Lot 230 SHAREH MULAKHAS AL-JAGHMINI FI AL-HAY'A, A COMMENTARY BY QADI ZADA AL-RUMI ON THE ASTRONOMICAL WORK OF AL-JAGHMINI, 17TH-18TH CENTURY

Arabic astronomical manuscript on paper, 35 leaves with two fly-leaves, measuring 14 × 24 cm, written in approximately 20 lines per page in neat black Naskh script. An exceptionally rich and extensively annotated manuscript, containing numerous astronomical and geometrical diagrams in black and red ink, illustrating the celestial spheres, planetary configurations and motions, eclipses, shadows, and related astronomical principles. The text is surrounded throughout by extensive and densely written marginal commentaries, in places approaching the main text in volume, creating an unusually elaborate scholastic presentation. The opening leaves contain a dedication to the Timurid prince Ulugh Beg ibn Shahrukh, of particular significance given Qadi Zada al-Rumi’s celebrated association with the Timurid scientific milieu and his close connection with Ulugh Beg.

The work is identified in the opening text as al-Mukhtasar al-mawsum bi-al-Mulakhkhas fi al-Hayʾa, the celebrated astronomical treatise of Mahmud ibn Muhammad al-Jaghmini, here accompanied by the influential commentary of Qadi Zada al-Rumi (d. 1436). Undated, and housed in a deep brown leather binding.

A particularly important example of the transmission and study of the astronomical tradition associated with al-Jaghmini and Qadi Zada al-Rumi, distinguished by its exceptionally extensive marginal apparatus and wealth of explanatory astronomical and geometrical diagrams.