Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Delhi Persian 1097 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Music in Islam, 8 works (a-h)

Contents

Summary of Contents: Miscellaneous collection of Arabic and Persian legalistic and theoretical works on the performance and audition of music in Islam. Not dated. Leather binding covered with combed marble papers, delaminating layers revealing texts in English print and Kayathi; detached spine along right edge. Fragile.
1. ff. 1v-6v

Item a.

Treatise favouring the lawfulness of listening to music in accordance with the principles of Islam, by Muḥammad Sālim.

The work consists of a muqaddimah, four vaṣl, and a khātimah.

Not dated at end.

Note at beginning (f. 1r) states the work was copied by Muḥammad Karīm Allāh.

Language(s): Persian & Arabic
2. ff. 7v-16v

Item b.

Treatise refuting the lawfulness of playing music in accordance with the principles of Islam, by Aḥmad al-Dīn.

Not dated at end.

Note at beginning (f. 7r) states the work was copied by Muḥammad Karīm Allāh.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic
3. ff. 17v-70

Item c.

Combination of three treatises on Ṣūfī doctrines regarding, firstly, the lawfulness of music, secondly, the unity of God and, thirdly, the prohibition of prostration in thankfulness in addition to supplications prescribed by law.

The untitled work does not state the author’s name.

Not dated at end.

Note at beginning (f. 17r) stating the work was copied by Muḥammad Karīm Allāh.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic
4. ff. 71v-77v
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item d.

Transcript of a fatvá or opinion delivered on the classification of musical instruments, deeming particular groups as permissible (such as drums) and others in contravention of Islamic principles (such as flutes).

The text is followed by copies of the seals and names of signatories, including Muḥammad Makhṣūṣ Allāh 11[0]2, Muhammad Karīm Allāh RY 27, Muḥammad Mūsá ibn Shāh Rafīʿ al-Dīn, Abū Saʿīd Aḥmadī, Mawlavī Qamar al-Dīn, Ḥasan ʿAlī, Muḥammad Karāmat ʿAlī, and many more.

Not dated at end.

Note at beginning (f. 71r) states the work was copied by Muḥammad Karīm Allāh.

5. ff. 80v-86v
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item e.

Arabic treatise on the audition of music according to Ṣūfī principles, endorsed at the beginning (f. 80r) as Uṣūl al-samāʿ by Shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn Zarrādī Samanāvī Dihlavī, the successor or khalīfah of Shaykh Niẓām al-Dīn Awliyāʾ.

Not dated at end.

Note at beginning (f. 80r) states the work was copied by Muḥammad Karīm Allāh.

This work is followed by another (ff. 87v-90v), a Persian fatvá or opinion on the lawfulness of certain musical instruments with lengthy quotations in Arabic (overlined in red).

Defective at end.

Not dated at end.

Note at beginning (f. 87r) states the work was copied by Muḥammad Karīm Allāh.

6. ff. 91r-100r
Language(s): Arabic

Item f.

Arabic treatise on the lawfulness of listening to music.

Not dated at end.

Note at beginning (f. 91r) states the work was copied for Muḥammad Karīm Allāh.

7. ff. 101r-112v
Language(s): Arabic

Item g.

Arabic treatise on the lawfulness of listening to music.

Not dated at end.

Note at beginning (f. 101r) stating the work was copied for Muḥammad Karīm Allāh.

8. ff. 113v-118
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item h.

Copy of an untitled treatise by Muḥammad S̲anāʾ Allāh ibn Jalāl al-Dīn Pānīpatī (d. 1225/1810) written in response to condemnatory remarks on music in an Arabic letter from a certain Muḥammad Sālār.

Not dated at end.

Note at beginning (f. 113r) states the work was copied by Muḥammad Karīm Allāh.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: 118 ff.
Dimensions (leaf): 216 × 152 mm.
Dimensions (written):

Hand(s)

History

Origin: 18th-19th centuries CE ; India

Record Sources

Based on unpublished description in Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the India Office Library, vol. 3. Available on British Library Digitised Manuscripts, manuscript number: MSS Eur E207/13_f022r

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card for admissions procedures contact British Library, Registering for a Reader Pass. Contact apac-enquiries@bl.uk for further information on the availability of this manuscript. For information on catalogues and ordering manuscripts see Finding and ordering Persian manuscripts in the British Library.

Bibliography

Funding of Cataloguing

BL


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