Page 185 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

The Omani Manuscript Collection at Muscat 175
VII. NAVIGATION
There is a total of 12 MSS in this category, all almost certainly
being Kitab Ma(din al-asriir fi *Um al-bifrar by Shaykh Na$ir b. ‘All
al-Ha<Juri.4 All MSS appear to be modern and the majority do not
have an accession number. The work contains latitude and
longitude tables, descriptions of shipping routes along the Indian
Ocean coast, the Bafinah coast and the Gulf. There are
illustrations illustrating the position of the sun above the dhow.
VII. 151. Na$ir b. ‘All al-Haduri, Kitab Ma'din al-asrar fi *ilm al-bifrar.
[433]
VII. 152. Ibid. No accession number.
VII.153. Ibid, copied 1366 (1946). [1266]
VII. 154. Ibid. No accession number, no illustrations.
VII. 155. Ibid, copied 1369 (1949), not complete. No accession number.
VII.156. Ibid, copied 1364 (1944). [841]
VII.157. Ibid, neat naskhi hand and excellent drawings. See Plates 3a and
3b.

VIII. ASTRONOMY, ASTROLOGY, etc.
There is a total of 12 MSS in this category.
VIII. 158. On clocks and the telling of time, with much on the stars and
heavenly bodies. Copied 1328 (1910). [854]
VIII. 159. A collection of tables concerning the stars etc. and including
some popular medicine. [791]
VIII. 160. Descriptions of the stars etc., containing a few short tables. [826]
VIII. 161. Kitab fi *ilm al-falak wa-’l-frisab. Contains no tables. [1315]
VIII. 162. Kitab fi 4ilm al-falak. This is not the same work as the previous.
There are no tables. [531]
VIII. 163. Kitab 4ilm al-nujum. No accession number.
VIII. 164. *Ajab al-‘aja’ib fi ’l-frisabat wa-marifat al-kawakib. The copyist,
Mubammad b. tfamad, though supplying his own name, gives no
date of copying. This MS contains a few tables and some diagrams.
VIII. 165. ‘Abd al-Rafciman b. ‘Umar al-$ufi, $uwar al-kawakib al-thabitah.
This MS contains no title page, but was immediately recognised as this
well known astronomical work. The hand is a beautiful naskhi and the
illustrations are quite as good as other MSS of this work seen. Copied
995 (1586). [1303]. See Plate 4a.
The $uwar dates from the mid-4th/10th century and the oldest known
MS of the work is dated 396/1005. Cf. D. S. Rice, ‘The oldest illustrated
Arabic manuscript’, BSOAS, XII, Part 2, 1959, 207 and also GAL, I,
223, SI, 398. The Bodleian MS is an early example, dated 400/1009.
This has been published, cf. E. Wellesz, An Islamic Book of
Constellations, Oxford, 1965. The author provides a bibliography which
includes similar studies to her own on two other MSS of the $uwar, cf.
VIII. 166. Extensive astronomical tables, followed by descriptions of the