Delhi Persian 1165 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Incomplete fragment of the treatise summarising the principles of Sufism falsely ascribed to the ʿAyn-i Quz̤āt-i Hamadānī, that is, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad Miyānajī (d. 525/1131), who was the pupil of Aḥmad Ghazzālī. The author is not mentioned by name. However, Arberry attributes the work to the Naqshbandī Ṣūfī, Khvājah Khvurd ibn Khvājah Muḥammad Bāqī, a contemporary of Shaykh Aḥmad Fārūqī Sihrindī/Sarhindī (d. 1624).

The work is divided into three qism of irregular length that are further subdivided into faṣl, and the whole concludes with a khātimah.

The work is defective at end, breaking off without conclusion or colophon.

Not dated at end.

Awkward nastaʿlīq.

Item b.

Sunnī polemic treatise commenting on a theological problem postulated by Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) in his Kitāb al-ashbāh va al-naẓāʾir, which questions if it is an innovation or bidʿah in religion or even disbelief in God or kufr to revile the authority of the two shaykhs, Bukhārī and Muslim, and other companions of the Prophet, in preference for the Imām and Khalīfah ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib.

The author of the work is not identified.

Not dated at end; datable to early eighteenth century.

Tight scribal nastaʿlīq-i khafī on pale orange paper.

Dense annotations in margins.

Item c.

Untitled Arabic treatise on the first part of the Islamic catechism or tahlīl by Muḥammad Nūr Allāh, who may be the same as the author of a similar Persian treatise named Muḥammad Nūr Allāh ibn Muḥammad Muqīm al-Dīn Aʿẓampūrī (fl. circa 1244/1828-9).

Not dated at end.

Clearly written nastaʿlīq.