Or 16210 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Contents: 1r, (supposed) title of text 5, Chihil Ḥadīs̲; 2r, verses from a masnavī poem, including a few lines in Arabic; 2r, Sharā’iṭ-i Islām va īmān: conditions of Islam and faith; 3r, Sharā’iṭ-i faqr: conditions of poverty; 3v, a saying ascribed to Satan; 4r, lines from a masnavī by the Sufi poet Awḥadī; 4v-5v, a passage on the nature of Sufism and the Sufi, emphasizing detachment from concerns and including a quotation from Ḥāfiẓ; 6r, four bayts from a masnavī by ‘Aṭṭār.

A tract on the benefits of the invocation (zikr) ‘Yā Allāh’, and other Divine Names.

The text is very incomplete, containing as it does only the first seventeen Names, down to Razzāq. In respect of Yā Allāh, the author invokes the authority of the Iranian Sufi sheikh Abū Isḥāq Kāzarūnī.

A record, more accurately known as Favā’id al-sālikīn, of the discourses of the Sufi spiritual master Quṭb al-Dīn Bakhtiyār Kākī (d. 633/1235), disciple of Mu‘īn al-Dīn Chishtī, founder of the Chishtiyya Sufi Order (see Storey PL I/2, pp. 943-4).

The first discourse includes dates from Zū l-Qa‘da 584/October-November 1188.

Copies of Favā’id al-sālikīn are very rare; FNKhF II/1 pp. 1304-5 records two manuscripts, both in Iran. Storey, loc. cit., records only two copies in Bankipur (Patna) and Calcutta, which are not recorded by Munzavī.

Dated 22 Rabī‘ al-avval 1211/2 October 1796.

The eleventh chapter, concerning orthography (rasm al-khaṭṭ) of Qavā‘id al-Qur’ān, a treatise on rules for recitation (tajvīd) of the Qur’ān according to the transmission of Ḥafṣ from ‘Āṣim. The author, Shaykh Yār Muḥammad ibn Khudādād Samarqandī, dedicated this work to the Shaybānid Uzbek Sultan ‘Ubayd Allāh Khān (reg. 939-46/1533-9). See Storey, PL I/1, pp. 41-2.

Other BL manuscripts of Qavā‘id al-Qur’ān: I.O. Islamic 1829 (IOL I, col. 1469), Delhi Persian 33a, and (Bābs 1-2 only) Add. 6631, f. 118r-123v (Rieu II, p. 803).

A collection of forty four Hadith (Prophetic Traditions), together with Persian translations. The compiler is named in the preface, on f. 77r, as Ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad Faz̤l Allāh Qādirī, called (mutakhalliṣ) Yaqīn.

This text is particularly badly damaged by worming.

Colophon, f. 89r. Completed on 20 Ṣafar of the regnal year 38, equivalent to 1211/26 August 1796.

A mystical treatise, in seven chapters (bāb), here called Risālah-’i Nafasīyah, on experiential knowledge (ma‘rifat) of God by means of knowledge of the soul and other created things. The work includes a description of the various aspects and faculties of the human soul.

In an inscription on f. 90r the author is named as Sayyid Muḥammad Ṣūfī. The information in the owner’s inscriptions in this manuscript, however, is far from reliable, and the title is given as Risāla-’i nafasiyyah, which is certainly incorrect. Of the several works with the title Mir’āt al-muḥaqqiqīn that are listed by Munzavī in FNKhF II/1, pp. 1373-5), only that by ‘Abd al-Vahhāb Mujtahid Qazvīnī (loc. cit., p. 1374) comprises seven babs. It is possible that this is the work contained in the present manuscript, in which the author appears not to be named at all.

A compilation of wise sayings relating to Sufism and ethics, arranged under numerous headings by theme or subject. The author names himself as ‘Alī ibn Ḥusām al-Dīn, known as al-Muttaqī. He describes the sources of his work as comprising sayings of Khvājah ‘Abd Allah Anṣārī, Sayyid Ḥusaynī’s Nuzhat al-arvāḥ, Sa‘dī’s Gulistān, Jāmī’s Nafaḥāt al-uns, and ‘Alī Ṣafī’s Rashaḥāt-i ‘ayn al-ḥayāt.

Muttaqī’s treatise on ethics regarding men and women, Jarr al-sāqīl fī sulūk al-mā’īl, likewise is only known to survive in one manuscript: see FNKhF II/1, p. 1589. The same author also produced, as he explains in the preface to Javāhir-i s̲amīnah, a compilation in Arabic entitled Javāmi‘ al-kilam fī l-mavāżi‘ va l-ḥikam, described as containing 3000 proverbs, 500 quotations from the Qur’ān, 500 from Hadith, and other quotations from ‘the ancients’ (bāqī kalām-i salaf).

A description, probably taken from a work on poetics or inshā, of a rhetorical device known as mujammil al-z̤iddayn or z̲ū l-vajhayn: that is, a kind of amphibology whereby a poet or letter-writer expresses what may equally be understood as either of two opposites, such as praise or criticism.

Title supplied.