Delhi Persian 1212 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Excerpt from an untitled treatise in refined prose and verse on the methodology of creating cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā and their numerological value, by an unnamed author.

The work begins by mentioning Mullā Sayyid al-Raḥmān and comments on a ghazal by the poet Ḥāfiẓ Shīrāzī.

Not dated at end.

The work is written in minute shikastah āmīz transversely initially before settling into the horizontal orientation on subsequent folios.

Folios detached, creased, and brittle with substantial loss of text in region of lower, outer edge.

Item b.

Treatise in refined prose and verse on the methodology of creating cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā, by Mīr Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Shīrāzī, known as Mīr Ḥusayn Nayshāpūrī "Muʿammāʾī" (d. 904/1499).

The work is dedicated to the author’s patron, the Timurid noble, Mīr ʿAlī Shīr "Navāʾī" Hiravī (d. 906/1501).

Not dated at end.

Copious interlinear and marginal annotations in various cursive hands, occasionally organised into designs.

Item c.

Rare untitled treatise in refined prose and verse on the methodology of creating cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā encoding proper names, by Mīrzā ʿAlī ibn Mihr ʿAlī Samarqandī, written as a response to the work by Mīr Ḥusayn Nayshāpūrī "Muʿammāʾī" (d. 904/1499).

This work contains much autobiographical and historical information, particularly in relation to Balkh under the Chinggizid Janid Dynasty, and how the author sought new patronage in India.

Item d.

Untitled treatise epitomising a number of works on the methodology of creating cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā, by Shihāb [al-Dīn] ibn Niẓām [al-Dīn].

Dated colophon (f. 121r): completed by Mīrzā ʿAlī ibn Mihr ʿAlī on Tuesday, 12 Muḥarram 1027/9 January 1618.

Copious interlinear and marginal annotations in various cursive hands, occasionally organised into designs.

Item e.

Untitled treatise in refined prose and verse on the methodology of creating cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā encoding proper names, by Kamāl Badakhshī with the takhalluṣ "Kamāl", whose name only appears in a lengthy opening qaṣīdah that cryptographically dedicates the work to the Timurid ruler of Balkh, Shāh Abū al-Ghāzī Sulṭān Maḥmūd ibn Abū Saʿīd (d. 1494), a paternal uncle of the Emperor Bābur (d. 1530), whose name is mentioned in one of the concluding illustrations.

Dated colophon (f. 144r): completed by Mīrzā ʿAlī ibn Mihr ʿAlī Samarqandī on Monday, 9 Muḥarram 1027/6 January 1618.

Copious interlinear and marginal annotations in various cursive hands.

Item f.

Treatise in refined prose and verse on the methodology of creating and deciphering cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā encoding proper names, by a poet-author whose takhalluṣ "Kawkabī" appears in the opening verses.

The title appears in the concluding rubāʿī, which also contains a chronogrammatic verse yielding the date of composition 1008/1599-1600.

The work is dedicated to the Shaybanid ruler, ʿUbayd Allāh Khān.

Dated colophon (f. 152r): completed by Mīrzā ʿAlī ibn Mihr ʿAlī on a Tuesday in 1027/1618.

Copious interlinear and marginal annotations in various cursive hands.

Item g.

Treatise collecting cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā on the ninety-nine names of Allāh, by Mīr Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Shīrāzī, known as Mīr Ḥusayn Nayshāpūrī "Muʿammāʾī" (d. 904/1499).

The present title is that suggested in an endorsement by the compiler above the basmalah and may not be the formal title.

Dated colophon (f. 155r): completed by Mīrzā ʿAlī ibn Mihr ʿAlī Samarqandī, 1027/1618.

Copious interlinear and marginal annotations in various cursive hands.

Item h.

Mas̲navī on cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā encoding ninety-nine titles of the Prophet Muḥammad by Mīr Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Shīrāzī, known as Mīr Ḥusayn Nayshāpūrī "Muʿammāʾī" (d. 904/1499).

The date of completion given in the concluding verses as 915/1509-10 is much later than the accepted date of the author’s death.

The present title is that suggested in an endorsement by the compiler above the basmalah and may not be the formal title.

Dated colophon (f. 158r): completed 1027/1618. The rather loose scribal nastaʿlīq in diluted ink is in the same hand as the works transcribed by Mīrzā ʿAlī ibn Mihr ʿAlī Samarqandī.

Copious interlinear and marginal annotations in various cursive hands.

Item i.

Collection of alphabetically-arranged cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā, principally in mas̲navī form, on the subject of proper names, by the eminent court poet, Sayyid Abū al-Qāsim Najm al-Dīn Muḥammad Maydānkālī, with the takhalluṣ "Kāhī" (d. 988/1580), known as Qāsim Kāhī.

Item j.

Untitled collection of cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā by various poets, possibly compiled informally by the same scribe as that of previous items in the volume, Mīrzā ʿAlī ibn Mihr ʿAlī Samarqandī, whose hand the text resembles.

Some of the named sources include Mawlānā Ḥisābī Dīvānah Qarākūlī, Kawkabī, Kamāl, Muḥammad Sharīf Gulistānī, Nādirī Marvazī, Khvājagī Bukhārī, Jalāl al-Dīn Marghinānī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Abkāsānī, Sulṭān Muḥammad Quhistānī, Ashkī, Shigāf, Ṭālib Samarqandī, Shāh Ḥusayn Kāfī, Fānī Badakhshī, Darvīsh ʿAlī Khādim, Qāsim ʿAlī ʿAdīmī, Muḥammad Dīvānah, Maylī Ṭūsī, ʿAlāʾ al-Shāshī, Khvājah Hāshim Bukhārī, Qarāchah, and Mīr Ṣāliḥ.

The work occasionally includes verses in Chaghatay Turkish.

Not dated at end.

Copious interlinear and marginal annotations in various cursive hands.

Item k.

Untitled treatise collecting cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā arranged alphabetically, principally in mas̲navī form, on the subject of proper names, by an author whose name, appearing only in the colophon, has been erased subsequently.

Dated colophon (f. 179r): completed by [name deleted] at Shimrān, in tūmān (ShĀVDĀR?), a Friday in Ṣafar 1027/February 1618.

Copious interlinear and marginal annotations in various cursive hands, which flow onto folio 179v.

Item l.

Treatise epitomising a number of works on the methodology of creating cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā, by Shihāb [al-Dīn] ibn Niẓām [al-Dīn], completed 918/1512.

Dated colophon (f. 187v): completed by Rūp Narāyan [Khattarī Siyālkūtī], Rabīʿ II 1105/December 1693.

The work is preceded on folio 180r by a number of encomiastic verses by various poets, the first of which is attributed to the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Bābur.

Annotations in margins arranged in artistic designs.

Further annotations on Indic divinities and muʿammā compositions in Persian and Hindavī continue on folios 188r, 189r-190v, probably, though not exclusively, by the same Rūp Narāyan.