In Volume 2: Mathematics; Weights, and Measures; Astronomy, and Astrology; Geography; Medicine; Encyclopaedias, and Miscellanies; Arts and Crafts, Science, Occult Arts
previous chapter: 1 Mathematics
§ 61. [Mīr] M. Muʾmin b. ʿAlī Ḥusainī [Astarābādī]1 is mentioned in the Haft iqlīm (no. 1172) as being at the time of writing [circ. 1002/1593–4] in the service of Muḥammad-Qulī Quṭb-S̲h̲āh [of Golconda, ah 989–1020/1581–1611], having gone to the Deccan and risen to high favour in the reign of his predecessor, Ibrāhīm Quṭb-S̲h̲āh [957–89/1550–81]. According to the Tārīk̲h̲ i ʿālam-ārāy i ʿAbbāsī (in which he is described as still alive in 1025/1616 at the time of writing) he was a nephew (k̲h̲wāhar-zādah) of Mīr Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn Sammākī (for whom see pl. i § 24), was appointed instructor to the S̲h̲āh-zādah Sulṭān Ḥaidar Mīrzā (born in, or about, 962/1555, ʿĀlam- ārā p. 10113) by S̲h̲āh Ṭahmāsp, left Persia after the prince’s death [16 Ṣafar 984/15 May 1576] and the accession of his brother Ismāʿīl ii [later in the same year], entered the service of Muḥammad-Qulī Quṭb-S̲h̲āh and became Prime Minister.2 Firis̲h̲tah, who ¶ was his contemporary in the Deccan at the court of a neighbouring dynasty, gives a somewhat similar account of him3 and quotes a number of his verses in discussing the reign of Muḥammad-Qulī Quṭb-S̲h̲āh. According to Taqī Kās̲h̲ī (Sprenger p. 42) he was at Kās̲h̲ān in 987, but this date needs confirmation. Copies of his dīwān, the Dīwān i Muʾmin, are described by Ethé (no. 1530) and Sprenger (p. 506). For his work on prosody, completed in 1007/1598–9 and dedicated to Muḥammad-Qulī Quṭb-S̲h̲āh, see Sipahsālār ii p. 442 no. 1080.
[Taqī Kās̲h̲ī (Sprenger p. 42); Haft iqlīm no. 1172; Firis̲h̲tah, Bombay 1831–2, ii p. 341, [Lucknow] 1281, ii p. 173 (cf. Nujūm al-samāʾ p. 83, where there are some differences of reading); Tārīk̲h̲ i ʿālam-ārāy i ʿAbbāsī p. 109; Safīnah i K̲h̲wus̲h̲gū ii no. 187; Ātas̲h̲-kadah p. 144 (no. 322); Mak̲h̲zan al-g̲h̲arāʾib nos. 2315 and 2317 (which probably relate to the same person in spite of the distinction drawn between Mīr M. Muʾmin Sammākī [cf. pl. ii § 61] and Mīr M. Muʾmin Astarābādī); S̲h̲amʿ i anjuman p. 446].
- (Risālah i miqdārīyah) or (Risālah dar auzān u maqādīr) (beg. Baʿd az h. u sp. i afzūn az ḥadd u miqdār), on the weight of coins and on legal measures, composed for Muḥammad Quṭb-S̲h̲āh [ah 1020–35/1612–26] and divided into a muqaddamah, a faṣl and a k̲h̲ātimah: i.ḥ. 1269, Fonahn 334, Mas̲h̲had iii, fṣl. 17, nos. 95 (25 foll. Not later than 1067/1656–7), 66, Būhār 220 (19th cent.), Āṣafīyah ii p. 1732 no. 31 (8), Ethé 2310 (extracts only).
§ 62. The weights used in medicine are the subject of the fifth tas̲h̲k̲h̲īṣ in the Tuḥfat al-muʾminīn dedicated to S̲h̲āh Sulaimān (ah 1077–1105/1666–94) by Mīr M. Muʾmin Tunakābunī (see Rieu ii 476–8, etc.). For similar chapters in medical and other works see Ethé ii p. 598, Fonahn p. 110, etc.
¶ § 63. M. ʿAlī “Ḥazīn” Jīlānī was born at Iṣfahān in 1103/1692 and died at Benares in 1180/1766 (see pl. i § 1150).
- (Risālah i auzān i s̲h̲arʿī u ʿurfī) (beg. al-Ḥ. l. R. al-ʿā. ḥamdan kat̲h̲īran … wa-sallama taslīman wa-baʿd afqar fuqarāʾ bāb Allāh), a short tract on the weight of coins and on legal measures (in K̲h̲urāsān according to Rieu): Bānkīpūr iii p. 232 (ah 1178/1764–5), Rieu ii 483b (ah 1213/1799), 483b (transcribed from the preceding in 1246/1830), Ivanow Curzon 502 (7) (early 19th cent.).
