Summary View

Country

United Kingdom

City

London

Institution

British Library

Collection

Oriental Manuscript Collection

Shelfmark

7482

Contents

Nihāyat al-Idrāk fī Dirāyat al-Aflāk (Quṭb al-Shīrāzī, Maḥmūd ibn Masʻūd, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311)

Author

Quṭb al-Shīrāzī, Maḥmūd ibn Masʻūd, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311

قطب الشيرازي محمود ابن مسعود

Show other names

Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī

قطب الدين الشيرازي

Quṭb al-Shīrāzī, Maḥmūd ibn Masʻūd, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (authorised)

Ghotb al-Din Shirāzi, Mahmud ibn Ziyāʻal-Dīn ibn Masoud, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (variant)

Kāzarūnī, Muḥammad ibn Masʻūd, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (variant)

Kâzirûnî Shîrâzî, Qutb al-Dîn Mahmûd B. Masʻûd, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (variant)

Maḥmūd ibn Masʻūd al-Quṭb al-Shīrāzī, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (variant)

Masʻūd Shīrāzī, Quṭb al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (variant)

Qutb-ad-Din Shirazy, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (variant)

Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, Maḥmūd ibn Masʻūd, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (variant)

Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (variant)

Quṭb al-Shīrāzī, Maḥmūd ibn Masʻūd, 1236 or 7-1310 or 11 (variant)

Shirāzi, Ghotb al-Din Mahmud ibn Ziyāʻal-Dīn ibn Masoud, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (variant)

Shīrāzī, Quṭb al-Dīn, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (variant)

Shīrāzī, Quṭb al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn Masʻūd, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (variant)

Shīrāzī, Quṭb al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn Masʻūd, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (variant)

قطب الشيرازي، محمود بن مسعود (variant)

قطب الشيرازي، محمود بن مسعود،, 11 or 1310-7 or 1236 (variant)

قطب الشيرازي، محمود بن مسعود،, 1236 or 1237-1310 or 1311 (variant)

قطب الشيرازي، محمود بن مسعود،, 1236 or 71310 or 11 (variant)

قطب شيرازى، محمود بن مسعود (variant)

Biographical notes

Born in 1236 [1236 CE] in the city of Shiraz, he belonged to a recognised family of medical doctors. At a young age, Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī received medical training from his father but it was not until he assumed his father’s position in the city’s hospital at the age of fourteen that he began to be interested in medical theory and devoted himself to the study of Avicenna’s works. Quṭb al-Dīn’s father was also a well-known Sufi who had studies in Baghdad with Shahāb al-Din ʻUmar ibn Muḥammad Suhrawardī . Quṭb al-Dīn himself appears to have been a disciple of Shaykh Najīb al-Dīn ‘Alī b. Buzghush al-Shīrāzī, d. 1279-80, a famous Sufi master in Shiraz at the time. At the age of 26 he left his hometown and moved to the recently Mongol-founded observatory in Marāghah to study medicine, philosophy and mathematics with Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī, d. 1274. He also worked as a scribe for his master and a number of manuscript copies of Ṭūsī’s works in the hand of Shīrāzī still exist today ( (Walbridge, John. "The Philosophy of Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī: A Study in the Integration of Islamic Philosophy." PhD. Dissertation, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1993., pp. 16)). During the 1260 [1260 CE]’s Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī travelled in Khurasan, buying book in the company of his master Ṭūsī and visiting different scholars during his trips. He was praised by Shams al-Dīn Juwaynī, the Saḥīb Diwān of Ilkhanid Iran, when he visited Baghdad, a city where he stayed for some years. He returned to Marāghah for a few years until left again under unclear circumstances and travelled provably in eastern Anatolia until he found his way to Konya in 1274 [1274 CE]. In this Anatolian city he studied shortly with Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī and began to write his own works. He was appointed by either Shams al-Dīn Juwaynī or the governor of Anatolia Muʻīn al-Dīn Sulaymān, Parwānā, -1277 as Qaḍī of Malatya and Sivas. At this time, Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī settled down in Sivas, dedicating himself to write and teach and delegating his judicial responsibilities to his subordinates. From his base in Anatolia, he made a number of trips to the Mongol capital in Tabriz to visit the court but it was while in Anatolia that he began to produce some of the early major works of his career. Due to his proximity to the Mongol court in Iran, he was part of an embassy sent by Ilkhan Aḥmad Tegüder to Egypt that sought to make peace between the Ilkhanate and the Mamluks. Although the delegation did not achieved its goals, Shirazi used the trip to lecture and consult different books in Syria and Egypt before returning to Anatolia. By the year 1290 [1290 CE], Shīrāzī settled down in Tabriz and was close to the court during the reign of Arghün, Ilkhan of Iran, 1250?-1291 but took distance from the court at the beginning of the 14th century [1300-1399 CE]. During the last year of his life, he spent some time in Gilan but mostly lived in Tabriz, where he composed the majority of his later works. He died in 1311 [1311 CE] and was buried in that city.

Title

Nihāyat al-Idrāk fī Dirāyat al-Aflāk

نهایۀ لاادراک في درایۀ الافلاک

Notes

This is the first major work of Shīrāzī about astronomy. It is a synthesis of the astronomical theories the author learned while studying at the observatory of Marāghah.

Composed in Sivas in 15th Sha‘bān 680 [1281 CE]

Dedicated to Shams al-Dīn Juwaynī.

Main language of text

Arabic

Bibliography

Studies

Kaveh, Niazi. "Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī and the Configuration of the Heavens." In A Comparison of Texts and Models. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014, 95-95.

Mīnuvī, M.. "Mullā Quṭb al-Shīrāzī." In Yādnāmah-yi Irānī-yi Mīnūrskī. Tehran: 1959, 165-205 ff..

Walbridge, John. "The Philosophy of Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī: A Study in the Integration of Islamic Philosophy." PhD. Dissertation, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1993, 248-250 ff..

Show filiations

Salar Jung Museum Library 26

Bibliothèque Nationale de France 1150

Staatsbibliothek 674

Bursa İnebey Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi 189

University of Leiden Library 203

Köprülü Kütüphanesi 956

Köprülü Kütüphanesi 957

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 851

Bodleian Library 133

British Library 786

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 381

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 487

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 2145

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 221

Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Kütüphanesi 3310

Physical Description

Number of folios

146 ff.

History

Date of copy

possibly 15th. century