48 MESSRS. H. R. STAPLETON AND R. F. AZO 



Museum, that were edited and translated by Duval, and published in Vol. II of Berthelot's 



A. 



La Chimie an Moycn Age \ and (e) the 10th Section of the Mafdtlhu-l- l Ulum of 

 Al-Khwarazmi, written c. 976 A.D. 



The last-named author may indeed be the Qadhi Abu 'Umar al-Khwarazmi 

 mentioned in the short list of alchemical experts that is given at the end of the Introduction 

 to the 'Ainu-s-San'ak. This list, which mentions no alchemist later than the 10th century, 

 also contains aname,Andria al-Hakim,that only seems to occur elsewhere in the alchemi- 

 cal section of the Fihrist. 



The present treatise forms part of a MS. volume of alchemical essays in the Library 

 of His Highness the Nawab of Rampur, and from the colophons at the end of some of 

 the other treatises in the volume, the original MS. seems to have been mainly the work of 

 a copyist travelling* in Armenia {e.g.", to the town of Siwas) and Mesopotamia (Baghdad 

 and Mosul) in 1283 A.D. ('682 A.H.). The following may be quoted as an example: — 



.3 Ski) ( j) j J*.3»v« JJ ^lc <b*xwj xiltJj ^fc^l * A ** J'^-w i_Jk^aii/« «LJ| lLju»j a LaJI .*>Si 



., Finished at Madinatu-s-Salam in the middle of Shawtvdl in the year 682, by the hand 

 of Muhammad ibn Abi-1-Fath ibn Abi Mansur ibn Muhammad al-Kashi. May God par- 

 don him and his parents! " 



The volume, however, has suffered much damage from replacement, and probably no 

 part of the MS., as we now find it, is earlier than the 15th century. 1 Aboutjhalf the book— 

 the older portion— is written in a clear Naskhi hand, while the remainder, which is interpo- 

 lated in the middle of the Naskhi, is in Nasta'liq. 



From the fragment of an index, it is evident that our treatise was originally followed 

 by four other alchemical pamphlets, but these have all disappeared and the ' Ainu- s- San' ah 

 now occupies the last 19 pages of the MS. It is unfortunately incomplete, the sixth and 

 seventh chapters, together with a portion of the fifth, being missing ; but even in its 

 mutilated state, it forms a welcome addition to our previous knowledge of alchemical 

 methods and equipment in the nth century. Owing to the incompleteness of the treatise, 

 nothing more than an analytical translation has been attempted ; but this has enabled 

 much of the superfluous matter in the Introduction and subsequent chapters to be removed. 

 The corresponding Arabic text will be found at the end of the Analysis. 



Special attention may be drawn to two points in connexion with the 'Amu-s-San'ah. 

 The first is the evidence supplied by Chapters III and IV of the great importance that was 

 attached to weights in chemical operations 700 years before the time of Black and Lavoisier. 

 The second is the remarkable similarity that has been observed between the drawings and 

 description of the Uthal (Aludel) and its furnace, as given on the last page of the 

 Rampur MS., with those contained in the Summa Perfcdionis Magisterii of the author 

 whom M. Berthelot terms the Latin Jabir. So striking indeed is the resemblance between 

 the two that we feel compelled to add a few words of criticism regarding M. Berthelot's 



1 Dr. Ross, of the Calcutta Madrasah, has been good enough to examine the volume for us, and confirms this date. 



