123 leaves, 8vo (247 x 145mm). Arabic manuscript on paper, 123 leaves, 19 lines to the page written in naskhi script in black ink in more than one hand, some underlinings in red; some commentaries written diagonally in outer margins. Illustrated with numerous diagrams, mostly colored, one illuminated head-piece in colors and gold. (Some minor mostly marginal dampstaining, occasional stains and small repairs.) Near-contemporary citron morocco with stamped central medallions of gilt leather onlay decorated with floral ornaments, doublures with gilt-painted central medallions incorporating intertwining floral and vegetal motifs on a dark green ground.

 

The author was an astronomer, mathematician and philosopher who was born in Baalbeck, Lebanon and studied in Persia. He became Sheikh al-Islam under the Safavid Shah 'Abbas I (reg. 1587–1629) in Isfahan. The first treatise is entitled Khulasat al-hisab [Essence of Arithmetic]. The Arabic text was composed circa AD 1600, and was dedicated to Prince Hamza, grandson of the Safavid Shah Tahmasp I (reg. 1524–1575).The second treatise, in Arabic, is entitled Tashrih al-aflak [Explanation of Celestial Spheres].The third treatise, in Persian, is entitled Risalah fi’l-astrulabi [Treatise on the Construction of the Astrolabe].The fourth treatise, in Arabic, is a super-commentary on Jaghmini's Sharh al-haya', itself a commentary on astronomy. See B. A. Rosenfeld & E. Ihsanoglu, Mathematicians, Astronomers and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilisation and their Works (7th–19th C.), Istanbul 2003, pp. 348–350, no. 1058. See also Brockelmann, GAL, II, 546 – 547; Suppl. II, 595 – 597.