Ms. nº 1410 D, Bibliothèque Générale, Rabat.
Miscellaneous

This is one of the hispano-arab manuscripts containing a large number of texts. It is written in tolerably clear maghrebi script, with small strokes and some vowels and orthographic symbols. The number of lines per pages is irregular, between 17 and 26, most commonly 23. The few marginal notes are written in a different handwriting to the rest of the text. A different coloured ink and letters in different sizes are used for the headings and for phrases that indicate a thematic change. There is a religious invocation in the upper margin of the pages.

There is just one copyist for the whole work. His name is registered in folio 98r as Muḥammad b. al-Ḥājj al-Fāṭimī al-Rajrājī. The dates of the copy of two of the agricultural works that appear in the manuscript are given in folios 98r and 154v: 14th of Dhū’l-ḥijja, 1306 (August 11, 1889) and 24th of Shawwāl, 1306 (June 23, 1889). Only in folio 215v are we given the date of the manuscript from which the last agricultural work in 1410D was copied: 21st Muḥarram, 970, corresponding to 20th September, 1562. 1

Even though this manuscript is attributed to Ibn Ḥajjāj in the catalogue of Allouche and Regragui (1958, p. 274) no doubt because his name appears in the last folio, 216r, this is a miscellaneous work containing the following [seven] treatises:
  1. An agricultural work of Ibn Baṣṣāl (fols 1v-98r), with no title or authorship.
    At the beginning of the manuscript there are two deteriorated pages with a different handwriting. Page number 2 appears to be the title-page of Ibn Baṣṣāl’s text, full of crossed out words: Kitāb fi ‘ilm al-zirā‘a, the last word of which is crossed out and rectified as al-filāḥa. There are more erasures and then the attribution of the work to Ibn Ḥajjāj. This text of Ibn Baṣṣāl corresponds with Millas’ edition in its 16 chapters (Ibn Baṣṣāl, 1955), and with the previously cited manuscripts. There are only slight variations among them, limited to a word here and there or a slightly longer heading. Folios 99r and 99v are missing. Folio 100 (one page) is blank.
  2. An agricultural calendar (folios 101r-105r) with an astronomic and meteorological character.
  3. An incomplete summary of Al-Ṭighnarī’s agricultural work Kitāb zuhrat al-bustān (fols. 105v-130v), without him or the work’s title being mentioned. These folios are also found (pages 84 -144) in an edition, published in Fez, of a miscellaneous agricultural treatise attributed to Abū’l-Khayr, although it is really a miscellaneous work (Abū al-Khayr, Fez 1938). It begins with the section al-ghirāsa (fol. 105v). From folio 106r (p. 98 Fez ed.), after discussing the kitchen-garden, there follows advice on domestic economy - the preparation of various kinds of sweetmeats and conserves - and so on, continuing with no significant change to page 144 in the edition.
  4. Extracts from Abū’l-Khayr’s agricultural treatise (fols. 130v-133v), indicating the name of this author. They form a collection on various crops which is also found in manuscript nº 4764 of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. 2
  5. Chapters from the Book of Nabataean Agriculture (fols. 134r-139v), as recorded in fol. 135v.
  6. Extracts from Ibn al-‘Awwām (fols. 140r-154v). The text partially corresponds, with some differences, to the Fez edition (fols. 105-139/pp. 98-192) and to Ibn al-‘Awwām’s text edited by Banqueri 1988 (fols. 140-154 – extrapolated from the end of vol. I and the whole of vol. II).

    Folios 155, 156 and 178r are blank.
  7. Fols. 157r-216r comprise the same text as the Jordanian edition of Al-Muqnī‘, though it was not in fact used by Professors Jirār and Abū Ṣafiyya (Ibn Ḥajjāj 1982). The first agronomical treatise is in folios 157r-194r, the second in folios 194r-216r. Ms. nº 1410 is missing the first 15 pages and also some chapters referring to the grape vine, tree grafting, different vegetable crops and many headings belonging mostly to Ibn Ḥajjāj’sexcerpts. 3 [In a later work, Carabaza and Garcia clarify that the codex ends with the works of Ibn Wāfid (fols.157r-194r) and Ibn Hajjāj (fol. 194r-216r) (Carabaza Bravo & García Sánchez 1998, p. 401)].
(translated from Carabaza Bravo, J. M., García Sánchez, E. & Llavero Ruiz, E. (1991). ‘Obras manuscritas de los geoponos andalusies (siglos X-XII)’, pp. 1127-29. In: Emilio Molina et al. (eds.). Homenaje al Profesor Jacinto Bosch Vila, vol. 2, pp. 1115-1132. Granada: Universidad de Granada)


References


Abū al-Khayr Al-Ishbīlī (= Abū al-Khayr al-Shajjār al-Ishbīlī al‑Andalusī) (1938). Kitāb fī al-Filāḥa. Fez: Sīdī al-Tuhāmī al-Nāṣirī al-Ja‘farī.
Allouche, I. S. & Regragui, A. (1958). Catalogue des Manuscrits Arabes de Rabat (Bibliothèque Générale et Archives du Maroc), Deuxième série (1921-1953). Rabat: Éd. Techniques Nord‑Africaines.
Carabaza Bravo, J.M., García Sánchez, E. & Llavero Ruiz, E. (1991). ‘Obras manuscritas de los geoponos andalusies (siglos X-XII)’. In: Emilio Molina et al. (eds.). Homenaje al Profesor Jacinto Bosch Vila, vol. 2, pp. 1115-1132. Granada: Universidad de Granada.
Carabaza Bravo, J.M. & García Sánchez, E. (1998). ‘Códices Misceláneos de Agronomía Andalusí’. Al‑Qantara 19, pp. 393-416.
Ibn al-‘Awwām (1988). Libro de agricultura (facsimile of 1802 edition edited with Spanish translation by J. A. Banqueri). Preliminary study and notes by J. E. Hernández Bermejo & E. García. Madrid: Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación, Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores.
Ibn Baṣṣāl, Muhammad ibn Ibrāhīm (1955). Kitāb al-qaṣd wa’l-bayān. Libro de Agricultura. Edition with Spanish translation and notes by J. M. Millás Vallicrosa & M. Aziman. Tetuan: Instituto Muley El Hassan.
Ibn Ḥajjāj, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (1982). Al-Muqnī‘ fī ’l-filāḥa. Edited by S. Jarrār & Y. Abū Ṣāfiya. Ammān: Majma‘ al-Luga al-‘Arabiyya al-Urduniyya.


Notes


1  That is, the same date as manuscripts 5013 of the B. N. in Paris and 617j of the B. G. in Rabat, so it is very likely that 1410 D is a copy – albeit much summarized - of the second, as 1410 D is the copy closest to us in time.
2  These folios correspond to folios numbered 144v-145r and 146r-148r of ms. 4764 of the B. N. in Paris.
3  Ibn Ḥajjāj, Al-Muqni‘, 1982, pp. 26-9, 47-8 and 58-60 corresponding to ms. 1410 D fols. 161r-161v, 171r-172v, and 177v-178v.