Delhi Persian 1146 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Mystical commentary entitled Mashārib al-az̲vāq on the famous Arabic carousing qaṣīdah of Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn Fāriz̤ Miṣrī (d. 632/12) by the Kubrāvī Ṣūfī, poet and scholar, Sayyid ʿAlī ibn Shihāb al-Dīn al-Hamadānī, known as Amīr al-Kabīr (d. 786/1385).

Not dated at end.

This work is preceded on folio 2r by the fragment of another Persian text (damaged), indicating the volume is defective at the beginning.

Item b.

Untitled treatise reporting on a gathering or majlis in which the Kubrāvī Ṣūfī, poet and scholar, Sayyid ʿAlī ibn Shihāb al-Dīn al-Hamadānī, known as Amīr al-Kabīr (d. 786/1385), expounds on the main topic of discussion, the etymology and orthography of the toponym Hamadān (Hamaz̲ān), citing several early authorities with quotations.

The work was submitted to Sayyid Jalāl Bukhārī, identifiable as the contemporary Indian saint, Sayyid Jalāl al-Dīn Ḥusayn Bukhārī, known as Makhdūm Jahāniyān Jahāngasht (d. 1383).

Not dated at end.

Item c.

Untitled treatise on Ṣūfī interpretations of dreams and visions. Although the work does not record the author’s name, it is attributed in a subscription following the conclusion to the Kubrāvī Ṣūfī, poet and scholar, Sayyid ʿAlī ibn Shihāb al-Dīn al-Hamadānī, known as Amīr al-Kabīr (d. 786/1385).

Not dated at end.

Item d.

Untitled treatise by an unnamed author on the various degrees of human knowledge of God.

Not dated at end.

Item e.

Untitled treatise by an unnamed author guiding an unidentified friend on the tenets and practice of Sufism.

The author quotes substantially from the Qurʾān and ḥadīs̲ as authorities.

Not dated at end.

Item f.

Untitled treatise by an unnamed author setting out a highly allusive and nebulous discourse on the life of a Ṣūfī. Not dated at end.

This work is followed by another untitled fragment (f. 28r) from the conclusion of a larger text on the Islamic faith by an unnamed author. Not dated at end.

Item g.

Discursive homiletic treatise on righteous conduct for the Ṣūfī by an unnamed author, variously entitled Risālah-'i Amīrīyah and Risālah-'i durvīshīyah[sic] .

Not dated at end.

Crude contemporary illuminated sar lawḥ comprised of a central half turunj and two quarter turunj either side; pigments oxidised.

Item h.

Discursive treatise, variously entitled Risālah-'i Amīrīyah and Risālah-'i fatuvvatīyah (?), on Ṣūfī interpretations of brotherhood, examined in detail through lexical and doctrinal explorations of the Arabic term akhī (my brother), by the Kubrāvī Ṣūfī, poet and scholar, Sayyid ʿAlī ibn Shihāb al-Dīn al-Hamadānī, known as Amīr al-Kabīr (d. 786/1385).

Not dated at end.

Item i.

Collected fragments of incomplete mystical works by the Kubrāvī Ṣūfī, poet and scholar, Sayyid ʿAlī ibn Shihāb al-Dīn al-Hamadānī, known as Amīr al-Kabīr (d. 786/1385), assembled posthumously by Burhān [al-Dīn] ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad.

Not dated at end.

Item k.

Untitled letter on various points of Ṣūfī doctrine and ethics, by an author referred to as Ḥaz̤rat Amīr and addressed to Shaykh Muḥammad Shāh ibn Sulṭān Khān, possibly identifiable as the Bahmanid prince of the same name (d. 776/1375).

Not dated at end.

Item l.

Untitled Arabic treatise on Sufism by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Item m.

Ṣūfī treatise setting out ten principles for the contemplative life by an unnamed author, possibly derived from the Arabic work Uṣūl al-ʿasharīyah al-Najmīyah of Najm al-Dīn Aḥmad Kubrá (d. 618/1221) without acknowledgement.

Last page (f. 58r) copied by different and probably later hand, possibly indicating that an intermediate portion of text is missing.

Not dated at end.

Crude illuminated headpiece consisting of a horizontal band of blue ground covered with painted arabesque; pigments oxidised.

Item n.

Ṣūfī treatise by an unnamed author on the intellect and its attributes, with substantial quotations from the Qurʾān and ḥadīs̲ as authorities.

Not dated at end.

Item o.

Untitled discursive account by an unnamed author, setting out eight principles on righteous conduct for the Ṣūfī traced back to Shaykh Abū al-Qāsim Junayd ibn Muḥammad Baghdādī (d. circa 298/910).

The work also contains many autobiographical references linking the author to service in the armies of Sulṭān Aḥmad, under the command of ʿAlī Ināq. The ruler may be the same as the Īl-Khān, Nikola Tagūdār/Tegüder/Tögöldör Khān (d. 683/1284), who took the name Sulṭān Aḥmad after conversion to Islam. This is followed by accounts of dreams, penance, and the attachment of followers (mentioning a certain Sharaf al-Dīn Saʿd Allāh) after 686/1287.

The work may be defective at the end.

Not dated at end.

Interlinear and marginal annotations.

Item p.

Arabic Ṣūfī treatise interspersed with Persian verses by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Item q.

Discursive Ṣūfī treatise by an unnamed author on remembrances or z̲ikr of the divine, illustrated by quotations from many named authorities.

Not dated at end.