Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Delhi Persian 1193 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Miscellaneous works on Sufism, 18 works (a-r)

Contents

Summary of Contents: Collection of miscellaneous works on Sufism. Not dated, datable to mid seventeenth century. Defective at end. Incomplete summary of contents added at beginning (pasted label on flyleaf before f. 1) and item h. Original folios cut and remounted with new margins along gutter, tightly rebound in IOL red half leather binding, stamp dated 11 Feb 1935. Faint stamped foliation and pencil foliation added subsequently. Seal impressions and ownership inscriptions partially erased at beginning and middle. Labels from the exterior of earlier bound covers (showing traces of marbled paper backing) remounted on the flyleaf before the first folio (item a).
1. ff. 1v-14r

Item a.

Untitled rationalist explanation of the miʿrāj, conventionally, though not necessarily correctly, attributed to Avicenna or Shaykh al-Raʾīs Abū ʿAlī Ḥusayn Ibn ʿAlī Sīnā (d. 1037).

Not dated at end.

Clear Indian taʿlīq transcribed obliquely until folio 5r and horizontally thereafter. From folio 11, the transcription switches to neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī with a few shikastah flourishes.

Invocations repeated (f. 1r): ‘Yā Kabīkaj’. Erased rectangular personal seal: Ghulām Aḥmad Khān 1182/1768-9.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic
2. ff. 15v-16v

Item b.

Untitled extract from an unidentified pharmaceutical work on the benefits of certain medicinal preparations.

Not dated at end.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic
3. f. 17r-17v

Item c.

Untitled pharmaceutical work on the benefits of certain medicinal preparations, identified only at the end as an extract from the Z̲akhīrah-'i Niẓām Shāhī.

Not dated at end.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic
4. ff. 19v-21r
Language(s): Arabic

Item d.

Unidentified brief Arabic work on optics by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

5. ff. 21v-30r
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item e.

Fragment of a treatise defining and demarcating Sufism from orthodox legalism and jurisprudential sciences, entitled Maqṣad al-aqṣá by the author ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad al-Nasafī (d. circa 661/1262).

According to Reuben Levy, this work is a Persian translation of Nasafī’s Arabic original by Kamāl al-Dīn Ḥusayn Khvārizmī (d. 838/1434-5), on the authority of Khvāndamīr’s Ḥabīb al-siyar (vol. III). However, this is not confirmed in the work itself.

The work consists of eight faṣl.

Not dated at end.

The work is translated by E H Palmer, Oriental Mysticism (Cambridge, 1867).

6. ff. 30r-52v
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item f.

Untitled treatise on Sufism, theology, and psychology, intended as an addendum to the Maqṣad al-aqṣá by the author ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad al-Nasafī (d. circa 661/1262), but forming a complete and independent work in itself.

The work lacks a formal introduction, beginning with the first bāb. It comprises a total of eight bāb and concludes with a khātimah.

The author is not named.

Not dated at end.

7. ff. 53v-54r
Language(s): Arabic

Item g.

Brief untitled treatise in Arabic by Bahāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad al-ʿĀmilī (d. 1031/1622).

Written in fine nastaʿlīq-i khafī with interlinear and marginal annotations in Arabic micrography.

Not dated at end.

Partially erased rectangular personal seal (f. 53r): Ghulām Aḥmad Khān 1182/1768-9.

8. ff. 55v-69r
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item h.

Treatise on Shīʿī eschatology, covering the resurrection, last judgement, and scenarios for subsequent existence by Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī (d. 672/1273-4).

The work is divided into 20 sections listed in the introduction.

Not dated at end.

Annotations in margins.

Written in fine nastaʿlīq-i khafī with interlinear and marginal annotations in Arabic micrography.

Folio 55r shows 1) a partially erased owner’s inscriptions and seal, probably from the reign of Emperor Muḥammad Shāh; 2) an incomplete summary of contents (compare with summary before item a)

9. ff. 70v-71v
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item i.

Selection of short extracts in Arabic on magical squares with diagrams (associated with Shaykh Zayn al-Dīn) and dreams (ʿAllāmah Kulaynī), as well as extracts from Persian works by Abū al-Qāsim Findarsagī (frequently mispronounced as Findariskī), the Rashaḥāt of Kāshifī, and the Zubdat al-Ḥaqāʾiq of ʿAyn al-Quz̤z̤āt [the Amīr Kabīr, Sayyid Muḥammad] Hamadānī.

