Details

Subject(s)

• Astronomical instruments [Browse]
• Manuscripts, Persian—New Jersey—Princeton [Browse]

Related name

• Kāshī, Jamshīd ibn Masʻūd, -approximately 1436 [Browse]
• كاشي، جمشيد بن مسعود [Browse]

Dedicatee

• Bayezid II, Sultan of the Turks, 1447 or 1448-1512 [Browse]

Getty AAT genre

• Headpieces (layout features)—Islamic Empire—16th century [Browse]

Summary note

Elegant copy of a treatise on the construction and use of an astronomical instrument called Ṭabaq al-manāṭiq, in two sections (see description of contents in preface, fol. 5b-6b). In the preface the author explains that Ghiyāth al-Dīn Jamshīd [ibn Masʻūd al-Kāshī] (d. 832/1429) designed an instrument to determine the distance between the stars. The author claims to have constructed and tested such an instrument. The Risālah is dedicated to Sulṭān Bāyazīd II (r. 886-918/1481-1512) (fol. 5a). According to E.S. Kennedy (1960), the work is largely a translation of selected parts from Nuzhat al-ḥadāʾiq, a treatise in Arabic by Jamshīd ibn Masʻūd al-Kāshī.

Notes

• Ms. codex.
• Title from inscription on fol. 3a (later hand).
• Physical description: 13 lines per page. Written in medium small nastaʻlīq in black ink ; gold for headings. The text is framed in gold outlined in black. Contains charts and diagrams, executed in gold, black and red ink (see in particular fol. 12a). Dark cream paper, glossy, with laid lines visible. The first fol. of the text (fol. 3) is badly damaged with loss of text.
• Chiefly quaternions ; catchword on the verso of each leaf.
• Decoration: Small illuminated haeadpiece in gold and black ink on fol. 3b.
• Origin: According to colophon
• Incipit: شكر وسپاس وستايش بى قياس لايق حضرت عزت [---] نعى باشد كه اطباق سموات را ... [4أ] ... وبعد پوشيده نماند كه شريفترين نوعى از انواع علم رياضى علم نجوم است
• Explicit: نصف النهار معلوم باشد وبعد مجهول بعكس اين عمل بعد را بدانند والله اعلم تم

Binding note

Bound in burgundy leather, with flap. The covers and envelope flap have an outer border consisting of blind fillets with a gold fillet on the inner edge. Knot-work central pattern in gold. Paper pastedowns.

Provenance

Almond-shaped stamp on fol. 39a. Acquired by Robert Garrett, from the books of Murād Bey al-Bārūdī (Beirut), 1925.

Source acquisition

Gift ; Robert Garrett, Class of 1897 ; 1942.

References

• Moghadam, M. et al. Garrett coll., 75
• Kennedy, E.S. The planetary equatorium of Jamshīd Ghiyāth al-Dīn al-Kāshī (d. 1429): an edition of the anonymous Persian manuscript 75 <44b> in the Garett Collection at Princeton University; being a description of two computing instruments, the plate of heavens and the plate of conjunctions. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1960.

Other format(s)

Microfilm negative available for reproduction.

OCLC

232955581

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