Scholarship on Paraliterary text: T-S Ar. 43.225

recto

(ln. 1-4)

There are people who dry apricots and soak them in cold water and drink that water on an empty stomach for cooling and quenching. And whoever wants to eat fresh apricots, then they [apricots] should be followed by honey sekanjabin and denatured mayba.

(ln. 5-13)

Peach: cold, moist, phlegm-producing, and the food produced from it is thicker than the food produced from apricots, and it does not spoil in the stomach like the spoilage of apricots. And when those, with a cold temperament eat it, let them eat ginger jam or bee honey or honey drink/syrup after it.

(ln. 13-21)

Pomegranate: cold, and if (lit. ‘whatever of it’) it is sour, it is intensely cold, its humidity and dryness are balanced; it is a suppressor of yellow bile; it is restorative for a hot stomach and liver, and alleviates vomiting. And the seed of sour pomegranate, if it is dried, it is restricting in [its] nature and prevents the bilious substances from producing an effusion into the stomach. And sweet pomegranate is balanced in heat and cold, and it is moist in temperament. And the type known as Emlysian/Emilisi pomegranate, which has a soft seed, benefits someone who has acute cough from heat; and it generates wind in a cold stomach.

verso

(ln. 5-13)

Quince: cold, dry, astringent for a hot stomach, constricting (i.e., ‘constipating’) in nature if eaten before food. It has a softening (i.e., laxative) nature if eaten after food and its nutrients are many. And if it is not ripe, it causes (lit. ‘it is’) indigestion, slow emptying (lit. ‘coming down’) of stomach, constipating in nature. And if quince is sour, its temperament is cold, in the second, and dry, in the third. And if quince is sweet, it is balanced in temperament, both hot and cold. And the more constricting (i.e., constipating) it is, the drier it is.

(ln. 15-21)

Apple: if (lit. ‘whatever of it’) it is sour, it is cold and dry, tonic for a bilious stomach. And if it is unripe, [it is] astringent, and thus is congestive for the nature of indigestion. And if it is sweet, then it is balanced in heat and cold. And the Syrian-Palestinian (lit. ‘al-Šāmī’) is the fairest of apples: the best in nutrition, and most strengthening to the stomach and heart, for its pleasant smell.

verso, right margin

(ln. 1-2)

Ibn Riḍwān said that well-ripened apples should be enjoyed with bread to strengthen the stomach.