حسین مسرت

This article introduces approximately forty titles of unique lithographed books held in the Vaziri Library in Yazd. The books are alphabetically listed, along with bibliographical and manuscript analysis.

After introducing seven existing manuscripts of the book “ Jameh al-Iftiraq wa al-Ittifaq le-San’at al-Teryaq “ written by Nur al-Din Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Abd al-Azim Ansari al-Motabbeb (seventh century) and listing its 35 chapters, the author identifies the oldest manuscript of it available in the Ministerial Library of Yazd. This manuscript, dated back to 670, was copied from the original manuscript. The book discusses the recognition of teryaq (opium) and its medicinal and antidotal properties, and also mentions in its fifth chapter scholars of medical science that are useful in understanding the ancient medical history of Iran.

This article describes a manuscript of the book Zubdat al-Hisab written by Seyyed Mohammad Saleh Modarres Tabatabaei Yazdi Ardakani, a 11th century scholar. After describing his biography and introducing his works, the author provides an extensive explanation about the content of the book “Zubdat al-Hisab in the science of mathematics” and its codicology; especially the version of the Yazd Ministerial Library, which is in the author’s handwriting and the oldest existing version of the book

A brief history of the Reyhanat ur-Rasoul Cultural Foundation in Yazd, which was founded by Mirza Mohammad Kazemaini, a contemporary Yazdi scholar. Writing the Encyclopaedia of Yazd Prominent Figures in 1378 SH. and Yazd Legends in 1383 SH. and several other reference books, establishing and expanding a specialized library of Yazd studies, a document center and its manuscript section the list of which has been published, and then dedicating the entire collection to Imamzadeh Jafar in Yazd along with several other collections such as the collection of documents, coins, old seals, stamps, matches, etc., which are in that collection are among this foundation’s background. In this article, a list of this foundation’s cultural activities from 2004 onwards and some of the exquisite manuscripts are reviewed