Delhi Persian 1177 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Treatise collecting the teachings and thoughts of the saint and founder of the Naqshbandī Ṣūfī order, Bahāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Bukhārī the Naqshband (d. 791/1388), compiled by Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓī al-Bukhārī, known as Muḥammad Pārsā (d. 822/1420), and written at the suggestion of companions.

Dated colophon (f. 31r): completed by Valīd Muḥammad, resident of Alvar, 18 Shaʿbān 1000/30 May 1592. The manuscript is the property of Shaykh […] ibn Shaykh Sulṭān Faqīr of Alvar.

Miniscule nastaʿlīq hand tending to shikastah. Occasional use of neat naskh for Arabic quotations.

Annotations in margins, occasionally dense.

Replacement folios (ff. 19, 22).

Possible lacunae after folio 27, based on disruptions to the Persian foliation.

Item b.

Untitled Ṣūfī treatise on the concept of spiritual love by an unnamed author, but attributed in the colophon to Khvājah Muḥammad Pārsā (d. 822/1420).

Dated colophon (f. 33v): completed 4 Muḥarram 1003/19 September 1594. Details of ownership (possibly the same as the scribe) obliterated.

Miniscule nastaʿlīq hand tending to shikastah, with neat naskh for Arabic quotations.

The hands are broadly consistent with those encountered in item a (replacements excepting).

Item c.

Treatise guiding aspirant novices on the Naqshbandī Ṣūfī path by Jāmī (d. 898/1492).

Dated colophon (f. 37r): completed in Muḥarram 1003/September-October 1594. Details of ownership (possibly the same as the scribe) obliterated.

Miniscule nastaʿlīq hand tending to shikastah, with neat naskh for Arabic quotations.

The hands are broadly consistent with those encountered in item a (replacements excepting).

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.

Not dated at end.

Heavily annotated in margins.

Miniscule nastaʿlīq hand tending to shikastah, with neat naskh for Arabic quotations. The hands are broadly consistent with those encountered in item a (replacements excepting). However, the nastaʿlīq hand changes in character after folio 40 till the end of the work.

Item e.

Testamentary dicta of the Ṣūfī saint ʿAbd al-Khāliq Ghujdavānī dictated to his son, and collected by an unnamed author.

Dated colophon (f. 61v): completed by Sayyid Sulaymān on Saturday, 18 Muḥarram 1007/21 August 1598. The manuscript is the property of Miyān Shaykh Sulṭān.

Miniscule nastaʿlīq hand tending to shikastah, with neat naskh for Arabic quotations. The hands are broadly consistent with those encountered in item a (replacements excepting). However, the nastaʿlīq hand changes in character after folio 53 till the end of the work.

Item f.

Untitled treatise advising aspirant novices on the Ṣūfī path by an unnamed author.

The work is defective at end. However, there is no gap in the Persian foliation.

Not dated at end.

Miniscule nastaʿlīq hand tending to shikastah. The hand is broadly consistent with that encountered in item a (replacements excepting).

Item g.

Untitled spiritual genealogy for a local branch of the Naqshbandī order, beginning with a certain Khvājah Sulaymān and traced back to ʿAbd al-Khāliq Ghujdavānī, by the author Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad.

Not dated at end.

Nastaʿlīq hand tending to shikastah. The hand is broadly consistent with those encountered in earlier replacement leaves.

Folio 72v shows that the scribe began the opening of another text, but did not get beyond the first line.

Folio 73r is inscribed with the date 12 Shaʿbān 1252 (?)/22 November 1836.