Talk:Risālat al-Ṣūfī fī al-kawākib

The difference between manuscripts and texts
Hey ho @पाटलिपुत्र! Thanks for creating this article: great to have improved coverage of Arabic-language writing and manuscript production. Further to our discussion at Template talk:Arabic manuscripts, I'm just dropping a note here to say that this is a good example of where we need to conceptualise the difference between texts and manuscripts more clearly.

At the time of writing, the lead of this article says "Risālat al-Ṣūfī fī al-kawākib ("Epistle of al-Ṣūfī on the Stars"), also called "RAM al'Sufi", is a 13th century Arab manuscript, dated to circa 1225, and possibly originating from Baghdad."

But Risālat al-Ṣūfī fī al-kawākib is actually an eleventh-century poem, probably composed in Rayy.

What actually is from the thirteenth century, and possibly Baghdad, is the manuscript Tehran, Reza Abbasi Museum (RAM), M. 570, a manuscript in which the poem is written.

Possibly me writing this note is overkill, and our previous discussion has already sorted this out for you, but I thought this article was a good example of the distinction between text and manuscript at work.

I'm planning to make some edits to resolve this problem when I have time :-) Alarichall (talk) 10:22, 28 January 2024 (UTC)
 * You're absolutely right, thank you for making this distinction very clear (it's nice to have some knowledgeable editors who can actually bring something to such subjects!). Please copy-edit at will. Best पाटलिपुत्र  (Pataliputra)  (talk) 11:16, 28 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Earlier, regarding this comment at Kitāb al-bayṭara: "Clearly this isn't the only datable manuscript whose production can be localised to Baghdad" . It actually seems that Kitāb al-bayṭara (Cairo manuscript) is the only pre-Mongol illustrated manuscript which is securely attributable to Baghdad. In fact, from what I gather in the literature, it is suspected that most other illustrated manuscripts were rather made in Northern Iraq, the Jazira region or Syria. See " "We have certainly been cured of the tendency to attribute almost all Near Eastern examples of pre-Mongol painting to Baghdad, but even a more limited ascription of only four manuscripts to the Baghdad school (...) is based on the colophon in only one, the Cairo Kitab al-Baytarah, which was no doubt completed in Baghdad." (Grabar p.10). Best पाटलिपुत्र  (Pataliputra)  (talk) 11:16, 28 January 2024 (UTC)