical Arts." Showcasing the library's rich holdings in this area, the exhibit was very well received -so much so that there has been a scholarly demand for the library to issue a catalogue of its holdings. This shelflist serves as an interim guide to the collection. It was made possible by the splendid work of Emilie Savage-Smith of Oxford University. Over the past few years, Dr. Savage-Smith has lent her time and her considerable expertise to the cataloguing of these manuscripts, examining every volume, providing much new information on authorship, contents, provenance, etc., superseding the earlier cataloguing by Francis E. Sommer, originally published in Dorothy M. Schullian and Francis E. Sommer, A Catalogue of Incunabula and Manuscripts in the Army Medical Library in 1950. (The Army Medical Library is the predecessor library to NLM.) The data was translated into catalogue record format, with the assistance of Carol Clausen and Margaret Donovan of the History of Medicine Division Staff, and entered into CATUNE, NLM's online catalogue of books. The records contained here represent a printout from CATLINE of the 143 records assigned the WZ 225 class mark (non-Western Manuscripts) under the NLM classification system. The records were arranged in shelflist (i.e. - call number) order, and printed out in the MEDLARS "PRT CC" format, which approximates the arrangement of information found on a conventional catalogue card. Other than to replace several internal library alphanumeric codes with more easily understandable field tags, no editing of the records has taken place. Because the special characters and character modifiers required to Romanize the Arabic script according to the American Library Association -Library of Congress romanization tables are not fully supported by NLM software, no character marks appear above or below the script in the following records. Due to these system constraints, the ayn, and the medial and final hamzah, are all represented by the apostrophe. The History of Medicine Division is grateful to Janice Willis of NLM's MEDLARS Management Section for her assistance in the on-line sorting of the records. Special thanks are also due to Carol Clausen, Philip Teigen, and Anne Whitaker, all of NLM's History of Medicine Division, for their assistance in the preparation of this list. Stephen Greenberg History of Medicine Division National Library of Medicine 1 Aqfahsi, Ahmad ibn 'Imad al-Din ibn Muhammad, d. 1405 Adab ma yatakarraru fi al-yawm wa al-laylah min al-akl wa al-shurb wa al-du'a' wa al- kawm. -- [15--?-18--?]. 42 leaves (17 lines): paper; 20 cm. Manuscript. Arabic. Treatise consists of a commentary on the author's own poem of 340 verses (basit). Title taken from colophon (folio 42b); title page (folio 1a), gives title as Hadha Kitab Adab al-akl gharib (translation: This is a curious book on correct conduct in eating). Berlin MS 5466 has title: Manzumah fi al-adab al-akl wa al-shurb wa al-nawm wa al-yaqazah wa al-du'a' (translation: Didactic poem on proper conduct in eating, drinking, sleeping, waking, and praying); Schullian & Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., NLM, 1950, A1, p. 297, gives title: Adab al-akl wa al-sharb (translation: Proper conduct of eating and drinking). Author not named in manuscript; text corresponds to that in Berlin MS 5466 and Princeton, Garrett MS 921, where the author is identified. Folios 11-40 are older, heavier paper, possibly 15th or 16th century; folios 1-10 and 41-42 are more recent (19th century?) paper and script. Purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A. S. Yahuda, who acquired it from a dealer in Cairo (ELS No. 1728; Med. 29). Poem is written in red ink with some green ink; commentary in black ink with rubricated headings; some marginalia; catchwords. Described in: Schullian & Sommer. Cat. of incun. & MSS., 1950, A1. Microfilm. Washington, D.C.: Army Medical Library, 1948. 1 microfilm reel; 35 mm.15--?-18--?. Title Translated: Proper conduct in eating, drinking, praying, and sleeping, which repeat day and night. I. Title II. Title: Manzumah fi al-adab al-akl wa al-shurb wa al-nawm wa al-yaqazah wa al- dua III. Title: Adab al-akl wa al-sharb IV. Title: Hadha Kitab Adab al-akl gharib V. Title: Proper conduct in eating, drinking, praying, and sleeping, which repeat day and night. Schullian Number: A 1 Call Number: WZ 225 A655a 1501 Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-100 no. 1 NLM Location: (c. 1 HMD/INC) NLM Unique Identifier: 9401334 ***** ***** ***** ***** 2 Avicenna, 980-1037 al-Ashi' 'ah al-bariqah bi-al-anwar al-shariqah fi ahwal al-nafs al-natiqah / Abu Ali al- Husayn ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina.