At the end of the volume, the copyist states that he finished copying it on Thursday, 12 Jumādā al-Ūlā, 776 AH.
The manuscript contains numerous misreadings, textual corruptions and omissions. In some places, it alone preserves readings that differ from all the other manuscripts used, although some agree with the Indian edition and subsequent editions. Perhaps some of the later manuscripts used for the Indian edition derive from this manuscript, or both descend from a common exemplar.
- The Meccan Sanctuary manuscript of Prophetic Medicine (ht)
This is a library copy, prepared “for the library of His Noble and Exalted Lordship, the revered al-Mālikī al-Jamālī Yūsuf ibn al-Hājj Kāmil.” At the end of the manuscript, the unnamed copyist states that he completed its copying and correction in the middle of Rajab, 788 AH.
On the title page, the work is called “The Book of Prophetic Medicine,” followed by: “Composed by the shaykh, the imam …” It begins:
“To proceed: these are useful principles (sic) concerning his guidance, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in medicine (sic), with which he treated himself and which he prescribed for others, explaining (sic) the wisdom it contains, beyond the reach of most physicians’ minds …”
The copyist does not state whether the exemplar from which he copied contained only Prophetic Medicine, or whether it was a complete copy of the work from which he himself extracted this section. Nevertheless, this manuscript shows that the medical section of the work was circulated separately at an early date under the title Prophetic Medicine. The Chester Beatty Library holds a copy of Prophetic Medicine in the hand of