Or 16386 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

The al-Ḥiṣn al-ḥaṣīn min kalām Sayyid al-Mursalīn, a compilation of prayers derived from Hadiths of the Prophet, with an interlinear Persian translation. The Arabic original was compiled by the prolific religious scholar Abū l-Khayr Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Jazarī, commonly known as Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833/1429), of Damascus. He completed this work in 791/1389.

For the author see M. Ben Cheneb, ‘Ibn al-Djazarī’, EI2, III, p. 753. The Arabic text was published at Cairo in 1279/1862-3 and 1315/1897-8, at Algiers in 1328/1910, and at Calcutta in 1329/1911. An Urdu translation was printed at Delhi in 1871. The Lucknow edition of 1877 contains two commentaries: one in Arabic by ‘Alī al-Qārī, and another in Persian, entitled al-Ḥirz al-rasīn, by Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥibb Allah. Al-Nuskhat al-Jazariyya, as the Delhi edition of 1888 is called, contains a commentary in Arabic by Muftī Muḥammad Aḥsan and one in Persian by Zakariyyā Anṣārī.

Of the Persian translations, one was made by Abū Bakr ibn Muḥammad Bihrujī in 910/1505 for Maḥmūd Shah, ruler of Gujarat 863-917/1459-1511. The other, with a detailed commentary (254 folios in all), was completed in 996/1587 by Ḥājjī Muḥammad Kashmīrī. See I.O. Islamic 883 and 228 respectively (Ethé, IOL, I, cols. 1433-1434).

On some pages of the present manuscript a few letters of the Persian translation have been lost or made illegible by wear. Numerous notes and corrections in the margins.

Text begins: Basmala Lā ilāh illā Llāh ‘udda li-liqāyih Allāhumm ṣall ‘alà Sayyid al-khalq Muḥammad va ālih va ṣaḥbih al-ṭāhirīn va sallim Qāl al-faqīr ... Ba-nām-i Khudā Rūzī-dihanda Mīgūyam ba hama-’i mu’minān Lā ilah illā Llāh-rā ya‘nī tamām-i kalima-’i ṭayyib barā-’i taḥṣīl-i zakhīra barā-’i dīdār-i Ḥaqq va dukhūl-i Jannat

Ends: Fa-qad ḥall bihim mā la yarfa‘uh ghayruk va lā yadfu‘uh sivāk Allāhumm farrij ‘annā yā Karīm yā Arḥam al-rāḥimīn Pas taḥqīq [...] bar īshan balāyī ki bar nadārad ān bālā-rā ghayr-i Tū va dāf‘-i ānrā kasī nakunad sivā-yi Tū Khudāvandā dūr kun bālā-rā az mā ay Buzurgtar az hama ay Bakhshandatar az bakhshandagan

Other contents: f. 1r-2r, miscellaneous owners’ notes, largely scrawled and/or smudged, including prayers and verses; 147r, verses from the Qur’ān, etc.

Undated: probably 13th/19th century.

Arabic text in good, clear black naskhī script. Persian in clear red nasta‘līq. 10 lines per page in each language, except that a second line is sometimes used for brief explanations in Persian. Text frames in black, gold, and black; similar frames in borders near outer edge. Thin, brittle light brown paper, stained from use and damp; f. 1, 2 and 147 poorly repaired. 147 folios. 210 x 118 mm.; text area 125 x 65 mm. Marbled endpapers. Brown half morocco binding, lettered ‘AL-HISN / AL-NASIN (sic) / MUḤAMMAD / AL-JAZARI / MS. IN / ARABIC’; front cover loose.

Formerly MS. 295 in the collection of Mr. C.S. Mundy.