--13 Jumadah I 1146 [22 October 1733] 20 leaves, (23 lines) : paper; 21 cm. Manuscript. Arabic. A commentary on a psychological treatise (qasidah [al-nafsiyah]) by Ibn Sina (Avicenna), who is named on folio 1b, line 15. Title is given in the colophon (folio 20b lines 1-2) and on 1 modern paste-on label on recent end-papers. On the mutilated title page the title is given as: Anwar al-shariqah sharh (translation: The radiating lights, a commentary). Abu al-Baqa al- Ahmadi al-Shafi'i, the author of the commentary, is named in the colophon (folio 20b line 5). The manuscript is dated in the colophon (folio 20b lines 18-19), where the scribe's name is given as Umar Suwidan al-Munawani. Purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A. S. Yahuda (ELS No. 1256). Rubrications; marginal corrections by scribe; catchwords; paper damaged by damp. Brown leather cover with red block-stamped sunken medallions; envelope flap with block-stamped medallion. Described in: Schullian & Sommer. Cat. of incun. & MSS., 1950, A2. Microfilm. Washington, D.C. : Army Medical Library, 1948. 1 microfilm reel; 35 mm. 22 October 1733. Title Translated: The rays gleaming with radiating lights concerning the states of the rational soul. I. Abu al-Baqa al-Ahmadi al-Shafi'i II. 'Umar Suwidan al-Munawani, 18th century III. Title IV. Title: Qasidah al-nafsiyah V. Title: Anwar al-shariqah sharh VI. Title: Ashi' 'ah bariqah bi-al-anwar al-shariqah fi ahwal al-nafs al-natiqah VII. Title: The rays gleaming with radiating lights concerning the states of the rational soul. Schullian Number: A 2 Call Number: WZ 225 A957a 1733 Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-110 no. 2 NLM Location: (c. 1 HMD/INC) NLM Unique Identifier: 9400939 ***** ***** ***** ***** 3 Avicenna, 980-1037 al-Jawhar al-nafis fi sharh urjuzah al-Shaykh al-Ra'is. --11 Sha'ban 892 [2 August 1487] 89 leaves, bound (22 lines) : paper; 21 cm. Manuscript. Arabic. A commentary on the medical poem (urjuzah) by Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Title taken from folio 1a line 1, immediately before the start of the text, possibly a later addition; variant title given on label inside front cover: al-Jawhar al-nafis fi sharh urjuzah al-Ra'is. The name of the author of the poem which is the subject of the commentary is given in full on folio 89b: li-l- Shaykh al-Ra'is Abu 'Ali al-Hasan ibn 'Ali 'Abd Allah ibn al-Husayn ibn 'Ali ibn Sina. The author of the commentary is not named in the manuscript; the treatise has been ascribed to various people: Sommer (Schullian & Sommer. Cat.of incun. & MSS, 1950), on the basis of a recent owner's label bearing the designation ELS 2364 and an Arabic note, ascribed it to Maydan ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Qawsuni of Egypt, who died after 1634; Sami Hamarneh (J. Hist. Arab. Science (1977), p. 94) has ascribed it to Musa ibn Ibrahim ibn Musa ibn Muhammad al-Baladawi, a theologian and author of medical writings who he states died shortly after 1368. Brockelmann lists among the commentaries written upon the poem of Avicenna one titled al-Jawhar al-nafis by Musa ibn Ibrahim ibn Musa al-Baghdadi, who he says died in 1463, and he lists copies preserved in Erlangen, Cairo, Rampur, and Bankipore 2 (C. Brockelmann, Gesch. Arab. Lit., 1937, Suppl. I, p.823). Four copies of a commentary on Avicenna's poem by the same full title as this manuscript are listed as being in Istanbul and written by one Sharaf al-Din ibn al-Naja Musa ibn Ibrahim ibn Musa ibn Muhammad al- Yaldani al-Kahhal, who is said to have died in 1474 (see Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, ed., Catalogue of Islamic Medical Manuscripts in the Libraries of Turkey, Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture, 1984, p. 56). Copy is dated 11 Sha'ban 892 (2 August 1487) in the colophon (folio 89b, lines 13-14), where the date is also given in the Coptic calendar. Purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A. S. Yahuda who acquired it in Egypt (ELS 2364).