Sharh al-tadhkirah.

Large 8vo (146 x 238 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished oriental paper. 865 pp. (paginated in a later hand), 25 lines, per extensum. Black ink with red underlinings and emphases. With numerous diagrams in the text. Contemporary blindstamped full calf, restored and spine rebacked. A rare, complete, and well-preserved late 16th century Arabic manuscript of Al-Birjandi's "Sharh al-Tadhkirah", a commentary (originally in Persian) on the "Tadhkira", the astronomical memoir of the Persian polymath at-Tusi (1201-74). As consistent with the Islamic tradition of commentary, Al-Birjandi provides explanations for the reader and provides alternative views while assessing the viewpoints of predecessors. - Abd Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Husayn Birjandi (d. 1528) was a prominent Persian astronomer, mathematician and physicist from Birjand. A pupil of Mansur ibn Muin al-Din al-Kashi, of the Ulugh Beg Observatory, he anticipated notions later developed by Galileo Galilei in the West. - Copied by the scribe Abd al-Wahhab bin Mawlana Baha al-Din. Somewhat browned throughout; some waterstaining to lower half, more pronounced near the end of the volume. The text illustrations show sections, celestial spheres and other astronomical and mathematical diagrams. Old waqf stamp to first leaf. Restored binding uses original cover material. - GAL I S, 931, 40 g.