Delhi Persian 796 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Arabic commentary on logic by As̲īr al-Dīn [Mufaz̤z̤al ibn ʿUmar] al-Abharī [al-Samarqandī] (d. 663/1264) based on the Greek treatise Īsāghūjī of Porphyry (d. circa 305).

Not dated at end.

Archaic scribal naskh sparsely written to accommodate dense micrographic interlinear and marginal annotations written at varying angles.

Item b.

Arabic supercommentary on the commentary of by As̲īr al-Dīn [Mufaz̤z̤al ibn ʿUmar] al-Abharī [al-Samarqandī] (d. 663/1264) based on the Greek treatise Īsāghūjī of Porphyry (d. circa 305), by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Small and tight nastaʿlīq tending in parts to naskh; micrographic interlinear and marginal annotations written at varying angles, frequently arranged into geometric designs (eg. Zigzag, triangles, diamonds, trees); cropped.

Item c.

Lexicographical treatise giving definitions in Persian and occasionally in Hindavī/Urdu of medical and pharmacological terms in Greek, Arabic, Turkī (Chaghatāy), and Persian, with etymological origins indicated by the initials of languages in red ink and entries arranged according to alphabetical bāb (including lām-alif before yāʾ).

The author is not identified.

The text might not be entirely complete in section yāʾ, as the lemmata and definitions peter out without the formal completion formulae of the thrice-repeated tamm used at the ends of earlier works in this volume.

Not dated at end.

Annotations in margins and interlinear corrections.

Item d.

Sufi treatise on the spiritual and microcosmic/microcosmic aspects of the breath, as well as the body, translated into Persian from an original risālah in Hindavī (Sanskrit?) at the request of Shaykh Jalāl al-Dīn [Bangālī] during an extended visit to Pīrānpatan (Nahrvālah, Gujarat?) from the writer, Sayyid Burhān al-Dīn Bukhārī.

Not dated at end.

Scribal nastaʿlīq.

Item e.

Sufi collection of moral and religious advice by an unnamed author, but attributed in a verse at the end to Yūsufī, that is, Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad Hiravī, the munshīʾ of the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Humāyūn (d. 963/1556).

The work was completed on 9 Rabīʿ al-Avval 919/1513 according to the concluding chronogrammatic rubāʿī.

Not dated at end.

Naskh for Arabic text; scribal nastaʿlīq, with rubrication in shikastah.

Item f.

Gynaecologic treatise on the erotic potential of females according to interpretations of facial types, as well as conditions affecting weakness, nutrition, clothing, and auspicious times influencing sexual copulation or mujāmaʿat, ascribed in margins to Yūsufī, that is, Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad Hiravī, the munshīʾ of the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Humāyūn (d. 963/1556).

Not dated at end.

Item g.

Medical treatise, on the causes, symptoms, and treatments of smallpox or judarī and measles or ḥaṣbah ascribed in margins to Yūsufī, that is, Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad Hiravī, the munshīʾ of the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Humāyūn (d. 963/1556).

The title only appears at the end.

Not dated at end.

Item h.

Medical treatise on diagnoses of the pulse or nabz̤ by an unnamed author, purporting to be an extract from a work entitled Miftāḥ al-shifāʾ.

Copious annotations in margin; cropped.

Not dated at end.

Item i.

Untitled pharmacological treatise on the recipes of medical prescriptions in prose and verse, together with notes on materia medica, weights, geography, etcetera, by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Copious interlinear and marginal annotations; cropped.

Item k.

Divinatory treatise analysing auspiciousness based on audible sounds and typologies of sneezing on different days of the week, by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Item l.

Rare culinary treatise on the medicinal properties of particular kinds of food and drink beneficial to invalids, as well as useful in the prevention of diseases, by ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Bū ʿAlī al-Mutaṭabbib al-Shihābī.

Written at the request of the court of Prince Najm al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ Muḥammad ibn Alptigīn al-Ṣavābī Shihāb-i Amīr al-Muʾmin for modern scholars or ḥukamā-'i mutaqaddimīn in the service of caliphs and sultans.

The work condenses the works of many early Arabic sources, including the Quṣayʿat al-jāmiʿah of Bā Jaʿfar Dimishqī writing for the Caliph al-Muʿtamid (d. 292/892), the Ṭabīkh of Muḥammad ʿAbdūs (d. 180/796) companion of Ibrāhīm ibn Mahdī, the Ṭabīkh of Z̤aḥḥāk, the Dafʿ maz̤ārr al-aghz̲iyah of Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā al-Rāzī (d. 311/923), the Ashribah of Ṭāhir ibn Faz̤l, and the Sharāb'nāmah of Kay Khusraw.

The work, beginning with an Arabic preface and praise of the prince, is divided into two maqālah, with a total of twenty bāb on food and ten bāb on beverages.

The title and author’s name has been pasted over.

Extensive Arabic quotations.

Not dated at end.