Catalogue: Dietetics and Regimen

Regimen for Travelers:

Treatises for travelers were a very popular form of medical literature. Ibn al-Jazzār wrote one that was later quite influential in Europe in its Latin version Viaticum peregrinantis. All such manuals discussed the diseases, the fevers, and some bites of poisonous insects and animals that might be encountered when traveling and the means of treating them in the absence of a doctor.

NLM represents this genre with a Persian treatise composed in Isfahan in 1728/1141.

Zād al-musāfarīn   (MS P 23, item 1)

(Provisions for Travelers)

كتاب زاد المسافرين

by Muḥammad Mahdī ibn ‘Alī Naqī (fl. 1728/1141)

محمد مهدى ابن على نقى

This is a treatise on regimen for travelers, divided into two parts (matlabs), covering the cures of diseases, fevers, and bites of poisonous animals, all of which could be undertaken in the absence of a doctor.

The NLM copy includes the author's own postscript in which he states that he composed the treatise in Isfahan during a time of great political turmoil not long before the Afghans were driven out and the Safavid rule restored, and that he finished the composition on 10 Safar 1141 [= 15 September 1728].

For other copies, see Storey PL II,2, p. 272; and Richter-Bernburg, "UCLA", p. 155.

The treatise has not been published in a modern translation or edition.

Zād al-musāfarīn   (MS P 23 item 1)

MS P 23, fol. 122a

The colophon to a Persian treatise by Muḥammad Mahdī ibn ‘Alī Naqī for travelers, giving advice on treating various diseases, fevers, and poisonous bites in the absence of a doctor. This folio also has the author's postscript in which he states that he composed the treatise in Isfahan during a time of great political turmoil and that he finished the composition on 10 Safar 1141 [= 15 September 1728]. The colophon gives the date of this copy as 1222 [= 1807].

Persian. 122 leaves (fols. 1a-122a). Dimensions 20.3 x 14.8 (text area 13.8 x 9.5) cm; 15 lines per page. The title Kitab Zad al-musafarin is written on fol. 1a by a later hand, but corresponds to that given in other manuscript copies. The author's name is given on fol. 7a, line 8, as Muḥammad Mahdī ibn ‘Alī Naqī al-Sharif. The author's postscript occurs on fol. 122a.

The copy is dated 1222 [= 1807] on fol. 122a. The copyist is not named. The other two items in the volume were also copied in that year (fol. 128a, lines 11-13, is dated 19 Muharram 1222 [= 29 March 1807] and fols. 124b has the year 1222/1807.

The same hand has transcribed all three items in the volume. The text is written in a medium-small, widely spaced, naskh script in black ink with headings in red and red overlinings. There are also marginal headings. The text area is frame-ruled, and on some folios the text is written within red frames. There are catchwords.

There are some marginalia.

The ivory, thin, semi-glossy paper has visible laid lines, single chain lines, and watermarks. It is soiled by thumbing and has some ink smudges. The same paper is used throughout the volume.

The volume consists of 128 leaves. Fols. 128b is blank. Item 1 (fols. 1a-122a) is the item here catalogued. Item 2 (fols. 122b-124b) is a collection of remedies titled Risālah-i mujarrabāt (MS P 23, item 2), and item 3 (fols. 125a-128a) consists of recipes for compound remedies, anonymous and untitled (MS P 23, item 3).

The volume is bound in tan leather over pasteboards with gilt block-stamped medallions and two smaller decorative devices on both covers. There are dark-blue paper pastedowns and modern paper endpapers.

There is an undated owner's stamp on fol. 128b.

The volume was in the collections of the Army Medical Library by 1941; no further information is available on provenance.

Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., entry P23, pp. 336-7, where it is suggested that author may be Abū Ja‘far Ahmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Khālid (i.e. probably Ibn al-Jazzār), who wrote an Arabic treatise of a similar name.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-163 no. 3

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