A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF ORIENTAL MANUSCRIPTS AT ST JOHN’S COLLEGE, OXFORD A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF ORIENTAL MANUSCRIPTS AT ST JOHN’S COLLEGE OXFORD EMILIE SAVAGE-SMITH WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY GEERT JAN VAN GELDER PETER E. PORMANN SAMIRA SHEIKH TIM STANLEY EDWARD ULLENDORFF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS One of the pleasures in completing a project is the opportunity it provides to thank formally all the people who have been a part of the effort and assisted in various ways. First and foremost I wish to thank my collaborators who contributed to the volume. Professor Geert Jan van Gelder, present Laudian Professor of Arabic and Fellow of St John’s College, has transformed a mere catalogue into a volume of far wider interest by providing a fascinating essay on the incidental Arabic poetry found in these manuscript – which is to say, the poetry that various owners over the years jotted down on the margins or endpapers. A unique study, so far as I am aware. Professor Edward Ullendorff, Emeritus Professor of Ethiopian Studies, provided the entry for the two Ethiopic items, with the assistance of Dr Girma Getahun who utilized the wonders of computer programs to transform the entry into a form that could be used in the final formatting of the catalogue. Dr Peter E. Pormann, Junior Research Fellow in Oriental Studies at Merton College, prepared the Hebrew and Syriac entries and in the process discovered that one of the Hebrew items was a copy of material in the archives at Merton, which he proceeded to publish in detail. Tim Stanley, Curator of the Middle East Collections at the V&A Museum in London, wrote the analysis of the Turkish letter and carefully laid out the historical arguments for its date and significance. Samira Sheikh, a doctoral candidate in Gujarati history at Wolfson College, kindly studied the Gurajati navigational guide and map, which in the event proved so interesting that she also has produced a full study of the document that will be published elsewhere. To the entries supplied by my collaborators, I added paper and binding descriptions, information on provenance, and similar data, and edited the entries to conform, more or less, with the format used in the first half of the catalogue (covering Arabic and Persian manuscripts). I sincerely apologize to them for any errors I may thereby have introduced. Others were also instrumental in seeing this volume through to completion. It was felt that a second set of eyes to look over the transcriptions of passages from manuscripts would aid in eliminating the inevitable human errors. Accordingly, Colin Wakefield, Deputy Keeper of the Oriental Collections at the Bodleian Library, agree to check all the Arabic and Persian transcriptions, while Peter Glare, of the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, proofed the Latin, consisting mostly of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century notes added to manuscripts. Similarly, Dr Sebastian Brock, recently retired Reader in Syriac Studies and Professorial Fellow of Wolfson College, checked the Syriac entry, and Dr Alison Salvesen, University Research Lecturer in Biblical Studies, the bilingual Hebrew–Latin manuscript. Since two people had already looked at the Ethiopic volume, another person seemed unnecessary, while it was impossible to find a second for the Gujarati item, it being quite difficult to find one in the first place. The careful and patient reading of all of these people is gratefully acknowledged here. vi Acknowledgements Two people gave generous assistance with some of the Arabic and Persian material, though so much time has now passed that they may well have forgotten: Professor Wilferd Madelung, former Laudian Professor of Arabic and Fellow of St John’s, helped me in identifying some material, and Dr Nadia Jamal, Instructor in Arabic at the Oriental Institute, aided the interpretation of a troublesome bit of Arabic. Throughout the project, the staff of the library at St John’s College have been most kind and helpful to all of us. The late Angela Williams, Assistant Librarian at the time the project began, was always eager to discuss the manuscripts and keen to see work on them proceed. The present Assistant Librarian, Mrs Catherine Hilliard, has been a model of efficiency and helpfulness in settling the numerous questions that arose toward the end of the project, while Mrs Ruth Ogden, Library Administrator, has