Delhi Persian 1167 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Ṣūfī treatise on conceptions of God, the universe, and man’s destiny in this world and the hereafter, by Shaykh Saʿd al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm Shabistarī (d. 720/1320).

The work consists of eight bāb.  

Dated colophon (f. 24v): completed 14 Jumādá II 1101/25 March 1690.

According to a detailed note (f. 1r), the work was copied from a manuscript corrected and partially written by the saint and scholar, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad "Jāmī", who dated it to the avāʾil (first ten days) of Jumādá II 862/April 1458. There is remarkable variation in the quality and fluency of the nastaʿlīq hand, occasionally tending to shikastah, indicating this is not the work of a professional scribe, but copied for private use.

Item b.

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 begins with the rare preface.

Not dated at end.

Multiple hands, ranging from a neat nastaʿlīq hand occasionally tending towards shikastah, to a rough Indian taʿlīq hand. Iron-rich ink changing to a less caustic medium on folio 46 onward.

Arabic annotations in margins, occasionally cropped.

Item c.

Arabic treatise on the relationship between logic and religious doctrine by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Annotations in margins; though cropped, a few have been folded in, revealing the extent of original margins prior to being cropped. Upper edge torn.

Extensive Arabic notes at beginning.

Item d.

Untitled extract from an Arabic treatise on Sunni tradition by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Item e.

Untitled anecdote on inter-sectarian debates on respective concepts of imamate selected from the maqālāt or maxims of Ḥāfiẓ ʿInāyat Allāh, alive at the time of writing.

Not dated at end.

Transcribed obliquely in a squat shikastah āmīz hand.

Item f.

Untitled Arabic treatise on diction in religious works by an unnamed author.

The work terminates with the mention of Miyān Shaykh Muḥammad, but it is not clear if he is connected with the composition of the work or with the scribe.

Not dated at end.

Transcribed obliquely in a squat shikastah āmīz hand.

Item g.

Untitled Ṣūfī treatise largely in Arabic, but interspersed sparsely with Persian, by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Transcribed obliquely in a squat shikastah āmīz hand.

Item h. Catalogued as no. 1287 by Storey, Arabic MSS in IOL, vol. i (1930), where it is incorrectly cited as Delhi Persian 1167g.

Extracts from the encyclopaedia of theosophical doctrine, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah, by Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240).

Not dated at end.

Transcribed in irregular alternating pages of oblique and horizontal squat shikastah āmīz by multiple hands.

The selection of passages is occasionally interrupted by comments or passages quoted from unidentified Persian works.

Item i.

Unidentified Arabic ghazal on religious themes mentioning the author’s name in the terminal verse, Muḥyī al-Dīn, that is, Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240).

Not dated at end.

Item j. Catalogued as no. 1394 by Storey, Arabic MSS in IOL, vol. i (1930), where it is incorrectly cited as Delhi Persian 1167h.

Incomplete copy of the Arabic Ṣūfī treatise ʿAqāʾid al-khavāṣṣ ascribed here to the Indian Ṣūfī saint, Shaykh Muḥibb Allāh Ilāhābādī (d. 1058/1648).

The work ends abruptly after the rubric for the sixteenth of the twenty-one daqāʾiq or points of detail (each enumerated) making up the original work.

Not dated at end.