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Art. XII.—An Unknown Work by Albīrūnī

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

H. Beveridge
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Extract

There is in the British Museum a Persian MS., Or. 5,849, which is a translation of an Arabic treatise by Albīrūnī. It is a small quarto containing 175 folios, and at one time belonged to one of the Oude royal libraries, and has several red impressions of seals. It was picked up by me in Lakhnau, in 1899. The MS. is a materia medica, and contains accounts of drugs, vegetable and mineral, in alphabetical order. Its title is Kitāb-i-ṣaidanah, and the translator discusses at some length the origin of this name. Albīrūnī was inclined to derive it from the Indian chandan and the Persian chandal, sandalwood, but this etymology is rejected by the translator. There is a long preface by the translator, and as it is in very high-flown language, and as the MS. is much worm-eaten, it is not very easy to understand his meaning. However, we learn from p. 2b that the translator's name was Abū-bakr, son of ‘Ali, son of Umān Asfaru’l-kāsānī, and further on we find that he came to India in the beginning of amsu-d-dīn Īltatmi's reign, or in the last year of his predecessor and father-in-law, Qubu-d-dīn Aibak, and consequently about 607 A.H. (1211 A.D.). He speaks of staying in Dihlī for eighteen months.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , April 1902 , pp. 333 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1902

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References

1 The translator mentions his own name again at p. 108a, under the article ai , and also at p. 114, under the article , i.e. ‘talc,’ where he seems to speak of his having been in Kāar, and at 132a, under the article , i.e. ‘cloves.’

2 So spelt by Dr. Rieu; often spelt Altam and Altmi. See Thomas's “Pathan Kings,” pp. 43, 44. Badāyunī's explanation that the name was derived from amsu-d-dīn's being born during an eclipse of the moon may be correct, for it is in some measure confirmed by Redhouse, and Badāyunī had means of hearing the story of the derivation, for Badāyun was amsu-d-dīn's fief, and the tradition may have lingered down to Badāyunī's time.