throughout cheerfully greeted us upon entrance to the library and always without complaint provided any manuscript that was needed. It has indeed been a pleasure to be able to work in the library of St John’s College. Last, but by no means least, I wish thank the fellow librarian of St John’s College, Dr Peter Hacker, for asking me to undertake and organize the catalogue, and the bursar, Dr Anthony Boyce, for making the work just that much more enjoyable for us all. E. Savage-Smith The Oriental Institute, Oxford June 2004 CONTENTS LIST OF COLOUR PLATES viii LIST OF BLACK AND WHITE PLATES ix ABBREVIATIONS x INTRODUCTION xv I. THE CATALOGUE 1 1. ARABIC AND PERSIAN MANUSCRIPTS E. Savage-Smith Astronomy – Entry Nos.1–18 3 Mathematics – Entry Nos.19–21 54 Military Arts – Entry No. 22 59 Encyclopedias and Compendia – Entry Nos. 23–4 63 Belles-lettres / Literature – Entry No. 25 70 Had īth and Fiqh – Entry Nos. 26–7 74 Qur’ āns – Entry Nos. 28–32 80 Bibles / Old Testament – Entry Nos. 33–4 92 2. HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS P. E. Pormann Entry Nos. 35–6 98 3. TURKISH MANUSCRIPTS T. Stanley Entry No. 37 107 4. SYRIAC MANUSCRIPTS P. E. Pormann Entry No. 38 111 5. ETHIOPIC MANUSCRIPTS E. Ullendorff Entry Nos. 39–40 116 6. GUJARATI MANUSCRIPTS S. Sheikh Entry No. 41 121 II. INCIDENTAL ARABIC POETRY Geert Jan van Gelder 129 APPENDIX I. CONCORDANCE OF MANUSCRIPTS 147 APPENDIX II. CONCORDANCE BY AUTHOR 149 APPENDIX III. CONCORDANCE OF DATED MANUSCRIPTS 151 INDEX OF TITLES 152 INDEX OF PREVIOUS OWNERS AND DONORS 153 GENERAL INDEX 154 LIST OF COLOUR PLATES (between pages 76 and 77) Photographs (Plates I, IV–XXI) Christopher Phillips Photographs (Plates II, III) Ashmolean Photographic Studio I. MS 186, fo. 1a: title page, Sibt al-Mārid īnī, Ras ā’il f ī ‛ilm al-mīqāt (16th cent.) II. MS 83, fo. 112a: mechanical device from Kit āb al-Hiyal f ī h ur ūb wa-fath by Ibn Mangl ī (Egypt, 1356/757 H) III. MS 83, fo. 114b: trebuchet from Kit āb al-Hiyal f ī h ur ūb wa-fath by Ibn Mangl ī (Egypt, 1356/757 H) IV. MS 122, fo. 4b: diagram of throat, teeth, and tongue in Mift āh al-‛ul ūm by al-Sakk ākī (Khw ārazm, 1332/732 H) V. MS 33, fo. 1a: title page, Qut b al-Dīn al-Sh īrāzī, Kit āb Durrat al-tāj li-ghurrat al-Dub āj (Iran or Sultanate India, c. 1550–80) VI. MS 33, fo. 1b: the opening of Kit āb Durrat al-tāj li-ghurrat al-Dub āj by Qut b al-Dīn al- Sh īrāzī (Iran or Sultanate India, c. 1550–80) VII. MS 33, fo. 217a: diagram in Kit āb Durrat al-tāj li-ghurrat al-Dub āj by Qut b al-Dīn al- Sh īrāzī (Iran or Sultanate India, c. 1550–80) VIII. MS 370, fo. 1b: illuminated opening of Maq āmāt al-Har īrī (Syria, c. 1700) IX. MS 369, fos. 3b–4a: illuminated opening of the collection of had īth by al-Bukh ārī (Iran, 1496/901 H) X. MS 369, fo. 512b: colophon dated 23 Shaww āl 901 [5 July 1496] of the collection of had īth by al-Bukh ārī XI. MS 201, fos. 1b–2a: opening of Qur’ ān, Sūrah 1 (Iran, first half 16th cent.) XII. MS 201, fos. 2b–3a: illuminated head-pieces, Qur’ ān, Sūrah 2 (Iran, first half 16th cent.) XIII. MS 201, fos. 331b–332a: the final two sūrah s, Qur’ ān (Iran, first half 16th cent.) XIV. MS 304, fos. 1b–2a: illuminated shamsah panels, Qur’ ān (Iran, mid-16th cent.) XV. MS 304, fos. 2b–3a: illuminated opening, Sūrah 1, Qur’ ān (Iran, mid-16th cent.) XVI. MS 304, fos. 3b–4a: beginning of Sūrah 2, Qur’ ān (Iran, mid-16th cent.) XVII. MS 304, fo. 149a: typical sūrah heading, Qur’ ān (Iran, mid-16th cent.) XVIII. MS 215, fos. 1b–2a: Sūrah 1, Qur’ ān (Safavid Iran or Mughal India, 17th cent.) XIX. MS 215, fos. 352b–353a: margins filled with gold-painted foliage, Qur’ ān (Safavid Iran or Mughal India, 17th cent.) XX. MS 107, fo. 1b: opening of Qur’ ān (North Africa, 16th–17th cent.) XXI. MS 254, item 45, fos. 30b-31a: Gujarati coastal map showing the Gulf of Khambhat, drawn on a grid (Gujarat, 17th–18th cent.) LIST OF BLACK AND WHITE PLATES (between pages 108 and 109) Photographs Christopher Phillips 1. MS 103, fo. 180a: colophon dated 4 Ramad ān 752 [25 Oct. 1351], al-A‛raj al-Nīsābūrī, Tawd īh al-Tadhkirah 2. MS 156 B, fo. 90a: colophon dated 7 Muh arram 897 [10 Nov. 1491], attributed to Ab ū al- Fid ā’, Kitab al-Sirr al-makt ūm f ī al-‛amal bi-l-zīj al-manz ūm 3. MS 151, fo. 131b: colophon dated Jum ādá II, 938 [Jan. 1532], Ulugh Beg, Zīj-i jad īd-i sult ānī 4. MS 91, fo. 4b: Ulugh Beg, Zīj-i jad īd-i sult ānī, with annotations by John Greaves (1532/939 H) 5. MS 91, fo. 47a: colophon dated 20 S afar 939 [21 Sept. 1532], Ulugh Beg, Zīj-i jad īd-i sult ānī 6.