Item Summary

An encyclopedic work containing a prolegomena in seven chapters: (1) on the characteristics of the number seven, (2) the relation of al-Sulṭān al-Malik al-Nāṣir to that number, (3) the boundaries of Egypt, (4) on the Sultanʼs being the seventh in the Turkish line, (5) the life of the sultan, (6) on strange conincidences, (7) explanation of some of the words in the book. These are followed by seven chapters: (1) the story of Joseph, (2) the story of Moses and Pharaoh, (3) lives of the kings of Egypt, (4) the life of al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh, (5) events that happened in Egypt, (6) Cairo, (7) seven flowers.

Descriptive Information

Title
سكردان السلطان
Transliterated Title
Sukkardān al-sulṭān
Call Number
Islamic Manuscripts, Garrett no. 142H
Identifier
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dc9w032c697
Language
Arabic
Format
Manuscript
Extent
117 leaves : paper ; 182 x 130 (155 x 110) mm. bound to 180 x 132 mm.
Provenance
Acquired from Brill, Leyden, 1900.
Source Acquisition
Gift ; Robert Garrett, Class of 1897 ; 1942.
References
Ahlwardt, Verzeichnis der arabischen Handschriften, 8377/8.
Fihrist al-kutub al-ʻArabīyah al-maḥfūẓah bi-al-Kutubkhānah al-Khudaywīyah, V, p. 68.
Ḥājjī Khalīfah, Kashf al-ẓunūn (1835-58), III, pp. 574, 604.
Hitti, P. Garrett Coll., 207.
Pertsch, Die orientalischen handschriften der Herzoglichen bibliothek zu Gotha, 1658-66.
Rights Statement
Copyright Not Evaluated
Notes
Collation: Paper ; fol. 117 ; catchwords ; modern foliation in pencil using Western numerals.
Description: Rubricated ; verse separators in red ; MS in fair condition, some pages mended. Title page lacking. The first page is defective.
Layout: 22 lines per page.
Marginal notes and glosses. After the colophon is an Urjūzah min al-Ḥaḍar containing a prophecy about a king who will come from near Damascus and will in 903 [1497] seize Cairo and establish his rule over Syria and Egypt.
Ms. codex.
Title from text (fol. 2b).
Colophon: على يد عبد [العبد] الفقير راجي رحمة رب [الرب] القدير شاهين ابن عبدالله المحمدي الشهير بين المماليك الملك الظاهر جقمق رحمه الله رحمة واسعة وللمسلمين اجمعين امين يا رب العالمين ولمن قرا ورد الى صاحبه. تم
Incipit: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وبه التوفيق. منه ... الطير ... واجرى البحار السبعة بقدرته
Binding Note
Later? quarter-bound type III (without flap) binding in red leather and violet paper with block-stamped design in yellow and blue. Violet paper pastedowns and flyleaf attached to first and last folios.

Discovery Information

Subject
Mamelukes—Early works to 1800
Manuscripts, Arabic—New Jersey—Princeton
Seven (The number)—Early works to 1800
Symbolism of numbers—Early works to 1800
Egypt—History—1250-1517—Early works to 1800

Physical Characteristics

File Count
242

Institutional Information

Collection
Princeton’s Holdings of the al-Madani Library
Manuscripts of the Islamic World
IIIF Manifest URL

https://figgy.princeton.edu/concern/scanned_resources/ca0bc5e3-6830-4509-a4bf-f1f529f0ca07/manifest