Delhi Persian 1166 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)
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India Office Library
Miscellaneous works on Sufism, 9 works (a-i)
Contents
Summary of Contents: Collection of miscellaneous Persian and Arabic works on Sufism and doctrine, comprised of various tractates assembled from different sources of different dates. Volume not dated; items h (datable to the late fifteenth century) and i (datable to the late seventeenth century) are exceptional in their antiquity, whereas the majority of materials belong to the early nineteenth century. Variable naskh and nastaʿlīq hands. Loose paper wrapper (ledger labelled Acquittance Roll for September 1839, Calcutta), watermarked (initials VEIC, E WISE, no date); torn and stained. Lacks binding. Stamped foliation. Folios detached and unbound; cropped, wormhole damage, later repairs. Condition, extremely fragile.1. ff. 1r-24vItem a.
Collection of Arabic homilies for Sunni Friday prayers and selections of Qur’an sūrahs by an unknown compiler.
Defective at beginning and end.
Not dated at end.
Neat Indian naskh, with Persian comments in rough shikastah in red ink transcribed around main text.
Language(s): Arabic2. ff. 25v-32rItem b.
Ṣūfī treatise on the existence of God based on the properties of light by an unnamed author.
Not dated at end.
Language(s): Persian and Arabic3. f. 32rItem c.
Untitled extract from an Arabic treatise ascribed to Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240).
Not dated at end.
Language(s): Arabic4. ff. 32v-34rLanguage(s): Persian and ArabicItem d.
Extracts of a qiṭʿah poem from an Arabic treatise entitled ʿAqlat al-mustawfī ascribed to Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240).
Not dated at end.
Further verses and annotations added in alternating bold and miniscule nastaʿlīq at end.
5. ff. 37r-41rLanguage(s): Persian and ArabicItem e. Previously incorrectly labelled as item f by Levy.
Treatise on z̲ikr or the recollection of God through Arabic prayers and invocations, by an unnamed author.
Not dated at end.
Arabic passages overlined.
Title: Barzakh-i MuḥammadīyahTitle: برزخ محمّديّه6. ff. 41r-47rLanguage(s): Persian and ArabicItem f.
Ṣūfī treatise ascribed to Khvājah Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī Sijzī (d. 633/1236).
Not dated at end.
Title: Vujūd al-ʿāshiqīnTitle: وجود العاشقين7. ff. 47v-48rLanguage(s): Persian and ArabicItem g.
Excerpt of verses from an unidentified treatise ascribed to ʿAyn al-Quz̤āt Hamadānī, that is, Abū al-Maʿālī ʿAyn al-Quz̤āt ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī Miyānagī Hamadānī, who was hung in 525/1131.
The text ends abruptly, leaving the ultimate couplet incomplete.
Not dated at end.
8. ff. 51v-83rLanguage(s): Persian and ArabicItem h.
Account of the miracles ascribed to the Naqshbandī saint, Khvājah Naṣīr al-Dīn ʿUbayd Allāh Aḥrār (d. 895/1490), by an unnamed author.
The work contains many historically and socially noteworthy details.
Not dated at end.
Early naskh-nastaʿlīq hands in the late-fifteenth-century style alternating with a more developed nastaʿlīq hand (ff. 70v-74v, 76r-83r).
Annotations in margins cropped.
Title: Risālah dar khavāriq-i ʿādātTitle: رساله در خوارق عادات9. ff. 84v-118rLanguage(s): Persian and ArabicItem i.
Extract from the Persian commentary on the Arabic Ṣūfī treatise, Risālat al-tasvīyat bayna al-ifādat va al-qubūl, treating the unity of God, by the Indian Ṣūfī saint, Shaykh Muḥibb Allāh Ilāhābādī (d. 1058/1648).
The present copy places the introduction at the end (f. 108v).
Colophon at end not dated (f. 118r): completed by Muḥammad Iḥsān. Datable to the late seventeenth century.
Annotations and corrections in margins cropped in parts.
Fluent nastaʿlīq hand with Arabic passages in scribal naskh.
Physical Description
Form: codexExtent: 118 ff.Dimensions (leaf): 216 × 152 mm.Dimensions (written):Hand(s)
History
Origin: 15th-19th centuries CE ; IndiaRecord 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 E207/14_f065rAvailability
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Bibliography
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