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Lot Essay
This volume of the Thesaurus of the Shah of Khwarazm belongs to an early copy of this important encyclopaedia. The finely executed chapter titles in large kufic script associated with elegant large cursive subtitles indicate that this was a luxurious copy. The second book of Volume 1 from this manuscript, which sold at Sotheby’s, London, 20 April 2016, lot 9 bears a dedication to Ghiyath al-Din, probably the Chaghatayid ruler of Transoxiana and eastern Turkestan between 1266 and 1271, Barak Ghiyath al-Din son of Yesun Du’a son of Mo’etuken. The Chaghatayids were descendants of Chaghatay, Gengis Khan’s oldest son and according to Bosworth, ‘[they] were less directly under the influence of Islam than their relatives [..] the Ilkhanids and preserved their nomadic ways much longer (E. Bosworth, The New Islamic Dynasties, Edinburgh, 1996, pp.248-9). Islam was only adopted by the Chaghatayids rulers in 1266, a year before this manuscript was produced. This important manuscript shows that by 1267, Persian classical culture had been fully embraced by the Chaghatayids just 40 years after Genghis Khan’s death.
Book 1, of which this manuscript is a volume, includes six discourses (goftar) comprising seventy-one sections (bab); the discourses are devoted to the practical and scientific aspects of medicine, its benefits, and the elements of which the human body is composed ; definition of different temperaments as the product of particular combinations of humors; description of the four fluids (blood, phlegm, and yellow and black bile) that constitute the four humors; the anatomy of the parts and organs of the body; and the vital force, the psychic force, and the parts of the body related to each (Ehsan Yarshater (ed.), Encyclopedia Iranica, London, 1983 to present, vol.6, p.609-610).
For further discussion on Al-Jurjani and Al-dhakhira al-khwarazmshahiya, see the preceding lot.
Book 1, of which this manuscript is a volume, includes six discourses (goftar) comprising seventy-one sections (bab); the discourses are devoted to the practical and scientific aspects of medicine, its benefits, and the elements of which the human body is composed ; definition of different temperaments as the product of particular combinations of humors; description of the four fluids (blood, phlegm, and yellow and black bile) that constitute the four humors; the anatomy of the parts and organs of the body; and the vital force, the psychic force, and the parts of the body related to each (Ehsan Yarshater (ed.), Encyclopedia Iranica, London, 1983 to present, vol.6, p.609-610).
For further discussion on Al-Jurjani and Al-dhakhira al-khwarazmshahiya, see the preceding lot.