List or table: ENA 2738.36

Description

Verso: Statement in Judaeo-Arabic that a list of two, apparently newly acquired books should be "recorded on a memorandum (tunqal ilā tadhkira)" and brought to Fustat. (1) From someone known as the tile layer (al-Muballiṭ): Kitāb al-Istikmāl fī l-Handasa (by Ibn Hūd al-Muʾtaman, king of Saragossa between 1081 and 1085; see Ahmed Djebbar's EI3 article on him and on this treatise); (2) from Abū Saʿd: a book on 'mufradāt' and their properties (on medical simples? or a book about words?). It is not clear if/how the word "gift" (mawhiba) at the top is related. The text underneath and in the margin appears to be unrelated, except insofar as the marginal text is about geometry—would be worth comparing to Kitāb al-Istikmāl to see if it matches. Dating: probably 12th or 13th century. Written on the back of the opening page of a literary work on the special properties of stones attributed to Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb b. ʿImrān al-Mutaṭabbib. There is an odd aphorism or verse of poetry in the upper margin of recto: . . . . תעבוא באלחכמה פי כתב לעבת באלנאס כמא לעבוא