‘Ala’-al-Din Abu’l-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Abi al-Hazm al-Qarshi, known as Ibn al-Nafis (d.1288-89 AD), Sharh Kulliyat al-Qanun of Ibn Sina, ('a Commentary on the Generalities of the Qanun'), book II, Egypt, Ayyubid or Mamluk, 13th century

Arabic manuscript on thick cream paper, 234 leaves plus 2 flyleaves, 20 lines to the page, written in naskh script in black ink, key words picked out in red, occasional marginal glosses, f.8a with a half page coloured diagram of the River Nile from its source, f.234b with inscription at lower left 'alaqahu Abu Sa'ad al-Samri 'ina allahi 'inahu', brown morocco binding with tooled border and geometric medallions, with flap 

In generally good overall condition, various losses to leaf edges, binding repaired, occasional stains and smudges, pages generally clean, as viewed.
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This is a rare copy of Ibn al-Nafis's Sharh kulliyat al-qanun of Ibn Sina from the thirteenth century. Of particular interest is the illustration of the route of the River Nile on f.8a, and also the association with Abu Sa'ad Abi al-Surur al-Isra'ili al-Samri, a well-known Egyptian doctor and contemporary of Ibn al-Nafis. This manuscript may even have been copied by al-Samri himself, indicating that it was written during the lifetime of the author.

Ibn al-Nafis was born in a village in or near Damascus. He studied medicine at Nuri Hospital in Damascus under Muhadhdhib al-Din ‘Abd al-Rahim Ibn ‘Ali known as al-Dakhwar. Besides medicine, Ibn al-Nafis studied grammar, logic, and Islamic religious sciences. At an unknown date he moved to Cairo, where he became Chief Physician of Egypt and was personal physician to Sultan Baybars I. Whilst in Cairo, he likely worked and taught at Nasiri hospital where he trained a number of pupils; the best known of them being Ibn al-Kuff, an author of a work on surgery. He was very successful, and built a luxurious home in Cairo. He died in Cairo in 1288 AD and left his entire estate, including his fortune and books, to the Mansuri hospital.

Ibn al-Nafis's main texts include the Kitab al-shamil fi‘l-tibb, an encyclopaedia of medicine which consisted of three hundred volumes and included instruction regarding the nature of a doctor’s duty of pastoral care, the Kitab al-muhadhdhab fi‘l-kuhl, an encyclopaedia of Arabian known of ophthalmology, and the Mudjiz al-kanun, a concise manual for practising medicine, which was incredibly influential to the advancement of Oriental medicine. His primary scientific revelation is the now proven theory of pulmonary circulation of the blood. He theorised that blood travelled from the heart to the lungs, back to the heart and then throughout the body. This boldly contradicted the accepted wisdom of Galen and Ibn Sina, and preceded Michael Severtus and William Harvey’s theories by several hundred years, although it can be seen that Severtus worked closely with Ibn al-Nafis’s text.

Abu Sa'ad Abi al-Surur al-Israili al-Samri was an accomplished Egyptian doctor and chief of physicians in Cairo who was active during the thirteenth century. He himself was responsible for a further commentary on the Qanun of Ibn Sina called al-Lamhah al-'afifah, or simply al-Lamhah fi al-tibb (see E. Savage-Smith, A New Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, vol.I: Medicine, Oxford, 2011, p.355, no.79). It seems likely that the present copy of Sharh kulliyat al-qanun is among the earliest known, since both Ibn al-Nafis and the author Abu Sa'ad al-Samri were alive at the same time. Furthermore, it seems probable that al-Samri actually wrote this text as his inscription on the final page of the manuscript reads 'alaqahu Abu Sa'ad al-Samri. 'Alaqahu in this instance may mean 'remarked', 'annotated' or 'commented on' and indeed whilst scarce, there are occasional marginal glosses found within the manuscript which may have been made by him. However, it is also possible that he copied the whole work himself as there are numerous known instances of 'alaqahu indicating a scribe making his own personal copy. As this is book two of the work, the more complete colophon (probably with a date), would most likely appear at the end of the final book. Whilst the manuscript to hand is not dated, the style of text and the paper both indicate a thirteenth-century manufacture in Egypt.

For two further copies of this commentary are in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, see E. Savage-Smith, op.cit., pp.248-254, nos.57 and 58. Manuscript no.57 is dated 733 AH/1333 AD, and also contains a map of the River Nile. Manuscript no.58 is undated but of the thirteenth or fourteenth century. For other copies of the work see Brockelmann, GAL, i.457 (597) and GAL S, i.824; Ullmann, Medizin, 173; Sesen et al., Medical Manuscripts, 68-69; Naqshabandi, Baghdad, 195-6; Iskandar, Wellcome, 180-1; Arberry, Chester Beatty, no.3984, SOAS, 195; Gacek, Ismaili Institute, ii.171-2.