Kitāb al-Ṭīb

The treatise called “Kitāb al-Ṭīb” is a work composed by Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan b. Ibrāhīm al-Khāzin (living in 421/1030), dealing with aromatic substances. There are four known copies of this work, the oldest one (Princeton, Garrett, 174B) dated 590/1194 is incomplete and disorderly in its present situation. Rearranging this manuscript and clarifying the relationship between all extant manuscripts of the work seem necessary for a critical edition of it. Based on the repetition of a note referring to the contents and order of treatises in three codices, similarities in the colophon of them, different readings of same words in each of these manuscripts, as well as the text conflations, the most probable explanation is that the Princeton manuscript has been the basis of copying the other three manuscripts

Kitāb al-Ṭīb (The Book of Aromatics) composed by al-Khāzin (living in 421 A.H./1030 A.D.), is an Arabic treatise written in the fourth/tenth century containing a prologue and five chapters dealing with Simple Aromatic Substances (musk, amber, aloeswood, camphor) and including 23 recipes for making compound aromatics (al-Nadd, alʿŪd al-Muṭarrā, al-Lakhlakha, al-Ghālīya, al-Dharīra, al-Rāmik, al-Sukk and, Duhn Al-Bān). This article tries to prepare a critical edition of Kitāb al-Ṭīb based on the extant copies and considering the parallel texts. In addition to the edited text, the article contains the translation of the prologue to the treatise and a discussion about the title and author of it, while trying to shed light on the toponyms and ethnonyms used for the appellation of simple aromatics of different types.