Najib al-Din al-Samarqandi, Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Umar (d.1222 AD), a medical compendium of five works, signed by Futuh ibn Mahmud ibn Mas’ud al-Unsi al-Isfahani, Persia, Yazd, Muzaffarid, dated 754 AH/1353-54 AD

Arabic manuscript on paper, 156 leaves, 19 lines to the page, written in neat naskh script in black ink, keywords picked out in or shadowed in red ink, catchwords, various marginal glosses, f.141a with a large depiction of the human eye, brown morocco binding with gilt-stamped medallions with chinoiserie and vegetal motifs

This manuscript contains five works by al-Samarqandi with the following titles:

Index of the five works, Fihrist kitab adwiyah qaradhabin min al-khamsa al-najibiyyah al-samarqandiyyah.

1. Kitab al-qarabadhin ‘ala tartib al-‘ilal, 'The Formulary Arranged According to the Classification of Diseases'.
2. Kitab usul tarkib al-adwiyah, 'The Principles of the Preparations of Drugs'.
3. Kitab al-aghdhiyah wa’l ashribah wama yattasil biha, on foodstuffs and beverages.
4. Risalah ‘ala al-‘ayn, a treatise on the eye with one illustration.
5. Kitab aghdhiyat al-mardha fi jumlah al-khamsa al-najibiyyah al-samarqandiyyah, on foodstuffs used for the treatment of the sick.

Emilie Savage-Smith lists the chapters in the Bodleian copy of Kitab Usul tarkib al-adwiya as follows:

1. Potable medicaments and syrups.
2. Stomachic mixtures and electuaries.
3. Pills and aperients.
4. Decoctions and infusions.
5. Enemas, suppositories and pessaries.
6. Strong drugs [emetics].
7. Lochochs. 
8. Lozenges.
9. Powders and dry stomachics.
10. Dressings, coatings and cataplasms.
11. Balms [duhuns].
12. Eye medicines.
13. Poultices and powders.
14. Dentifrices.
15. Gargles.
16. Preserves and cooked fruits.
17. Sternutatories and aromatics.
18. Fumigants.
19. Skin medicaments.
20. Hair medicines.

According to Savage-Smith, “the compound remedies are arranged according to type of remedy and usually consist of twenty chapters (babs). In several of the preserved copies the material is arranged in nineteen instead of twenty chapters, with chapters seventeen and eighteen combined”, as is the case with the present copy. Regarding the Kitab al-Qarabadhin ‘ala tartib al-‘ilal, she mentions that “this formulary provides compound remedies for various ailments, arranged according to the location of the complaint. They are presented in order descending from head to foot, ending with theriacs and antidotes for the bites of mad dogs and insects, such as the Spanish fly and blister beetle (dhurrah)” (see Savage-Smith 2011, pp.682-6, entry nos.192 & 193).

An earlier copy including only three books of this majmu’ by al-Samarqandi, dated 703 AH/1303 AD, OR 5619 / 1 -3, is in the British Library, see C. Baker (ed.), Subject-Guide to the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library, London, 2001, M.3, p.366. See also C. Brockelmann, GAL, I. 491 (646-7) no.28.5 and GAL, S, I. 895 no.28.3. Brockelmann lists all the books except the treatise on the eye, but does not mention a book of all five together which makes this copy rare.

A note on f.62a states that the manuscript was copied by Futuh ibn Mahmud ibn Muhammad ibn Mas'ud al-Insi (or al-Unsi) al-Isfahani (unrecorded) from an original text by the author on the last day of Shawwal 754 AH/28 November 1353 AD.