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Primary sourceDocument30 November 1094

Rhazes NLM Manuscript Colophon

Unknown 10th century scribe · 30 November 1094

The final page of an early Arabic manuscript copy of al-Razi's al-Hawi, dated by its scribe to 1094, held by the US National Library of Medicine.

A manuscript copy of al-Razi's al-Hawi, showing how his medical text was preserved and transmitted after his death.

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Handwritten Arabic manuscript page in black and red ink on aged yellowed paper, with a page number at the top. The script is written in several lines with red-ink headings and a red marginal mark, and the page appears to be a scan of the original manuscript.
Final page with colophon, manuscript of al-Hawi by al-Razi, copied 1094. US National Library of Medicine.

About this source

What it is

This is the last page of an early handwritten Arabic copy of al-Razi's al-Hawi. It was written out by an unnamed scribe who added a colophon noting the date he finished copying the text. It is now held by the US National Library of Medicine.

Why it matters

According to the library, this is their oldest volume and the third oldest Arabic medical manuscript known to survive. It shows how al-Razi's work was copied and passed down by hand for generations before printing existed, carrying his medical knowledge across the Islamic world.

Look closer

  • Why would a scribe bother to record the exact date he finished copying?
  • What does the survival of this single page tell us about how fragile old manuscripts can be?
  • Why might historians value a copy made almost two centuries after al-Razi's death as evidence of his work?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Al-Razi on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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