MAMLUK ALEPPO, SYRIA, 14TH/15TH CENTURY

This manuscript can be attributed to the city of Aleppo on the basis of an Arabic inscription written on the outer border of a folio which reads 'this is the flower of zayzafun [lime or linden] which growns in some countries like our city of Aleppo'. The eighteenth century binding, with stamped floral decoration, is reminicent of those produced in the Christian monestaries of Mount Lebanon and Northern Syria from the 17th to the 19th century. The doublures are covered with medical recipes written in Hebrew and Arabic.

For more information on the author of this work, who was the court physician to the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun (r. AH 198-218/813-33 AD) and known by the name of Yahya at the court, see C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, Leiden, 1996, GI, 232, SI, 416 and N. Serikoff, Arabic Medical Manuscripts of the Wellcome Library: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Haddad Collection, Leiden, 2005, WMS Arabic 468, pp.445-56). This particular work however is not listed amongst the author's works by either.