Zayn al-Din Jurjani (d.1136 AD), Zakhirah-yi Khwarazmshahi ('Treasury dedicated to the king of Khwarazmshahi'), an encyclopaedia of medical science, books I (part II), II and III, signed by Muhammad Ibn al-Husain Abi’l-Qasim, Transoxiana, Chaghatayid, dated 666-7 AH/1267-68 AD

Persian manuscript on paper, 181 leaves plus 5 flyleaves, 27 lines to the page, written in naskh script in black ink, remargined in the Safavid period, f.58a with illuminated roundel enclosing dedication to Sultan Ghiyath al-Dunya wa'l-Din, following page with start of book II with large heading in black eastern Kufic script, chapter headings in large black thuluth script throughout, f.111a with further dedicatory roundel, following page beginning book III with large and bold eastern Kufic title, red morocco binding with tooled cartouches of animals and trees, with flap

This is a fine and early example of al-Jurjani's Zakhirah-yi Khwarazmshahi, comprising the second half of volume I: the definition and utility of medicine; composition, structure, and powers of the human body; volume II: health and disease; causes and symptoms of disease; accidents of the body, and volume III: the preservation of health.

The manuscript contains two illuminated shamsas giving the name of Ghiyath-al-Din, who is probably the Chaghatayid ruler Baraq, Ghiyath-al-Din, son of Yesun Du’a, son of Mo’etuken, who reigned from 1266-71 in Transoxania, and Turkestan, the period during which this manuscript was produced (over two years, from 666-7 AH/1267-68 AD). The Chaghatayids were related to the Ilkhanids in Persia, but were less directly under Islamic influence, and retained their tribal and nomadic ways for longer. For more on the Chaghatayids see E. Bosworth, The New Islamic Dynasties, Edinburgh, 1996, pp.248-9.

The Zakhirah consists of ten books (kitab), which are enumerated in the preface, and to each of which is prefixed a full table of numerous subdivisions termed Guftars and Babs. They are as follows: 1. Definition and utility of medicine; composition, structure, and powers of the human body; II. Health and disease; causes and symptoms of disease; accidents of the body; III. Preservation of health. IV. Diagnosis of diseases; crisis and prognosis; V. Fevers, their various kinds, their symptoms and treatment; VI. Local diseases and their treatment; VII. Tumours and ulcers etc.; VIII. The care to be taken of the external parts of the body, hair, skin, nails etc.; IX. Poisons and antidotes; X. Simple and compound medicaments.

See also C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, Oxford, photolithographic reprint 1966, pp.466-8.