Or 16551 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

A treatise on the rules of Qur’ān recitation (tajvīd) according to the reading (qirā’at) of ʿĀṣim. The author, Muṣṭafà ibn Ibrāhīm al-Qārī, states that he commenced this work while resident in Makka, and completed it in 1067/1656-7 at Madīna (see f. 4r, 123r). The wording of his salutations on the Prophet indicate that he was a Shī‘ī; and his treatise is dedicated to Shah ‘Abbās II (reg. 1052-77/1642-66); see f. 5r-v of the present manuscript. He also wrote two other works on related matters: Irshād al-qārī and Tuḥfat al-abrār; see Munzavī, FNKhF I, pp. 69-70 and 80; cf. the more tentative information in Storey, PL I/1, p. 43.

For this author, his works, and other manuscript copies, see also FNKhF I, p. 84, who cites 11 copies in Iranian libraries and adds to the author’s name the nisbas Tabrīzī, Shī‘ī, and Ṭūsī. According to Storey, PL I/1, p. 43, a copy of this work is held in Paris, and another in Berlin; finally, at least three other copies are extant in the Asafia Library, Hyderabad, two of which are described by Storey (citing the catalogue) as mutammima. It was probably a confusion between the Tuḥfa and its sequel (see text 2 below) that resulted in the statement that the Tuḥfa was written at Isfahan.

A supplementary treatise, Tatimmat Tuḥfat al-qurrāʾ, by the same author, concerning miscellaneous related details such as the meaning of names of Sūras, the number of verses they contain, juz’, ḥizb, different types of pause (vaqf) and prostration (sajda). This work was composed at Isfahan in Rajab 1068/May-June 1659 (see f. 123v-124r, 159v-160r). Munzavī, loc. cit., gives two alternative titles: Mutammim-i Tuḥfat al-qurrā’, and Mulḥaq-i Tuḥfat al-qurrā’. He also asserts that the author wrote the work while actually travelling from Makka to Madīna.

A short treatise in Arabic, citing instances of Qur’ānic passages in which particular phonetic features of recitation arise, e.g. iẓhār; qalb; ikhfā’, idghām with and without ghunna; tafkhīm and tarqīq; qalqala; and madd. The above title is derived from the colophon. No author’s name is given. This is possibly the same Risālat al-Tajvīd (Asafia I, p. 306, no. 48) as cited by Storey, op. cit., p. 48.

Definitions of several terms relating to tajvīd, with lists of the Arabic letters to which they relate. No author is named. No work with this title is found in Storey, PL. The incipits and other data do not match with those of similarly titled works in FNKhF I, p. 94.