<div class="description">
<dl><dd>173 leaves, bound, (15 lines; fol. 1a, 173b blank) : 36 cm</dd>
<dd>Manuscript</dd>
<dd>Persian</dd>
<dd>The manuscript is an incomplete Persian translation of al-Qazwīnī's Kitāb-i ʻajāyib al-makhlūqāt, a thirteenth-century treatise on cosmology and natural history. Identified by comparison with other copies (NLM MS P1, P2, P3)</dd>
<dd>Text incomplete: lacks introduction; text begins (fol.1b) in first nazar (section) of first maqālah (chapter), with discussion of celestial spheres, stars, and time (=NLM MS P3, fol.13a); break in text between fol. 1 and 2; fol. 2 begins with first nazar of second maqālah (=NLM MS P3, fol.72a) with discussion of elements, minerals, plants, and animals; additional breaks in text occur between fol. 22/23, 29/30, 30/31</dd>
<dd>Copy undated; owner's stamp with date 953 [1546] and name 'Imād al-Dīn ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmūd Limūnī Zikrayānī on fol.173a</dd>
<dd>Scribe named in colophon (fol.173a lines 4-5): Sayyid Husayn Yazdī; port. of scribe found immediately below colophon</dd>
<dd>Text of al-Qazwīnī written within frames of blue, red, gilt, and black lines; each frame enclosed by a larger frame of blue, gilt, and black, with text of short treatises and extracts written diagonally between the two frames</dd>
<dd>Marginal texts include Risālah-i qiyāfah (Treatise on physiognomy) by Sayyid ʻAlī Hamdānī (fol.2a-3b), no other copies recorded; Muntajab-i Risālah-i Hifz (Selection from the treatise on the preservation of health) by Sayyid Ismāʻīl Husaynī al-Jurjānī (fol.3b-10b), probably derived from the first part, on the preservation of health, of al-Aghrāz al-tibbīyah, which is the author's own abridgement of his Zakhīrah-i Khvārazmshāhī (a copy of this is in NLM MS P1.1); on magic squares (budaḥ), attributed to the Caliph ʻAlī (amīr al-muʻminīn ʻAlī) (fol.57a-56b); Risālah dar khawāss (Treatise on magical properties), by Bū [i.e. Abū] ʻAlī Sīnā (i.e. Avicenna) (fol.62a-63b); untitled medical-magical treatise extracted from the writings of Muhammad ibn ʻAbd Allāh ibn ʻAbd al-Muṭṭalib (fol.114b-129a, 1321-140a, 141a-147a, 148a-162a), only recorded copy</dd>
<dd>Illuminated opening in opaque watercolors, ink, and gilt (fol.1b); drawings in red ink on fol.9a, 13a, 15a, 15b (rainbow), 21a (outline map of world), 47b, 120b (cranial sutures); miniature paintings in opaque watercolors and ink on fol.31a (fish with feline head), 33a (whale), 33b (fish), 37ab, 38b (two fish), 41b (monster), 42a; portrait of scribe (fol.173a)</dd>
<dd>Written in an elegant professional script; rubrications; red overlinings; earlier numbering of folios in pencil in lower lefthand corner; volume recently refoliated</dd>
<dd>Paper is yellow-brown, moderately thin, and burnished, with only laid lines visible; some water damage near edges; edges trimmed; fol. 1 and 173 reinforced</dd>
<dd>Microfilm. Washington, D.C. : Army Medical Library, 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm</dd>
<dd>Purchase; R. Thomas Heller;</dd>
<dd>Binding not original; dark brown leather over boards, with gold-tooled frames filled with acanthus leaves with flowers or a star in center and corners; spine has gold-stamped flowers and border; modern pastedowns and endpapers</dd>
<dd>Condition reviewed 20180910</dd>
<dd>digitized. 2018</dd></dl><br>Subjects: Natural History; Astrology; Astronomy; Geography; Plants</div>
<div class="fn value">
Qazwīnī, Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad, approximately 1203-1283</div>
<dl><dd><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://archive.org/details/9412718.nlm.nih.gov">https://archive.org/details/9412718.nlm.nih.gov</a></dd>
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