Or 16268 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

A compilation of notices of more than 550 Muslim saints, arranged alphabetically, completed in 883/1478-9. By the famous Sufi poet and metaphysician Nūr al-Dīn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Jāmī.

For the author and his works, see Rypka et al., HIL pp. 286-8; Browne, LHP III, pp. 507-548; C. Huart and H. Massignon, ‘Djāmī’, EI2 II, pp. 421-2; ‘Alī Aṣghar Ḥikmat, Jāmī, Tehran 1320/1942; Fikrī Saljūqī, Khiyābān, Kabul 1343/1964; A‘lokhon Afsahzod, Ruzgor va osori Abdurrahmoni Jomī, Dushanbe 1980. (817-898/1414-1492), but based upon the Ṭabaqāt of ‘Abd Allāh Anṣārī. This copy contains a large number of annotations in the margins throughout.

On Nafaḥāt al-uns, translations and commentaries, and other manuscripts and printed editions of all these, see Storey, PL I/2, pp. 954. Other BL copies: Add. 7668, Add. 16717, Add. 16718, Add. 23539, Add. 15848, Or. 218, Or. 1362, Or. 5487 and Or. 8198 (both imperfect); and I.O. Islamic 394, 946, 1412, 1597 (defective), 2082, 2160, 3097, and 3118.

Begins: al-Ḥamd li-Llāh allazī ja‘ala marā’ī qulūb awliyā’ih majālī jamāl vajhih al-karīm va alāḥ minhā ‘alà ṣafāyiḥ vujūhihim lavāyiḥ nūrih al-qadīm

Ends: Rubā‘iyya fī tārīkh itmāmih Īn nuskha-’i muqtabas az anfās-i kirām * kazvay nafaḥāt-i ānat āyad ba-mashām / az hijrat-i Khayr-i bashar va Fakhr-i anām * dar hashtṣad va hashtād va sīvum gasht tamām / va l-ḥamd li-Llāh ‘alà l-itmām * va l-ṣalāt ‘alà Khayr al-anām * va ālih al-bararat al-kirām va l-salām

Other contents: f. 1r, 1v-5v, list of contents (mainly names); 6r-v, lines from a masnavī poem by Jamī; 7r, text of a Hadith on a supplication to be made when donning new clothes; and a poem in Ottoman Turkish in praise of Sultan Sulaymān (probably I, Qānūnī); 8r, 10th/16th or 11th/17th century library seal impression; f. 316v, an excerpt from a work by Jāmī’s student ‘Abd al-Ghafūr Lārī (d. 912/1506), headed Tarjuma-’i khuṭba; this is probably from his Ḥāshiya or commentary on Nafaḥāt al-uns (see Storey, loc. cit.).

Copied at Samarkand by ‘Abd al-Jalīl Yārkandī; completed on 9 Ramażān 974/20 March 1567.

Nasta‘līq. 21 lines. Medium beige paper, with waterstaining, mainly in margins, and small wormholes throughout. 316 folios. 272 x 168 mm.; text area 190 x 103 mm. Good contemporary Transoxiana binding, black leather cover faced with red; indistinct seal of binder: Mullā Shukr Allāh Khān (?) Ṣaḥḥāf.

Purchased from A al-Shakri, January 2006