Delhi Persian 1213 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Treatise in mas̲navī form on the methodology of creating cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā, by the great Ṣūfī and poet, Nūr al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 898/1492). This is one of four such works by this author on this subject, the present example being the last and shortest.

The work is dated by concluding verses to 890/1485.

Dated colophon (f. 5v): completed by Karīm Allāh at dār al-salṭanah (sic) Shāhjahānābād, in the reign of Emperor Akbar II, Friday, 17 Jumādá II 1236/22 March 1821.

Neat scribal nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

Annotations in margins and in interlinear spaces.

Item b.

Untitled treatise on the methodology of creating cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā based on common and proper nouns, with illustrations in prose and verse, by an unnamed author.

The work comprises a muqaddimah, sixteen aṣl, and a concluding khātimah.

Not dated at end.

Neat scribal nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

The work is preceded by notes on poets including Rūmī and Mīr Ḥusayn Nayshāpūrī (f. 6r).

Item c.

Treatise on the methodology of creating cryptogrammatic and enigmatic poems or muʿammā on proper names, by Ghiyās̲ al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn ʿAlī Amīrān Iṣfahānī, based on the treatise Qavāʿid-i muʿammayāt of his master, the Timurid historian Sharaf al-Dīn ʿAlī Yazdī (d. 858/1454).

The work is dated to 888/1484 and dedicated 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).

The work comprises a brief preface, nine sections termed ḥall, and a khātimah.

Dated colophon (f. 61v): completed in the reign of Emperor Akbar II, 28 Rajab 1236/1 May 1821.

Neat scribal nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

Annotations in margins and in interlinear spaces.

Item d.

Single leaf extracted from an unidentified Arabic treatise on geometry by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Spaces for diagrams left blank.

Item e.

Fragment of a treatise on Persian linguistics by an unnamed author.

Defective at beginning.

Not dated at end.

Item f.

Fragment of an unidentified divinatory treatise on the significance of children born on particular days of the week.

Defective at beginning.

Not dated at end.

Item g.

Excerpt from the introduction of a treatise on Persian grammar, dealing with the pronunciation, character, and function of letters of the alphabet, by an unnamed author.

Dated colophon (f. 98r): completed Sunday, 22 July 1826.

Rough nastaʿlīq.

Item h.

Untitled polemic treatise applying the concept of bidʿah or innovation in religion to the legitimacy of the practice of reciting the names of caliphs and subsequent rulers in the khuṭbah of Friday prayers, by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Occasional annotations in margins in European brownish iron gall ink.

Several passages has been deleted by the scribe and may indicate this is an early draft of the work.

Item i.

Untitled collection of recipes (some with medical uses) and terms with their equivalents in Hindavī, by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Item j.

Fragment from a larger unidentified Arabic lexicographical treatise listing pharmacological and dietetic terms, with additional Persian comments added sporadically, by an unnamed author.

Defective, having lost at least eight folios from the beginning.

Stylised naskh for Arabic lemmata.

Not dated at end.