A miscellaneous manuscript of 103 pages, copied in clear maghrebi script whose size is reduced in the last pages. It has 17 lines per page and there are no marginal notes. The various chapter titles are written in a different coloured ink to the rest of the text, as is the beginning of some chapters and thematic headings.

Even though the script size is smaller at the end of the work, the copyist is the same all the way through. His name is written on page 103, at the end of the manuscript: Muḥammad b. ‘Abd Allāh al-Sūsī al-Hilālī. The date of the copy is given as the middle of dhū ’l-hijja of 1264 (mid-November, 1848), and that of the original work from which it was copied as 11th of muḥarram, 1251 (May 9th, 1835).

Together with manuscript no. 5013 of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and no. 617j of the Bibliothèque Générale, Rabat, this manuscript was used by the Jordanian editors in publishing the Al-Muqni‘ treatise, mistakenly attributing it in its entirety to Ibn Hajjāj. In fact it contains the work of Al-Nahrāwī/Al-Zahrāwī or Ibn Wāfid (pp. 1-74), as well as excerpts from the Ibn Hajjāj (pp. 74-103). As we have noted elsewhere, manuscript no. 69 lacks some chapters concerning the grape vine, various grafting techniques, and advice on aromatic plants (compare Ibn Ḥajjāj, Al-Muqni‘, pp. 26-29, 47-48 and 61-62 with ms. 69 pp. 25, 42 and 54).

Note: We add that ms. 6342 of the same Bibliothèque Royale, Rabat – which we have seen first-hand – contains in its 58 pages the same text as the Jordanian edition of Al-Muqni‘, that is to say, the treatise of Al-Nahrāwī/Al-Zahrāwī or Ibn Wāfid (pp. 2-40) and excerpts from Ibn-Hajjāj (pp. 40-58). However, due to its poor state of preservation it cannot be microfilmed. We were also able to directly compare the miscellaneous manuscript 1534 whose folios lr-109v contain another of the summaries of the treatise of Al-Ṭighnarī, with no variation worthy of notice. Folio 109v to the last - 178v - contains the work of Maṣīḥ Ibn al-Ḥakīm.

(translated from Carabaza Bravo, J. M., García Sánchez, E. & Llavero Ruiz, E., 1991. ‘Obras manuscritas de los geoponos andalusies (siglos X-XII)’, pp. 1124-25. In: Emilio Molina et al. (eds.). Homenaje al Profesor Jacinto Bosch Vila, vol. 2. Granada: Universidad de Granada).