Delhi Persian 969 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Untitled treatise by an unnamed author, informally labelled Bīst ṭāriq-i ṣūfīyah, setting out in twenty entries Ṣūfī usage or iṣṭilāḥ of terms with theosophical importance, citing several well-known Ṣūfī authorities.

Jadval ruling and over-lining of important terms in red by a later hand.

Annotations in margins.

Not dated at end.

Item b.

Untitled work by an unnamed author explaining significant Ṣūfī terms extracted from the unidentified works of the early Ṣūfī saint and author, Sulṭān Abū Saʿīd ibn Abū al-Khayr (d. 440/1049).

Not dated at end.

Item c.

Untitled collection of aphorisms on Ṣūfī concepts attributed to a certain Khvājah Khvurd, whose name Levy incorrectly reads as Khvājah Javād.

Not dated at end.

Item d.

Abridged extracts from a Ṣūfī work identified as Miṣbāḥ al-arvāḥ and attributed in concluding remarks to Shaykh Maḥmūd Shabistarī (d. 720/1320), author of the Gulshan-i rāz.

The present extracts consist of four bāb.

Dated colophon (f. 46v): completed by Muḥāsin ʿAlī and others on Thursday, 16 Rajab RY 2 of Aḥmad Shāh ibn Muḥammad Shāh (1162)/2 July 1749.

Beneath the colophon is an inverted portion of a Hindavī text labelled Gīt, consisting of four abyāt ending with the same rhyme scheme, mentioning Navvāb Khānkhānān and his son, along with several Indic deities. The beginning of each line is damaged.

Item e.

Untitled extract from a larger unidentified Ṣūfī treatise on the esoteric arts, consisting of four categories: 1) hīmiyā; 2) rīmiyā; 3) sīmiyā; 4) kīmiyā.

The work is focussed primarily on metempsychosis, transmigration, and spirit possession.

The text of the first folio is written obliquely and horizontally thereafter.

Not dated at end.

Added below is a brief, but incomplete, recipe for confectionary.

Item f.

Lunar hijrī menology of days of the month for the death or ʿurs (without mentioning year) of Ṣūfī shaykhs and saints.

The author is not mentioned.

Not dated at end.

Note at end on finger postures and mantras from Hindī or Sanskrit.

This work is followed by several other works, including: (f. 59v) a brief Arabic prayer written in the archaic bihārī script; (f. 60r) Arabic mukhammas by Shāh Mardān ʿAlī on religious and worldly subjects; (ff. 60v-61r) a Persian mas̲navī entitled Fāl-i Sikandarī; (f. 61v) note commenting on the malfūẓ of the saint Makhdūm Jahāniyān, that is, Sayyid Jalāl al-Dīn Ḥusayn Bukhārī (d. 1383), followed below by the inverted text of a draft letter to an unspecified addressee. Not dated at end.