Delhi Persian 957 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Treatise on the biographies of early Naqshbandī Sufis, especially Bahāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Bukhārī the Naqshband (d. 791/1388), entitled Anīs al-ṭālibīn [va] vaʿdat al-sālikīn, compiled after having consultation with friends and successors of Bahāʾ al-Dīn Naqshband at the request of Mawlānā Ḥusām al-Dīn Khvājah Yūsuf (d. 791/1389) who descended from Mawlānā Ḥāfiẓ al-Dīn Kabīr Bukhārī, by the author Ṣalāḥ ibn Mubārak al-Bukhārī, then in the service of Khvājah ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn known as ʿAṭṭār (who also corrected the work).

The work is divided into four qism.

Dated colophon (f. 161v): completed by Muḥammad Riz̤āʾ ibn Ḥājī ibn ʿAlī, on the morning of Saturday, 10 Jumādá al-S̲ānī 1041/3 January 1632, for Mīrzā Muḥammad Liqāʾ.

Neat and minute scribal nastaʿlīq.

Marginal corrections and annotations.

Stamped foliation.

Folios cropped.

Outermost folios heavily damaged by wormholes.

Lacks original binding. Present covers include 1) a delaminating and worm-eaten binding with brown leather outside, and doublures ornamented with blind tooled medallions; 2) loose folded paper wrapper (EIC legislation for 1850, torn and stained, undated watermarked (seated Britannia or Minerva in crowned oval).

Condition fragile.