An Alchemical Compilation of the Thirteenth Century , A.T). 
By H. E. Stapleton, B.A,, B.Sc. (Oxon), M.R.A.S., Indian Educational Service, 
and R. F. Azo, Instructor in Arabic, Board of Examiners' Office, Fort William. 
A. Introduction. 
In a previous paper an account was given of an Eleventh Century treatise on 
Alchemy that had been found at the end of a collection of manuscript tracts on this 
science in the Eibrary of His Highness the Nawab of Rampur {Mem. Asiatic Soc. 
Bengal, Vol. I, No. 4, pp 47 — -70). Since then some considerable progress has been 
made in the study of the contents of the volume, but from a variety of reasons — chiefly 
the absence of one of us from Calcutta — our progress has been slow, and we have, 
therefore, considered it advisable to publish a preliminary statement regarding the 
various items of this important collection of alchemical treatises. 
MS. No. 16 is a volume of 133 folios measuring in its present state 22-8 x 15-2 mm., 
the area of actual writing varying between 17-0 x 9-5 mm. and 14-5 x 7-5 mm. There 
are 19 lines to the page. For the first 52 folios the MS. is written in a 9th Century 
(A.H.) Naskhl hand, then follow 32 in neat Nasta‘liq of the same date ; after which 
follow 9 of the same Naskhl handwriting as at the commencement of the book. The 
rest of the book seems to have suffered badly by replacement. Folios 94 to 100 are 
in a careless and very recent Nasta‘liq, then follow 27 folios of the original Naskhl and 
the volume concludes in the middle of the treatise entitled the ‘ Ainu-s-San c ah with 
6 folios of the careless Nasta‘liq previously mentioned. 
Only an incomplete index is found at the commencement of the MS., but it is 
sufficient to show that a considerable number of pages have disappeared from the end. 
The fragment runs as follows, omitting certain numbers which apparently have no 
connexion with either present or former pagination : — 
(1) The first process of the c Great Gate’ of the Ta‘widhu- 1 - Hakim (Amulet 
of Hakim). 
(2) A Chapter from the Abridgment of the Ta ( widfhu-l-Hakim. 
(3) A Chapter on c the preparation of the ‘ Water of Eggs ’ by our Master, 
the holy Imam Ja'far As-Sadiq. Peace be on him ! ’ 
(4) The Book (entitled) the ‘Ainu-s-San‘ah. 
(5) (Extract) from the Book Mujarradat (Aphorisms) of Plato. 1 
1 There is a Kit iibu-l- Mujarradat of Jabir recorded in the ioth Sect, of the Fihrist (Fliigel’s edition, p. 356, 1 . 8), and 
later there is mention of a monograph by Jabir, entitled Kitab MusaTxhahat Aflatitn, the ‘Beliefs of Plato,’ presumably 
with reference to alchemy. 
