MAHMUD BIN MASSUD QUTB AL-DIN-SHIRAZI (D.1311), KULLIYAT AL-QANUN, A COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST VOLUME OF AL-QANUN OF IBN SINA, BOOK 2 AND 3, EGYPT MAMLUK, DATED 739 AH/1338-1339 AD MAHMUD BIN MASSUD QUTB AL-DIN-SHIRAZI (D.1311), KULLIYAT AL-QANUN, A COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST VOLUME OF AL-QANUN OF IBN SINA, BOOK 2 AND 3, EGYPT MAMLUK, DATED 739 AH/1338-1339 AD MAHMUD BIN MASSUD QUTB AL-DIN-SHIRAZI (D.1311), KULLIYAT AL-QANUN, A COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST VOLUME OF AL-QANUN OF IBN SINA, BOOK 2 AND 3, EGYPT MAMLUK, DATED 739 AH/1338-1339 AD MAHMUD BIN MASSUD QUTB AL-DIN-SHIRAZI (D.1311), KULLIYAT AL-QANUN, A COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST VOLUME OF AL-QANUN OF IBN SINA, BOOK 2 AND 3, EGYPT MAMLUK, DATED 739 AH/1338-1339 AD MAHMUD BIN MASSUD QUTB AL-DIN-SHIRAZI (D.1311), KULLIYAT AL-QANUN, A COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST VOLUME OF AL-QANUN OF IBN SINA, BOOK 2 AND 3, EGYPT MAMLUK, DATED 739 AH/1338-1339 AD MAHMUD BIN MASSUD QUTB AL-DIN-SHIRAZI (D.1311), KULLIYAT AL-QANUN, A COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST VOLUME OF AL-QANUN OF IBN SINA, BOOK 2 AND 3, EGYPT MAMLUK, DATED 739 AH/1338-1339 AD MAHMUD BIN MASSUD QUTB AL-DIN-SHIRAZI (D.1311), KULLIYAT AL-QANUN, A COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST VOLUME OF AL-QANUN OF IBN SINA, BOOK 2 AND 3, EGYPT MAMLUK, DATED 739 AH/1338-1339 AD MAHMUD BIN MASSUD QUTB AL-DIN-SHIRAZI (D.1311), KULLIYAT AL-QANUN, A COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST VOLUME OF AL-QANUN OF IBN SINA, BOOK 2 AND 3, EGYPT MAMLUK, DATED 739 AH/1338-1339 AD MAHMUD BIN MASSUD QUTB AL-DIN-SHIRAZI (D.1311), KULLIYAT AL-QANUN, A COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST VOLUME OF AL-QANUN OF IBN SINA, BOOK 2 AND 3, EGYPT MAMLUK, DATED 739 AH/1338-1339 AD

MAHMUD BIN MASSUD QUTB AL-DIN-SHIRAZI (D.1311), KULLIYAT AL-QANUN, A COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST VOLUME OF AL-QANUN OF IBN SINA, BOOK 2 AND 3, EGYPT MAMLUK, DATED 739 AH/1338-1339 AD

Reference: ART3002173

Arabic manuscript on paper, 185 leaves and 180 leaves, both with 27 lines to each page, written in naskh script in black ink, important words, titles and sentences in red. Commentary on the first volume of Ibn sina book Al-Qanun and called Shah Kulliyat Al-Qanun by Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (1236-1311) 23.2 by 16.2 cm.

BOOK II : 185 leaves with three sections and different chapters, f.101a with half-page coloured diagram of the River Nile from its source, f.1b a later replacement, in later brown leather binding

  • 1st section with six chapters about the effect of the forces of the nature, the effect of the air, reasons of seasons changes, characteristics of each season and their effect on the human body
  • effect of pure and polluted air on mood, hot and cold air, season related diseases, effect of air, accommodation, movement, sleep and food on health.
  • reasons of vomiting and retention
  • water and our body need, types of water, with a drawing about the Nile as a type of the rivers.

*2nd section with 29 chapters about symptoms related with food, heated food, cooled food, dried food -vasodilation, dislocation of bones, gastric ulcer and hyper action of human glands. -tumors, reasons of pain in some organs, reasons of pleasure, reasons of obesity, reasons of weakness.

*3rd section with 14 chapters about disease symptoms, - symptoms of diseases of vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell - food addiction, and effect on the liver Written in 739 AH/1338 AD 23.2 by 16.2 cm.

BOOK III: 180 leaves with two sections and different chapters about medical symptoms and blood pulse

*1st section with 11 chapters about main medical symptoms indicating diseases, differences between general or particular diseases, types of mood. - general signs and common symptoms of diseases, symptoms of obesity, intestinal obstruction and flatulence. - symptoms of different types of tumor

*2nd section with 19 chapters about blood pulse, general introduction about pulse, types of pulse and their reasons. -gender pulse, pulse according to seasons, mood and location -pulse during day and night or sleep, during sport and shower -pulse during pregnancy, during pain, tumor and psychological problems. Written in 739 AH/1338 AD 23.2 by 16.2cm.

CATALOGUE NOTE Brockelmann records the title as Al-tuhfa al-sa’diya sharh kulliyat al-Qanun by Mahmud ibn Massud Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (GAL II, p.274). The first page of this manuscript is a later replacement and it is likely that the title has been shortened to Kulliyat al-Qanun. This early copy, written fewer than three decades after the death of the author, is a commentary on the Qanun of Ibn Sina. As recorded by Emily Savage-Smith, Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi composed several versions of the commentary on the Qanun, with different titles, the one in Brockelmann identified as the final one (Savage-Smith 2011, p.258). The Bodleian Library also houses a manuscript with an autograph inscription of Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (inv.no.MS. Huntington 263).

Images of the Nile in commentaries of the Qanun by Ibn Sina are unusual but not unheard of. A drawing of the river is on f.115b of the Sharh kulliyat al-Qanun by Ibn al-Nafis, now in the Bodleian Library (inv.no.MS Huntington 102, Savage-Smith 2011, pl.XXVI), whilst another illustration very similar to the present can be found in a commentary by Ibn al-Nafis attributed to Mamluk Egypt, sold in Sotheby's, 7 October 2015, lot 208.