[RICHLY ILLUSTRATED ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPTS] Mecmua’. [Islamic manuscript collection including more than thirty tractates on geography, mathematics, astronomy, astrology, magic, linguistics, literature of the Islamic world]

ANONYMOUS.

Manuscript, [Kostantiniyye], [c. 1750].

Contemporary quarter brown calf, light brown boards covered with polished paper. Demy 8vo. (22 x 16 cm). In Arabic and Ottoman Turkish (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 89 leaves [179 p.], richly illustrated. Riqa’ and Naskh script on polished paper in black and red ink. Period ownership notes on boards and front and rear pastedowns with dates AH 1316 [AD 1900] at the latest. Marginal notes and illustrations. Chippings on boards’ extremities, staining on edges and margins, a tear on a page without loss, sporadically several wormholes. Otherwise, a good/fair copy.

An extremely rare Islamic manuscript collection (mecmua’) including geography, mathematics, astronomy, astrology, magic, linguistics, and literature of the Islamic world that stands out with its remarkable astronomical texts and attractive illustrations. It’s a collection of more than thirty tractates in Arabic and Ottoman Turkish for travelers or madrasah students.

Risâla fî al-tasrîf [i.e., Tractate of the grammatical conjugations], pp. 1-13 [1-26], in Arabic, is a philological text of Arabic sarf [i.e., grammar].

Der beyân-i memâlîk-i Hind u Yemen [i.e., The description of the land of India and Yemen], pp. 14-15 [27-28], in Ottoman Turkish, is a brief but very scarce geographical text including period compilation of the toponyms of Yemen and India.

Risâla Jalâl al-muskilât [i.e., Tractate of the great difficulties], pp. 15-18 [29-36], in Arabic, is a philological text on solutions and analysis of the difficulties of Arabic grammar with a spreadsheet for Hijri years and calendar at the end of text.

Dibâce-i hûlâsa-yi Muhammediyye [i.e., A summary of the book of Muhammadiyya], pp. 19-20 [37-38], in Arabic, is a summary of the traditional Islamic work in verse by Ahmed Bican Yazicioglu (?-1451) contributed to the formation of the Ottoman religious and mystic culture in the medieval Islamic world.

Kavâîd-i al-tasrîf [i.e., Methods of the grammatical conjugation], pp. 20-21 [39-40], in Arabic, is a short tractate including infinitive and conjugations in Arabic grammar.

شجرة امثله الصرف / Sajara amsilat al-sarf [i.e., Genealogy of morphological examples], pp. 21-22 [41-44], in Arabic, is a work including detailed genealogies of examples of Arabic morphology.

Daire-i kebîse [i.e., The circulation of the Leap Day], pp., 23-24 [45-46], in Ottoman Turkish, is a text including leap day calculations with attractive two illustrations of the “Circle of the Leap Day”. This text is a detailed geographical account that includes an answer to the question “how to calculate the Leap Day mathematically”.

Mecmûâ-yi kavâîd ve evrâk-i gazeliyyât [i.e., The grammar collection and documents of ghazals], pp. 24-25 [47-50], including early examples of Ottoman poetry in ghazal form.

Frengi içün… [i.e., For Syphilis], pp. 25-28 [51-56], including a treatise containing some drug preparations for syphilis with an illustration.

[Semâ ve anâsir-i arziye (with) jifr], pp. 29-31 [57-62], including elements and the celestial table containing planets in Arabic, the ongoing text is describing the Ilmu’l-Jifr which is used to designate the major divinatory art in Islamic mysticism and gnosis. It is of discovering the predestined fate of nations, dynasties, religions, and individuals by a variety of methods and is represented by a vast literature that is well documented already during the Umayyad period, and more so during the Abbasid period.

Following these and similarly, the collection contains approximately twenty treatises more in the fields of mathematics, geometry, astronomy, Arabic linguistics, and Ottoman / Persian and Arabic literature, and stands out with its striking in-text illustrations, especially in scientific treatises. There are some deviations in the index section of the manuscript collection.