Reading Ptolemy’s Almagest in the Ilkhanate - Remarks on Marginalia in Books I and II of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī

This paper examines a set of marginal annotations encountered in Ilkhanid manuscripts of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s (d. 672/1274) Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī. This recension of Claudius Ptolemy’s prominent astronomical compendium, the Almagest, was composed while al-Ṭūsī resided at the Ismāʿīlī citadel of Alamūt and later studied at the Marāgha observatory under Mongol patronage; over time, it became the principal medium through which the Almagest was studied in the eastern Islamicate world, effectively replacing the uncommented base text. Today, the Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī survives in more than 170 Arabic manuscripts, as well as in Persian and Sanskrit translations, and through a rich body of summaries and super-commentaries. In this paper I wish to offer some observations on the kind and purpose of marginal annotations that were already present in copies of the Taḥrīr during al-Ṭūsī’s lifetime. I focus this analysis on the marginalia to Books I and II as they are transmitted through Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Rabīʿ al-Zarkashī, the scribe of the multiple-text manuscript Tehran, Sipahsālār, 4727, a copy finished on 21 Rajab 671 (11 February 1273). A transcription of these annotations, along with comparative references indicating their presence or absence in other <br/>manuscripts, is provided in the appendix.