Not dated at end.

10. ff. 72r-74v

Item j.

Untitled treatise on Sufism by Afz̤al al-Dīn Muḥammad Kāshī (d. 707/1307-8).

Not dated at end.

Annotation in margins.

Indian taʿlīq written obliquely until folio 73, switching to horizontal thereafter.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic
11. ff. 75r-77r
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item k.

Untitled dialectical treatise on Sufism by Afz̤al al-Dīn Muḥammad Kāshī (d. 707/1307-8).

Not dated at end.

Indian taʿlīq written in an alternating combination of horizontal and oblique sections.

12. ff. 77r-80v
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item l.

Ṣūfī treatise, erroneously titled Nafāʾis al-arqām here, on the subject of tawḥīd or divine unity by the commentator on the Gulshan-i rāz, Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd, known as Dihdār Fānī (1016/1607-8).

The work consists of two maṭlab.

Not dated at end.

Indian taʿlīq written in an alternating combination of horizontal and oblique sections.

13. ff. 80v-86v
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item m.

Incomplete fragment of an untitled Ṣūfī treatise on the nature and reality of the human soul, corporeal death, the characteristics of knowledge, and other subjects, by an unnamed author, attributed by Arberry to the commentator on the Gulshan-i rāz, Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd, known as Dihdār Fānī (1016/1607-8), whose works also feature on the same volume.

The work consists it ten faṣl listed in the introduction. However, the text ends abruptly in faṣl eight, omitting the whole of faṣl nine and ten.

Not dated at end.

Indian taʿlīq written in an alternating combination of horizontal and oblique sections.

14. ff. 88v-92v
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item n.

Ṣūfī treatise on the experience of vajd or ecstasy by the commentator on the Gulshan-i rāz, Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd, known as Dihdār Fānī (1016/1607-8).

Not dated at end.

Written in nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

15. ff. 92v-96r
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item o.

Untitled metaphysical Ṣūfī exploration on grades of existence and light, conventionally, though doubtfully, ascribed here to the famous philosopher and popular writer on logic, Zayn al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Jurjānī, known as Mīr Sayyid Sharīf (d. 816/1413).

An older deleted inscription attributes the work to Abū al-Barakāt Baghdādī.

Not dated at end.

Written in nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

This work (f. 95v) is followed by an unrelated and unidentified Ṣūfī anecdote or ḥikāyat.

16. ff. 96r-101r
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item p.

Brief untitled tractate on the concept and attributes of equity attributed in the heading to al-Davvānī, that is, Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Asʿad al-Davvānī (d. 908/1502-3).

The work is dedicated to the Āq-qūyunlu Turkmān ruler, ʿAz̤ud al-Dawlah Abū al-Muẓaffar Yaʿqūb Bahādur Khān, that is, Yaʿqūb ibn Uzūn Ḥasan (d. 896/1490).

The treatise comprises a muqaddimah, two maqālah, and a khātimah.

Not dated at end.

Written in nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

Annotations follow on folios 101v-102r, on rare and difficult words.

17. ff. 104v-130v
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Item q.

Ṣūfī treatise on knowledge of the universe and ego, by Afz̤al al-Dīn Muḥammad Kāshī (d. 707/1307-8).

The work is divided into four bāb.

Not dated at end.

Written in nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

Partially erased rectangular personal seal (f. 104r): Ghulām Aḥmad Khān 1182/1768-9.

18. ff. 131v-162v

Item r.

Fragment of an esoteric Ṣūfī treatise on attributes of the universe known through abstract conceptions of time, space, and motion, by Afz̤al al-Dīn Muḥammad Kāshī (d. 707/1307-8).

The work is defective at end and copied from a possibly corrupt source, due to lacunae left in the text.

Not dated at end.

Indian taʿlīq.

Annotations throughout.

This text is followed (f. 163r) by a brief elegiac qiṭʿah mentioning the deaths and martyrdoms for each of the Twelve Imams. On the verso are the workings out of abjad phrases with numerical values, and separately a statement of the manuscript’s ownership in red ink by the marḥūm or late Taḥsīn Ḥasan Khān ṣāḥib "Taḥsīn" takhalluṣ.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: 163 ff.
Dimensions (leaf): 229 × 152 mm.
Dimensions (written):

Hand(s)

History

Origin: 17th century CE ; 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 E207/10_f157r

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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