The Vatican al-Ṣūfī and the Library of Abū al-ḤasanʿAlī al-Ghāfiqī al-Shārrī in Thirteenth-century Ceuta

This article presents and contextualises an exquisite copy of the Arabic star atlas Kitāb ṣuwar al-kawākib al-thābita (‘Book of Configurations of the Fixed Stars’) made in Ceuta, in 1224 CE, for the library of a local scholar and philanthropist. The first part of the article discusses some of the manuscript’s distinctive illustrations, proposing some observations on how the figural repertoire associated with the constellations was transmitted and altered in the medieval Islamic West. The second part concentrates on the manuscript’s patron, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Ghāfiqī al-Shārrī, his library and his intellectual pursuits, shedding some new light on the scholarly milieu of thirteenth-century Ceuta.