Catalogue of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Manuscripts of the Imperial Library of Vienna

The script, which at first glance seems to be Mauritanian, is in reality cursive Kufic, now approaching Neschi, and still diverging more from it than Mauritanian script, even if it is distinguished by diacritical marks like Asian codices and not like Mauritanian ones. It is therefore concluded from this codex, which until now escaped us, that in the fifth century of the Hegira, Kufic script was still used in Persia for writing codices, and that it gave way later to the more recent characters called Neschi and Taalik, while in the West it remained through the Umayyads and its remnants still exist to this day in Mauritania. It is a most precious monument of Oriental graphic art, and it is the more worthy of great reverence because it was written by the son of the famous poet who was a contemporary and rival of Ferdowsi. The paper is bombycine original: silk-based paper, with black ink, and occasionally red and green in the titles of the chapters; the codex is excellently preserved for such an age, in a clear and neat script, of which a specimen, expressed on a bronze plate in the Oriental Mines, it will be permitted to show to the eyes of the curious. It treats in alphabetical order of the materia medica, which the author affirms to have collected from the most ancient medical writers of the Indians and Greeks.

84. Aja'ib al-Makhluqat Turki Mirabilia [Marvels] of the Creatures in Turkish. By Yaziji-oghlu Ahmed Bijan. An epitome of the famous work of Zakariya al-Qazwini.

85. Kitab Kanz al-Ulum wa al-Durar al-Manzum fi Haqa'iq Ilm al-Sharia wa al-Daqa'iq Ilm al-Tabia li-Ibn Tumart Thesaurus of the Sciences and Pearls in Continued Order of the Truths of the Science of the Law and the Subtleties of Natural Science by Mohammed f. Mohammed Ibn Tumart. Divided into five chapters: 1) On the science of the Law. 2) On the principles of natural science. 3) On the cognition of the intellect and the soul. 4) On the excellence of human nature. 5) On the occult sciences, 4to.

86. Contained in this codex are: 1) A Turkish treatise called Abjad Fal regarding the meanings of the letters of the Quran in the divination called Fal. 2) Astrolabium Avicennae Astrolabe of Avicenna. The title does not correspond with the preface, which teaches us that this book was compiled by the scholars of his court at the request of Harun al-Rashid for the sake of divination. It contains 144 chapters or titles for those who consult the lots, and responses to individual chapters, which the preface teaches how to adapt to questions. 3) A Turkish commentary on the first Sura of the Quran, with added admonitions on the use of prayers, etc., for the use of Muslims, 4to.

Wammer— Arabic and Persian Codices G. G. fol. FB