§ 64. ʿAbd Allāh b. M. As̲h̲raf Ṣiddīqī must have flourished in the second half of the eighteenth century or early in the nineteenth.
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Taḥqīq al-auzān (beg. Ḥ. u sp. lāʾiq i Kirdigārī-st kih): Fonahn 311, Ivanow Curzon 612 (1) (11 foll. ah 1249/1834).
Edition: Lucknow 1264/1848°* (followed, on p. 26, by the Taḥqīq al-buḥrān of M. Badr al-Dīn b. Jamāl al-Dīn).
§ 65. S̲h̲. Ḥabīb Allāh S̲h̲arīf Kās̲h̲ānī [b. ʿAlī-madad Sāwajī] was born at Kās̲h̲ān in 1262/1846 and died there on 23 Jumādā ii 1340/21 Feb. 1922. His Persian work Wasīlat al-maʿād wa-d̲h̲arīʿat al-ʿibād, on the merits of the Prophet’s descendants, was completed in 1287/1870 and lithographed at Tihrān in 1326/1908 (see Mas̲h̲had v p. 348). Another Persian work, Maṣābīḥ al-ṣāʾimīn, was printed in Persia in 1363/1946 (see Mas̲h̲had v p. 324). He wrote Arabic commentaries on the Sūrat al-Fatḥ (Tihrān 1322/1904: see Mas̲h̲had iv p. 472), the Sūrat al-Kaut̲h̲ar (title: Durrat al-durar. Edition: Tihrān 1326/ 1908: see Mas̲h̲had iv p. 487) and the Sūrat al-Ik̲h̲lāṣ (appended to the preceding: see Mas̲h̲had iv p. 471). [Mas̲h̲had iv p. 472; Brockelmann Sptbd. ii p. 833.]
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Tauḍīḥ al-bayān fī tashīl al-auzān, completed in 1294/ 1877.
Editions: 1294/1877 (Āṣafīyah iii p. 338, where the author’s name is given as ʿAlī b. Mudrikah); Tihrān 1313/1896 (D̲h̲arīʿah iv p. 491).
§ 66. M. As̲h̲raf ʿAlī Lak’hnawī was editor of a part of Ibn Sīnā’s Qānūn (Ḥummayāt i Qānūn i S̲h̲aik̲h̲ al-Raʾīs, Lucknow 1296/1879°) and of Sadīd al-Dīn al-Kāzarūnī’s Mug̲h̲nī4 (Mug̲h̲nī s̲h̲arḥ al-Mūjaz al-mus̲h̲tahir bah Sadīdī, Lucknow 1878°).5
- al-Fawāʾid al-Quṭbīyah fī taḥqīq al-auzān al-ṭibbīyah: Lucknow 1307/1890° (appended to Mīrzā M. Mahdī’s edition of the last two fanns ¶ of the “Sadīdī” [i.e. the Arabic Mug̲h̲nī of Sadīd al-Dīn al-Kāzarūnī]); 1892° (apparently a separate edition. 20 pp.).
§ 67. S. Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm6 Mūsawī Ḥusainī Dizfūlī Ḥāʾirī, a resident of Karbalāʾ.
- Qisṭās al-auzān, on the niṣāb i zakāt, etc., and the equivalent weights and measures in various Islamic countries: Bombay 1308/1891° (19 pp. Cf. Mas̲h̲had v p. 605).
§ 68. Appendix
- (1)
- Risālah dar bayān i auzān: Āṣafīyah i p. 810 no. 190.
- (2)
- Risālah dar bayān i miqdār i d̲h̲irāʿ i Makkah: Leningrad Univ. no. 366a (Salemann-Rosen p. 15).
- (3)
- Risālah i auzān u mikyāl [makāyīl?] u nusk̲h̲ah jāt i mutafarriq: Āṣafīyah ii p. 952 nos. 399 and 253 (under Ṭibb i Yūnānī).
- (4)
- Risālah i ḥisāb i kurr: Āṣafīyah i p. 810 no. 208.
next chapter: 3 Astronomy and Astrology
Notes
^ Back to text1. Astarābādī: so Firis̲h̲tah, Iskandar Bēg, etc., doubtless correctly, though he himself does not append this word to his name. He is evidently a different person from Mīr M. Muʾmin [father’s name not ascertained] Ḥusainī Astarābādī [Makkī], who completed in 1069/1659 a risālah fī ’l-rajʿah (i.h. no. 1393), apparently in Arabic, gave an ijāzah (i.h. no. 77) to M. Bāqir b. M. Taqī al-Majlisī (b. 1037/1627–8 or 1038/1628–9: see pl. i § 247) and is described in the Amal al-āmil (p. 6726) as a [deceased] resident of Mecca (al-Amīr M. Muʾmin al-Astarābādī sākin Makkah ʿālim fāḍil faqīh muḥaddit̲h̲ ṣāliḥ ʿābid s̲h̲ahīd lahu risālah fī ’l-rajʿah, min al-muʿāṣirīn). Cf. Qiṣaṣ al-ʿulamāʾ p. 243; Nujūm al-samāʾ pp. 82–3, where the two persons are treated as one.
