Delhi Persian 1176 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Untitled collection of annotations or taʿlīqāt on mysticism by the famous Ṣūfī, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd Bukhārī, known as Khvājah Muḥammad Pārsā (d. 865/1460-1), compiled for the benefit of his anonymous disciples.

Not dated at end.

Valuation at beginning for three rūpyah. Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī with occasional shikastah flourishes.

Flyleaf preceding this work begins (recto) with a rough account of the volume’s contents labelled Fihrist-i rasāʾil, but breaks off after the ninth entry. On the verso is a quadrangular grid design of the popular invocation yā Kabīkaj repeated several times.

Item b.

Untitled Arabic commentary by an unnamed author on the prayer Ḥizb al-baḥr of Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shāz̲ilī (d. 656/1258).

The Arabic commentary is followed (ff. 14v-15v) by a section in Persian explaining the prayer’s powers and uses.

Not dated at end.

The prayer is written in red and the commentary in black, apparently by the same hand that transcribed item a.

Persian annotations written obliquely in margins in a miniscule shikastah hand.

Item c.

Incomplete collection of discrete works comprising:

1) Fragment of an unidentified Ṣūfī treatise (ff. 16r-51v) containing autobiographical references; defective at beginning. Not dated at end.

2) Brief collection of letters (ff. 51v-53r) ascribed to Aḥmad Ghazālī (d. 517/1123), brother of the Ghaznavid Sunni scholar and preacher titled Ḥujjat al-Islām, Abū Ḥāmid Ghazzālī (d. 505/1111). Not dated at end.

3) Untitled discursive treatise (ff. 53r-82r) in refined prose and poetry on Ṣūfī interpretations of ʿishq. Although the author is not named, it may be a reworking of the Savāniḥ of Aḥmad Ghazālī (d. 517/1123), brother of the Ghaznavid Sunni scholar and preacher, Abū Ḥāmid Ghazzālī (d. 505/1111). Not dated at end.

Item d.

Treatise on the senses, divided into ‘internal’ and ‘external’ phenomena, by an unnamed author. According to Arberry, the treatise may be the work of the poet and Ṣūfī leader, Nūr al-Dīn Niʿmat Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī al-Kirmānī, commonly known as Niʿmat Allāh “Valī” (d. 834/1431).

Not dated at end.

Dense annotations in margins.

Transcribed in a neat naskh hand.

Heavily annotated at beginning (f. 83r). Multiple octagonal seal impressions of owner named Naṣr Allāh (?) erased (see items i, m and p).

Item e.

Brief treatise on the soul’s relation to flesh by an unnamed author. According to Arberry, the treatise may be the work of the poet and Ṣūfī leader, Nūr al-Dīn Niʿmat Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī al-Kirmānī, commonly known as Niʿmat Allāh “Valī” (d. 834/1431).

Not dated at end.

Item f.

Brief treatise on austere exercises for the mortification of flesh by an unnamed author. According to Arberry, the treatise may be the work of the poet and Ṣūfī leader, Nūr al-Dīn Niʿmat Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī al-Kirmānī, commonly known as Niʿmat Allāh “Valī” (d. 834/1431).

Not dated at end.

Item g.

Treatise commenting on verses of the Qurʾān (24:35) relating to the knowledge of reality by an unnamed author. According to Arberry, the treatise may be the work of the poet and Ṣūfī leader, Nūr al-Dīn Niʿmat Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī al-Kirmānī, commonly known as Niʿmat Allāh “Valī” (d. 834/1431).

Not dated at end.

Item h.

Brief treatise on the declaration of divine unity figuratively used as a ‘broom’ or jārūb to sweep all ‘otherness’ the mind of the Ṣūfī by an unnamed author. According to Arberry, the treatise may be the work of the poet and Ṣūfī leader, Nūr al-Dīn Niʿmat Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī al-Kirmānī, commonly known as Niʿmat Allāh “Valī” (d. 834/1431).

Not dated at end.

Item i.

Extract from a larger treatise defining different grades of existence attributable to, according to Levy, Khvājah Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (d. circa 627/1230).

Not dated at end. Transcribed obliquely in early, neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

Octagonal seal impressions of owner named Naṣr Allāh (?) partially erased (see items d, m and p).

Item j.

Brief untitled Ṣufī allegorical tract by an unnamed author concerning parts of the body, which may have been extracted from a larger composition.

Miniscule shikastah in watery ink written obliquely.

Not dated at end.

Item k.

Collection on detached precepts on the theory and practice of Sufism and good kingship, occasionally ascribed to the Ghaznavid Sunni scholar and preacher titled Ḥujjat al-Islām, Abū Ḥāmid Ghazzālī (d. 505/1111). However, the present copy and others date the composition as late as 9 Rabīʿ al-Avval 9[19]/25 May 1513 and give the author’s takhalluṣ as “Yūsufī”, that is, Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf Qarashī the ṭabīb and munshīʾ at the court of the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Humāyūn (d. 963/1556) and author of the Badāʾiʿ al-inshāʾ among other works.

The layout of text continues from the main unmarked central frame to the outer margins, where it is written obliquely in a fine nastaʿlīq hand. See item l.

Not dated at end.

Item l.

Fragment of a collection of moral maxims and advice in rhyming prose or sajʿ attributable to Sayyid ʿAlī Hamadānī (d. 786/1384), although the work has previously been misattributed to ʿIjāz Ḥusayn.

Defective at end.

Not dated at end.

Written in a style and hand similar to that of item k, without the additional use of margins for text.

Item m.

Untitled treatise conventionally entitled Risālah-'i ʿAynīyah on the subject of divine unity and manifestations of divine glory. The author, named ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz-i Ḥasan, repeatedly refers to himself as the z̲arrah-'i nāchīz, and is likely to be identifiable with the Chishtī sheikh, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Ḥasan al-Dihlavī (d. 975/1567).

The work is intended as a reply to the Risālah-'i Ghayrīyah of Shaykh Amān Pānīpatī.

Not dated at end.

Transcribed in neat naskh (see items n, o, and p) with large sections of Arabic text over-lined in red.

Partial octagonal seal impression of owner named Naṣr Allāh (?) and the date [10]23 (?) embedded in a Qurʾān verse (al-Ṣaff, LXI:13), see items d, i and p.

Item n.

Exposition in ornate prose of esoteric concepts of divine love in Sufism by an unnamed author, doubtfully ascribed in the colophon to Shams-i Tabrīzī, that is, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī Tabrīzī (d. circa 645/1247), the well-known spiritual associate of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī.

Not dated at end.

Annotations in margins.

Naskh hand (see items m, o, and p).

Item o.

Treatise on aspects of Sufism by the Chishtī saint, Abū al-Fatḥ Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Ḥusaynī, known as Gīsūdarāz and Bandah'navāz (d. 825/1422).

Not dated at end.

Dense annotations in margin throughout.

Naskh hand (see items m, n, and p).

Item p.

Discursive treatise on the principles of Sufism by Shāh Muḥammad Fīrūz Ṣiddīqī.

Not dated at end.

Naskh hand (see items m, n, and o) begins to alternate between nastaʿlīq and naskh after folio 145v.

Erased octagonal seal impression, see items d, i and m.

Item q.

Untitled informal collection of research notes in Arabic and Persian with diacritic points often omitted, ranging variously from Naqshbandī to Shīʿī legal and doctrinal subjects.

Not dated at end.

The text is further annotated in the margins.

Weak shikastah āmīz hand in watery ink.