Shaykh Kamal al-Din Badi' al-Zaman, Kitab Kifayat al-Tibb, ('The Extent of Medical Knowledge'), Persia, Ilkhanid, dated 20 Rabi' al-Akhir 663 AH/11 February 1265 AD

Arabic and Persian manuscript on paper, 228 leaves, plus 35 later leaves at the end, one loose leaf plus a type-written letter in German, both in clear sleeves, 29 lines to the page, written in Naskh script in brown ink, mostly in four columns, red intercolumnar rules, other leaves with different arrangements of text, headings and key words picked out in red and black, later black morocco binding with central stamped medallion, doublures of blue paper

In fairly good overall condition, folios trimmed, some marginal repair, wear around the edges, minor areas of re-inking, as viewed.
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The present medical treatise is the earliest and most important copy of an Ilkhanid medical text known as the Kifayat al-Tibb by the Persian and Arabic scholar Sheikh Kaml al-Din Badi' al-Zaman (known for his work Kitab taqwim al-adwiyah al-mufradah wa-al-aghdhiyah, 'The Tabulation of Medicaments and Foodstuffs').

First composed in 550 AH/1155 AD, there are a number of later copies in existence within various collections worldwide; a copy preserved in Tehran was executed in 722 AH/1322 AD (see H. Rahavard (ed.), Fihrist-i kutub-i khatti-i Kitabkhanah-i Danishkhadah-i Pizishki [cat. of the Medical Faculty Library, Tehran, 1954, p.373, no.222]); another copy in the Chester Beatty Library is dated  735 AH/1335 AD (Persian cat.vol.3, no.311), and three copies in Paris provide dates of 905 AH/1499 AD, 955 AH/1548 AD, and 999 AH/1590 AD respectively (see E. Blochet, Catalogue des Manuscrits Persans de la Bibliotèque Nationale, 1905-34). However according to the colophon in the present Kitab Kifayat al-Tibb, it was completed on Tuesday the 20^th Rabi' al-Akhir 663 AH/February 11^th1265 AD, which gives it a date fifty years older than the hitherto earliest recorded manuscript.

The two hundred and twenty-four chapters of Kitab kifayat al-tibb can be separated into two sections; the first on the science of treatment and the second arranged alphabetically in tables on nutrition and specific remedies. The former part discusses the theory behind the fields of anatomy and physiology in medicine, and is followed by a list of individual illnesses, their causes, symptons and treatment. Kitab II (part two) is an unrecorded text.

A note found within the present manuscript dated Leipzig, Germany, 1940, by the Norwegian medical historian Adolf Fonahn (d.1940), mentions that the text was composed by order of "Sultan Abu'l Harith Malikshah."