Item Summary

Treatise on how to escape from plague, with a religious tone, aiming to demonstrate that it is a religious duty and a rational behaviour (ḥukm sharʻī wa-qānūn ʻaqlī) to keep away from places where there is plague (see preamble, fol. 2b). This short treatise was written after the author had fled from plague in Cairo on his way back from the pilgrimage in 917/1511, raising criticism from several ʻulamāʼ from Damascus and Aleppo (see preamble, fol. 2a). Ahlwardt, W. Verzeichnis der arabischen Handschriften, no. 6371 gives a detailed description of contents.

Descriptive Information

Title
رسالة في حق الاحتراز عن الوباء
Transliterated Title
Risālah fī ḥaqq al-iḥtirāz ʻan al-wabāʼ.
Call Number
Islamic Manuscripts, Garrett no. 2758Y
Identifier
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/pn89d920b
Publisher
[ 1779]
Language
Arabic
Date Created
1779
Format
Manuscript
Extent
23 leaves: paper ; 205 x 120 (148 x 60) mm. bound to 205 x 120 mm.
Provenance
Acquired from Abraham Shalom Yahuda, 1942.
Source Acquisition
Gift ; Robert Garrett, Class of 1897 ; 1942.
References
Mach, R. Yahuda, 4786
Brockelmann, C. GAL, II, 233/7 ; SII
Kashf al-ẓunūn, ed. Fluegel, III, no. 5930
Rights Statement
No Known Copyright
Notes
Ms. codex.
Title from fol. 1a. The name of the author appears in a rubric at the head of the text (fol. 1b) and in the preamble (fol. 1b-2a).
Incipit: يا حيّا لا يموت ويا قويا فى الملك والملكوت الى لطفك الرغبوت ... اما بعد فيقول العبد الضعيف المتوكل على ربّه اللطيف ... [2أ] ... ادريس بن حسام الدين البدليسى اصلح الله اعماله ... انه لما وفقنى التوفيق الزمانى وساعدمى العون الصمدانى
Explicit: انا نعوذ بك من الطعن و الطاعون والوبآء وهجوم البلاء ... يا عون الضعفاء المظلمين برحمتك يا ارحم الراحمين والحمد لله رب العالمين
Physical description: 21 lines per page. Written in small nastaʻlīq in black ink with use of red for headings and overlining. The text is framed within a single red line. Dark cream paper, glossy, with laid lines visible ; fiber visible on surface. Fol. 23 is a later added flyleaf left blank.
Collation: Paper, fol. 23 ; 1¹⁰ 2¹² (+1, fol. 23) ; catchword on the verso of each leaf.
Inscription in Arabic script on a label pasted on the upper cover: "ʻAqāʼid 121". Inscription in Arabic script on a label pasted on the pastedown of the upper cover: "Ḥāʼ 707".
Origin: Copy completed in Rabīʻ al-Awwal 1193 [March-April 1779] by Muḥammad Naẓīf.
Binding Note
Bound in a leaf of marbled paper in yellow, green, brown, and plain.

Discovery Information

Subject
Plague—Egypt—Cairo—1511
Plague—Religious aspects—Islam
Manuscripts, Arabic—New Jersey—Princeton

Physical Characteristics

File Count
27

Institutional Information

Collection
Manuscripts of the Islamic World
IIIF Manifest URL

https://figgy.princeton.edu/concern/scanned_resources/83ec295c-71a3-4d29-abde-c6d615527ede/manifest