Sharḥ Dīwān al-shudhūr

[7], 151 leaves, (17 lines) : 21 cm Manuscript Arabic Title taken from opening of main text (fol. [7b] line 3); the title appears in a later hand (fol. [7a]) as: Sharḥ Mukhtasar al-shudhūr The author of the allegorical, mystical poems being commented upon is given as Abū al-Ḥasan ʻAlī ibn Abī al-Qāsim Musá ibn ʻAlī ibn Musá ibn Muḥammad ibn Khalaf al-Anṣārī al-Andalusī known as (al-mushtahar bi-) Ibn Arfaʻ Raʻs (fol. [7b],lines 4-5). The author of the commentary (Sharḥ al-mukhtaṣar al-shudhūr) is Abī al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn Abd Allah al-Anṣāri the pupil of Ibn Arfaʻ Raʻs (fol. [7b],lines 4-5) The alchemical commentary on the poems is stated to be by the pupil of Ibn Arfaʻ Raʻs: Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī (fol. [7b] line 6) The manuscript is dated in the colophon (fol. 148a); the scribe's name is given as Muḥammad Ṣādiq ibn Mustafà al-Antākī al-Istānbūlī al-Ḥanafī (fol. 148a line 16) Purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library apparently from A. S. Yahuda Stylized illustrations of alembics occur in the text of item two (fol. 81a (old 82a); more recent and well delineated illustrations of alchemical equipment occur in the margins of fols. 80b (old 81b), 81b (old 82b), 83b (old 84b), and 84a (old 84a); they are drawn in red and black inks Paper is shiny, burnished, now yellowed Catchwords, rubrications, red overlinings; text is written within a frame of single red ink lines; the folios have been numbered, incorrectly, in Arabic numerals, recently renumbered in Western numerals Bound in modern orange-tan leather with gold-tooled border; marbled paper paste downs and end papers Described in: Schullian & Sommer. Cat. of incun. & MSS., 1950, A 65 Fol. [1a] blank except for contents notes and owners' notes in a much later hand Fols. [1b-7a] contain table of contents in chart form in later hand Fols. 148b-151a contain an otherwise unrecorded short alchemical treatise with title: Miftāḥ al-ḥikmah (translation: The key of wisdom), by al-Ṭughrāʻī, an important 11th-12th century writer on alchemy; it is possibly an extract from his famous alchemical book Mafātiḥ al-raḥmah wa-masābīḥ al-ḥikmah; fol. 151b contains three couplets also attributed to al-Ṭughrāʻī Microfilm. Washington, D.C. : Army Medical Library, 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm Condition reviewed 20161205 digitized. 2018