Delhi Persian 1162 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Arabic theological treatise on the catechism of divine unity attributed in the subscription to ʿAllāmah al-Davvānī, who may be the same as Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Asʿad al-Davvānī (d. 907/1501).

Not dated at end.

Neat, miniscule naskh.

Verses (ghazal) ascribed to the poet Ṣāʾib appended at end (f. 4v) by a later hand.

Item b.

Treatise on the supernatural powers of Ṣūfī saints concluding with the view that there is always a quṭb or leading (‘pole’) saint in the world at any one time by Yaʿqūb ibn ʿUs̲mān ibn Maḥmūd al-Ghaznavī al-Charkhī (d. 838/1434-5).

Some folios are disordered and lost.

Not dated at end.

Neat Persian naskh throughout, with some alternation to early nastaʿlīq.

Verses (ghazal and rubāʿī) ascribed to the poets Aṣafī and Ṣāʾib appended at beginning (f. 5r) by a later hand.

Item c.

Untitled commentary on a rubāʿī by the Ṣūfī saint, Abū Saʿīd ibn Abū al-Khayr by the theologian and author of a tafsīr of the Qurʾān, Yaʿqūb ibn ʿUs̲mān ibn Maḥmūd Ghaznavī Charkhī (d. 838/1434-5), a disciple of Bahāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad Bukhārī the Naqshband (d. 791/1388).

Dated colophon (f. 16r): completed by Ḥasan ibn Ḥusayn Ḥiṣārī, known as Bābā Shaykh Halghatavī (?), of the village of Kish (south of Samarqand), Shavvāl 992/October 1584.

Item d.

Rare untitled autobiography of Bahāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad Bukhārī the Naqshband (d. 791/1388) dictated to his disciple, the theologian and author of a tafsīr of the Qurʾān, Yaʿqūb ibn ʿUs̲mān ibn Maḥmūd Ghaznavī Charkhī (d. 838/1434-5), containing the saint’s spiritual genealogy to ʿAbd al-Khāliq Ghujdavānī.

The work was apparently written at the tomb of Sayf al-Dīn Bākharzī in Fatḥābād.

Dated colophon (f. 39r): completed 992/1584-5.

Neat s̲uls̲, naskh, and nastaʿlīq.

Verses (ghazal and mas̲navī) ascribed to the poet Ṣāʾib appended at end (f. 39v) by a later hand.