Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Delhi Persian 1135 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Miscellaneous mystical works and extracts, 7 works (a-g)

Contents

Summary of Contents: Collection of multiple works on Ṣūfī didactic treatises, along with genealogy and koranic exegesis. Not dated, although several tracts are individually dated to the beginning of Emperor Bahādur Shāh I’s reign, in the former southern frontier cities of Aurangabad and Burhanpur, and completed by scribes from Sihrind/Sirhind, associated with the Mujaddidīyah branch of the Naqshbandīyah Sufis. Worm-eaten and water-stained; fragile.
1. ff. 1-27r

Item a.

Collection of forty brief letters on mystical doctrine and practice by the seventeenth-century Sunnī saint, ʿAbd al-Jalīl Lakhnavī Ṣiddīqī. One of the letters is addressed to the contemporary Naqshbandī saint, Aḥmad Farūqī Sihrindī (d. 1034/1624).

Lacunae after the first folio.

Not dated.

Language(s): Persian
2. ff. 27v-58r

Item b.

Compilation of the religious discourses of the Chishtī saint Bakhtiyār Ūshī (d. 633/1235-6) by his pupil and khalīfah, Farīd al-Dīn Masʿūd Ganj Shakar (d. 664/1265).

Dated colophon: completed by Sayyid ʿAtīq Allāh Sihrindī at Burhānpūr, 29 Shaʿbān 1117/16 December 1705.

Language(s): Persian & Arabic
3. ff. 59v-68r

Item c.

Tract on the genealogies of fourteen Ṣūfī lineages traced back to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib through Ḥasan Baṣrī and his two pupils, Ḥabīb ʿAjamī and ʿAbd al-Vāḥid ibn Zayd. The author is not named.

Dated: 1 Ramaz̤ān 1117/17 December 1705.

Language(s): Persian
4. ff. 68v-76v
Language(s): Persian

Item d.

Untitled mystical allegory relating the story of a king named ʿAql (mind) ruling the land of Badan (body). His son, Dil (heart), conceives of the desire to possess the water of life. This work describes the adventures of Prince Dil and his courtier, Naz̤ar (speculation).

The author is not identified.

Not dated.

5. ff. 76v-79v
Language(s): Persian

Item e.

Untitled brief treatise setting out the beliefs and practises expected of a novice on the path of Sufism, hoping to join the Naqshbandīyah.

The author is not identified.

Not dated.

6. ff. 79v-90
Language(s): Persian

Item f.

Treatise advising ṣūfī novices on the relative value of worldly existence and the blessings of the hereafter, divided into two aṣl, by an unnamed author.

Dated colophon: completed by Muḥyī al-Dīn at Aurangabad in the first regnal year of Emperor Bahādur Shāh I, that is 1119/1707.

7. ff. 94-118
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item g.

Fragment of a ṣūfī commentary on the ninety-third chapter of the Qurʾān (Sūrah Z̤uḥá), usually entitled Miṣbāḥ al-ʿāshiqīn, by Bahāʾ al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn Ibrāhīm, a descendent of the saint Ḥamīd al-Dīn Nāgawrī (d. 643/1245-6).

The present copy omits the title and all āyāt after the first two.

Dated colophon: completed by ʿIshq Allāh ibn ʿĀrif Sihrindī Qādirī at Burhānpūr, 11 Shaʿbān 1119/7 November 1707.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: 118 ff.
Dimensions (leaf): 207 × 111 mm.
Dimensions (written):

Hand(s)

History

Origin: 29 Shaʿbān 1117-11 Shaʿbān 1119 (16 December 1705 - 7 November 1707) AH Aurangabad and Burhanpur, Deccan ; 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_f078r

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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