البلهان

Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. Or. 133

Kitāb al-Bulhān ('Book of Wonders') and other works

Composite manuscript in Arabic of divinatory works, dating principally from the late 14th century A.D., containing astrological, astronomical and geomantic texts compiled by Abd al-Ḥasan Al-Iṣfāhānī, with illustrations. Fol. 81a is in Turkish.

Extent: 176 leaves (ff. 80 + 13 + 36 + 33 + 7 + 4 + 3). 245 x 160 mm.

Layout: Various page formats.

Hand: Naskh, with title in Eastern qufic, fol. 1b.

Decoration: 83 illustrations, including miniatures.

Binding: European calf, 17th century, double blind fillets toward board edges, blind garland rolls on fore-edges of boards, red speckled edges of textblock, numbered on fore-edge in pen, spine title stamped in gilt: Astrolog. Shelfmark on spine stamped in gilt: Bodl. 133. Paper label on spine: Arch. O c.2.

Kitāb al-Bulhān ('Book of Wonders') and other works

Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. Or. 133

Abū al-ʻAbbās Aḥmad ibn Abī ʻAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Miṣrī 14th cent.

Irbilī, Ḍiyāʼ al-Dīn Ḥusayn ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, early 15th cent.

Jaʻfar al-Ṣādiq, 702?-765 or 6

Latin

Arabic

Turkish

1330–1450

Patron of Kitāb al-Bulhān, 1399, Husayn al-Irbili (inscription ff. 163a and 169a); Bought 1409 by Haydar b. Abd al-Karim, Aleppo (inscription f. 131a); Owned, c. 1608-1610, Yahya b. Muhammad, Edirne (inscription f. i a); Bodleian Library, Nathaniel Palmer bequest, 1717.

Description based on the Bodleian Library's public card index of Arabic manuscripts with additional enhancements by the OCIMCO project team. Image descriptions based in part on Carboni, S. (1988), Il Kitab al-bulhan di Oxford.

Arabic Manuscripts and Maps