Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Delhi Persian 1173 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Miscellaneous works on Sufism, 3 works (items a-c)

Contents

Summary of Contents: Collection of miscellaneous Persian works on Sufism, comprised of heterogeneous parts from differing sources. Volume not dated; individual items dated (items b and c), 1052-11 Shavvāl 1086/1642-29 December 1675. Variable naskh, nastaʿlīq and shikastah āmīz hands. Continuous stamped foliation with discontinuous Persian foliation. Loose folded paper wrapper (ledger, probably from an Acquittance Roll, dated August [year missing], Calcutta), upper and lower parts missing, watermarked (initials VEIC, E WISE, 1831); torn, stained, and incomplete. Lacks original binding. Folios unbound; cropped, later repairs, stains, and wormholes. Condition, extremely fragile. Valuation notes and owners’ seals.
1. ff. 1r-32v

Item a.

Treatise apparently epitomising a larger unidentified work on Sufism, describing macrocosmic phenomena through microcosmic analogy, based on the theories of Ibn al-ʿArabī, here composed by the author ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad al-Nasafī (d. circa 661/1262).

The work consists of two bāb, each subdivided into three aṣl.

Not dated at end.

Varied nastaʿlīq hands.

Detached folded interleaf between folios 32-33, with the Arabic draft of a letter addressed to a certain General Muḥammad Ismāʿīl, not dated or signed.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic
2. ff. 33v-94v

Item b.

Commentary conventionally attributed to Vajīh al-Dīn ʿAlavī Gujarātī (d. 998/1590) writing on the Ṣūfī treatise Jām-i jahān numā ascribed to either to Muḥammad Shīrīn Maghribī (d, 809/1406-7) or Mīr Ghiyās̲ al-Dīn Manṣūr Shīrāzī (d. 948/1541), classifying the types and registers of existence and encounters with the divine.

Dared colophon (f.94v): completed 11 Shavvāl 1086/29 December 1675.

This copy contains two diagrams (ff. 43v, 52v-53r).

Novel form of compressed text within limited folio space in anticipation of the second diagram, with lines composed of oblique units of text stacked on top of each other in linear formation (ff. 49v-52v).

Annotations and corrections in margins.

Collation note at end.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic
3. ff. 95v-162r

Item c.

Commentary by the Ṣūfī saint, Valī ibn Mulūk Shāh al-Ṣiddīqī al-Qādirī (d. 998/1590), paraphrasing in Persian the Arabic work Risālat al-Ghaws̲̲īyah, conventionally ascribed to either Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (d. 561/1166) or, according to Brockelmann and supported by Arberry, to Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240).

Dated colophon (f. 162r), cut and pasted onto last folio: completed 1052/1642.

Awkward but legible nastaʿlīq and naskh hands.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: 162 ff.
Dimensions (leaf): 190 × 102 mm.
Dimensions (written):

Hand(s)

History

Origin: 1052-11 Shavvāl 1086 (1642 - 29 December 1675) AH ; 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 E207/1_f039r

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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