^ Back to text2. The text as quoted in the Nujūm al-samāʾ differs to some extent from that of the Ṭihrān lithograph (in which, for example, there is no reference to the treatise on prosody) and runs as follows: Mīr M. Mūmin i Astarābādī az sādāt i ʿizām i Astarābād u k̲h̲wāhar-zādah i Amīr Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn i Sammākī ast bisyār fāḍil u mutadaiyin u nīkū-ak̲h̲lāq u ṣāḥib-ṭabīʿat būd gāhī ba-naẓm i as̲h̲ʿār mail mī-numūd u qaṣāʾid u rubāʿīyāt i marg̲h̲ūb dārad u dar ʿilm i ʿarūḍ risālaʾī taṣnīf kardah kih tā g̲h̲āyat dar ān ʿilm mit̲h̲l i ān risālah taʾlīf na-numūdah and u dar ṣalāḥ u taqwā darajah i ʿālī dās̲h̲t u ba-taʿlīm i S̲h̲āh-zādah i ʿālamiyān Ḥaidar Mīrzā qiyām mī-numūd u baʿd az qaḍīyah i hāʾilah i Mīrzā u istīlā-yi Ismāʿīl Mīrzā tāb i muqāwamat [Ṭihrān text: tawaqquf] i Īrān na-y-āwardah ba-jānib i Hind u Dakan raft u ba-jihat i wufūr i tas̲h̲aiyuʿ mulāzamat i Sulṭān Muḥammad-Qulī Quṭb-S̲h̲āh ik̲h̲tiyār numūd u dar ān-jā ba-g̲h̲āyat muʿtabar s̲h̲ud u martabah i wakālat u pīs̲h̲wāʾī yāft aknūn kih tārīk̲h̲ i Hijrī ba-k̲h̲ams wa-ʿis̲h̲rīn wa-alf rasīdah dar qaid i ḥayāt ast u mustaḥiqqīn i har diyār kih [sic] ba-wasīlah i ū az ān silsilah [i.e. silsilah i ʿAlīyah i Quṭb-S̲h̲āhīyah, previously mentioned in the Ṭihrān text] tamattuʿ mī-yāband.
^ Back to text3. Firis̲h̲tah’s text as quoted in the Nujūm al-samāʾ differs in some respects from that lithographed by Nawal Kishōr and runs as follows: Mīr M. Mūmin i Astarābādī kih ābā wa-ajdādas̲h̲ nazd i salāṭīn i Īrān muʿazzaz u mukarram būdand u k̲h̲wud nīz dar ʿahd i S̲h̲āh Ṭahmāsp i Ṣafawī muʿallim i S̲h̲āh-zādah Sulṭān Ḥaidar Mirzā būd az qarīb i bist u panj sāl wakīl al-salṭanat i īn dargāh ast u saiyid i maʿzī ilaih dar jamīʿ i -ʿulūm i maʿqūl u manqūl mutabaḥḥir u aʿlam i ʿulamā-yi ʿaṣr i k̲h̲wud ast dar taqwā u zuhd u nīk-nafsī u ḥusn i k̲h̲ulq ʿadīl u naẓīr i k̲h̲wud na-dārad u s̲h̲iʿr i nīk mī-gūyad u kamāl i ahlīyat dārad u az hamah k̲h̲wus̲h̲tar ān-kih Sulṭān Muḥammad-Quli Quṭb S̲h̲āh ba-wājibī qadr u martabah i ān buzurgwār s̲h̲ināk̲h̲tah murīdwār [Nawal Kis̲h̲ōr murīdānah bā ū] sulūk mī-numāyad u daqīqaʾī az lawāzim i tawāḍuʿ u takrīm i ū firū na-mī- gud̲h̲ārad u c̲h̲ūn iʿtimād i tamām bar iṣābat i raʾy i ān raus̲h̲an-ḍamīr dārad jamīʿ i muhimmāt k̲h̲uṣūṣ kārhā-yi buzurg ba-ū rujūʿ kard [ah k̲h̲wud bā birā- darān u nadīmān bah lahw u laʿb u ʿais̲h̲ u ṭarab mas̲h̲g̲h̲ūl-ast …].
^ Back to text4. Cf. Brockelmann Sptbd. i p. 825.
^ Back to text5. This edition, unlike that of 1307/1890° mentioned below, does not contain As̲h̲raf ʿAlī’s own al-Fawāʾid al-Quṭbīyah.
^ Back to text6. Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm: so in the Mas̲h̲had catalogue. Edwards calls him Ibrāhīm Aḥmad Mūsavī Ḥusainī.
