Abu Ali Al-Husayn bin Abdullah bin al-Hasan bin Ali ibn Sina, known as Avicenna (d.428 AH/1037 AD), Al-Isharat wa al-tanbihat, Hints and Indications, a treatise on Logic, Physics, Philosophy and Metaphysics, copied by Yusuf bin Mehran bin Lahi al-Makrani, probably Western Persia or Iraq, dated 676 or 696 AH/1277 or 1296 AD

Arabic manuscript on cream-coloured paper, 137 leaves, 24 lines to the page written in naskh script in black ink with headings and significant words picked out or underlined in red throughout, lacking catchwords, occasional Arabic commentaries in wide outer borders added at a later date, folios 1r-v, 2 r-v with numerous seal impressions and inscriptions of previous owners, front doublure of white paper with the name of the author, title and library numbers in Arabic and Latin, late fifteenth-early sixteenth century dark brown morocco tooled in blind, with flap

Arabic inscription on folio 2v states that this manuscript was inspected by King Zaydan. The manuscript could have been in the library of his father al-Mansur which was said to have been confiscated by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century.

Arabic inscription on folio 2r states that the manuscript was in the possession of two members of the al-Qamari family in Constantinople in 930 and 957 AH/1523 and 1550-51 AD.

A lengthy Arabic inscription on folios 1v-2r gives the names of eminent scholars who have read the work including Al-Tusi.

Arabic and Latin inscriptions on front doublure gives the titles of the work and library numbers 33 V. I. 33; n. 1626; cod 638 and cod. 657 which also is stamped on the spine.

In good overall condiiton, slight waterstaining and some crude repairs mostly restricted to outer borders, binding with repair to edges, as viewed.
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Ibn Sina's al-Isharat wa al-tanbihat was composed towards the end of his life and is considered one of his masterpieces. Although known for his medical works such as al-Qanun fi'l Tibb, this philosophical work started a debate which went on well after his death as can be seen in the commentaries written by the celebrated philosophers al-Razi and al-Tusi in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Al-Razi's commentary was rather hostile towards Avicenna's work and for this reason was called jarh al-isharat, the Damaging of the isharat, while Tusi's commentary embraced Avicenna's work, see A. Mingana, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, 1934, pp.620-623, nos.381-382.

A copy of Tusi's commentary copied by Ahmad ibn Ildkaz bin Abdullah at al-Madrasah al-Sharifah al-Mustansiriyah in Baghdad, dated 692 AH/1292-3 AD, was sold in these rooms, 26 April 1982, lot 136.

Biography of Ibn Sina

Ibn Sina was born in 980 AD in Afshana near Bukhara, in Greater Khurasan. His native language was Persian, but, like the majority of scholars of the period, he wrote in Arabic. Thanks to his father's position as an official in the Samanid government, Ibn Sina was given a fine education and his precocity is said to have been such that he quickly surpassed his teachers in knowledge and problem-solving skills. At the young age of eighteen, he became a qualified physician and was hailed for curing the Amir of Khurasan of a severe illness. As a most precious reward he was given access to the extensive library of the Samanid princes, where he would spend countless hours immersed in scholarly work.

Known as Avicenna in the West, Ibn Sina can be regarded as the most influential writer in the history of medicine. His unparalleled al-Qanun fi'l Tibb or The Canon of Medicine, completed circa 1025 AD, gathered the totality of medical knowledge at the time. Such was the usefulness of this seminal work that it was used all over the Middle East and Europe as the standard medical textbook for a period of seven centuries. A dedicated intellectual, he spent the latter part of his life at Isfahan, unexpectedly dying during an expedition to Hamadan in 1037 AD.

Other copies of the work are in the following libraries:

The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, one copy written by Abu Amr Muhammad bin Mahmud al-Kamuni at Mosul, dated 627 AH/1230 AD, see A. Arberry, A Handlist of the Arabic Manuscripts, Dublin, 1963, p.61, no.4699.

The British Library, London, four copies dated 640 AH/1242 AD (DEL AR 1477a); thirteenth century (OR 8251); 738 AH/1337-38 AD (OR 7969); 978 AH/1570-71 AD (OR 5773) and 1182 AH/1768 AD (ADD 16659/6), see P. Stocks and C. Baker (eds.), Subject-Guide to the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library, London, 2001, p.195.

Brockelmann i. 454, Suppl. i. 816, lists numerous copies in Patna, St. Petersburg, Istanbul, Tehran, Mosul, Cairo, Berlin, and the Escorial Library which has one copy dated 656 AH/1258-59 AD.

Further reading:

M.J.L. Young, Religion, learning and science in the Abbasid period, The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, 1990, pp.389-404 and 69, 87, 91-92, 105.

A. Hourani, A History of the Arab People, London, 1991, pp.172-4.