Kitb all mushkilt al-Shudhr

The alchemist Ab l-asan Al b. Ms al-Anr al-Andalus, known as Ibn Arfa Ras (fl. 6th/12th century) is the author of Shudhr al-dhahab (The Splinters of Gold), one of the most famous poetry collections of Arabic alchemy, which has been the object of no less than thirteen commentaries. The numerous manuscripts of Shudhr al-dhahab and its commentaries have been read and copied for more than 700 years in various parts of the Islamicate world, from Morocco to India. The very first commentary on Shudhr al-dhahab was composed by the author Ibn Arfa Ras himself. It was transmitted by his disciple Ab l-Qsim Muammad b. Abd Allh al-Anr under the title Kitb all mushkilt al-Shudhr (The Unraveling of the Difficulties of The Splinters) and is extant in at least 31 manuscripts, of which 27 have been taken into account for this critical edition. This book provides the first edition of Kitb all mushkilt al-Shudhr, along with an Arabic-English glossary of its alchemical terminology.