29 IBN SINA (Abu ‘Ali al-Husain ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Sina, called Avicenna in the West). The Book of Healing (of the Soul). Signed by ‘Abd al-Salam ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad, known as Amin al-Din al-Mutatabib al-Sadiqi al-Murshidi (“the honest guiding physician”). Dated Friday Jumada I, ah 898 / 13 March 1493 ce a princely timurid manuscript, among the earliest surviving complete texts The present copy is amongst the earliest surviving complete texts of the Kitab al-Shifa’ and undoubtedly one of the finest and best- preserved. The extraordinarily precise hand of the text of the present copy and the accuracy of the diagrams, together with the style and refined quality of the illumination, suggest that this must have been produced for a royal patron during the Timurid era. The remarkably clean condition implies that it was never used as a working copy but prized and kept carefully. Ibn Sina (980–1037 ce ) is one of the greatest figures in the history of science. Known in the West by his Latin name Avicenna, he was one of the key figures in the great flowering of knowledge that occurred in the Islamic world in the medieval period, a movement now recognised as being of fundamental importance to the development of Western thought, philosophy, and science. He was a prolific scholar and is most widely recognized for two large compilations: the Qanun fi al-Tibb (“The Canon of Medicine”) and this present manuscript, the Kitab al- Shifa’ (“The Book of Healing”). Their titles imply that both are medical works. The “Canon of Medicine” is indeed just that and remained an influential and much used reference in European medicine until well into the 18th century. The present text – the “Book of Healing (of the Soul)” – arises from other aspects of Ibn Sina’s encyclopaedic studies and refers to the healing or curing of ignorance rather than the body. Its main theme is a highly original and clearly explained synthesis of philosophy and religion, of the rational and the revealed, a synthesis that not only influenced many other Islamic philosophers but also had a profound effect on the renaissance of Christian philosophy in the Middle Ages (Nogales). In Europe it was known under its Latin title of Liber sufficientia , “the book of sufficiency”, suggesting that it contained all the information to have a sufficiency of knowledge of these subjects, confirming the wide ranging and all-encompassing nature of Ibn Sina’s achievement. The impact of Ibn Sina’s thought and his organization of his theories into practical chapters ensured the text remained influential many centuries after his death, both in the Islamic world and in the Christian West. The Kitab al-Shifa’ was translated into Latin in the 12th and 13th century, the earliest being by Dominicus Gundisalinus at Toledo in the mid- to late 12th century. The School for Advanced Studies in Pisa has assembled a comprehensive list of surviving manuscripts of the Shifa’ as part of a major research project on Avicenna; the present manuscript is now included in that list. It is interesting to note that a high proportion of the early copies date from the late 15th century, the same period as the present manuscript, not only showing that it remained a revered text among sophisticated patrons right to the end of the medieval period, but also suggesting that it was a popular text among late Timurid and early Ottoman patrons and scholars, an aspect that may reward further research. Folio (263 × 153 mm); text panel: 169 × 94 mm. Arabic manuscript on paper consisting of 757 folios as numbered and three flyleaves, each folio with 33 lines of elegant and neat small black naskh text, key words and phrases
highlighted in red ink, the text panel outlined in gold, blue and black rules, headings in red ink, catchwords, numerous diagrams in red ink set within the text, the opening bifolio with the gold and polychrome illuminated margins of refined quality, headings above and below in a cursive naskh script in white ink reserved on gold ground cusped cartouche, copious
sharjah international book fair
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