Delhi Persian 1145 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Commentary on a qaṣīdah consisting of forty-one abyāt by Shāh Muḥammadī, based on a line composed by Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār, intended as an exercise in the identification of essential Ṣūfī doctrines, by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833).

The work was completed in 1196/1782.

Dated colophon (f. 33v): completed by QLNDR (Qalandar), on 3 Z̲ū al-Ḥijjah 1214/RY 42 of Emperor Shāh ʿĀlam/28 April 1800.

Folio 34 left blank.

Item b.

Untitled commentary on eleven terms or kalimāt, largely in Arabic, representing the essentials of Naqshbandī thought by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Transcribed in rough naskh and nastaʿlīq hands.

Item c.

Untitled collection of three brief theological treatises.

The first (unattributed) and second treatises (ff. 39v-40r; 40r-41r respectively) interpret Qurʾān verses respectively (chapter 51, verse 56 and chapter 6, verse 149).

The second treatise names as author the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833).

The third treatise (unattributed), consisting of several sections, is intended as an addendum to the second and explores the subjects of free will, predestination, and the agency of God (ff. 41v-51v). Portions of the latter treatise quote Hindavī verses.

One section dates this composition to Rabīʿ II 1203/December 1788.

Not dated at end.

Item d.

Commentary by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833), on an allegory by Sayyid Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī Gīsūdarāz (d. 720/1320).

The work was completed, according to concluding remarks, 13 Jum. II 1202/21 March 1788.

Not dated at end.

Item e.

Brief commentary in a refined literary style by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833) on a Ṣūfī work entitled al-Kāfīyah or Chihil Kāf, attributed to Abū Muḥammad Muḥyī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (d. 561/1166). Lexical explanations are based on the Qāmūs of Muḥammad Fīrūzābādī.

Not dated at end.

Item f.

Untitled treatise on the subtle definitions of Ṣūfī doctrines and practice by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833), written in response to the work of the Naqshbandī scholar, Shaykh Tāj al-Dīn Sanbhalī.

Not dated at end.

Item g.

Commentary by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833) on the Arabic prayer (quotations in naskh, over-lined) for travellers, Ḥizb al-baḥr, also known as Ḥizb al-ṣaghīr, ascribed to Tāj al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Shāz̲ilī (d. circa 656/1258).

The composition is dated 11 Rabīʿ II 1204/29 December 1789.

Not dated at end.

Item h.

Untitled Arabic commentary on verses of the Qurʾān by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833).

Not dated at end.

Item i.

Untitled treatise on aspects of astrology, consisting of three points of argument and a conclusion, by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833).

Not dated at end.

The work is followed by Arabic notes in the margins.

Item k.

Untitled treatise on Aristotelian epistemology by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833).

Not dated at end.

The work is preceded by Arabic notes in the margins.

Item l.

Untitled treatise in refutation of the religious claims by Mawlavī Ilāhī Bakhsh and Mullā Kamāl al-Dīn, by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833).

Not dated at end.

Item m.

Untitled essay by an unnamed author refuting earlier theories and postulating new explanations for the celestial beings supporting the Divine Throne or ʿArsh.

Not dated at end.

Item n.

Untitled treatise by an unnamed author, describing heavenly spirits, with Arabic quotations.

The work consisting of two sections, each beginning with a rubāʿī.

Not dated at end.

Item o.

Untitled treatise describing the construction of magic squares or vifq va al-aʿdād, with examples ranging from three squares across up to ten, by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833).

The contents are illustrated with diagrams.

Not dated at end.

Item p.

Untitled treatise by an unnamed author on the compatibility between Islamic perceptions of God’s design and the influence of heavenly bodies.

Not dated at end.

Item q.

Untitled Arabic treatise on Naqshbandīyah Sufism, written in response to Mawlānā ʿAlī Akbar and others by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833). The work is interspersed with Persian rubāʿīyāt. Not dated at end.

This work is followed by a series of separate untitled compositions: 1) lengthy theological letter (raqīmah) in Persian, discussing the principles and names of prominent early Ṣūfīs; 2) treatise on human nature; 3) lengthy naʿt of the Prophet Muḥammad and his companions written obliquely in margins. Not dated at end.

Item r.

Untitled treatise consisting of twenty-one replies to miscellaneous queries on points of Ṣūfī doctrine, theology, psychology, ritual observance, interpretations of the Qurʾān, etcetera, by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833).

Dated colophon (f. 192r): copied at the author’s request, 3 Z̲ī al-Ḥijjah (1214)/RY 42 of Emperor Shāh ʿĀlam/28 April 1800.

Item s.

Untitled treatise on the splitting of the moon according to the Qurʾān (chapter 54, verse 1) by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833).

Not dated at end.

Item t.

Untitled treatise, headed Ḥāfiẓ sāḥib-i girāmī martabat imam Shāh'jīv sallam Allāh taʿālá, consisting of replies to miscellaneous queries on points of Ṣūfī doctrine, theology, and ritual observance, by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833).

Concluding remarks mention that the compositions were submitted to Mawlavī ʿAbd al-Khāliq and Miyān Valī Muḥammad, dāmād or son-in-law of Miyān Shujāʿ al-Dīn Mangalūrī.

Not dated at end.

Item u.

Untitled collection of Arabic qaṣāʾid or encomia in the mukhammas or pentastich form by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833), including praise or naʿt of the Prophet Muḥammad and his mother, and a composition in answer to a qaṣīdah by Ibn Sīnā. These are followed by a further lengthy poems (including qaṣāʾid) in mixed genres on varied theological subjects.

Interlinear annotations and corrections continuing into margins.

Statement for total number of verses given at end.

Not dated at end.

Item w.

Untitled treatise by an unnamed author refuting philosophical postulates on substance and conditions of corporeality from the Naqshbandī Ṣūfī perspective, mentioning authorities like Shaykh ʿĀrif Billāh and Shaykh al-Mujaddid, that is, Shaykh Aḥmad Sihrindī the Mujaddid-i Alf-i S̲ānī (d. 1034/1624).

Not dated at end.

Item x.

Untitled treatise on love, mystical and physical, from the metaphysical and juristic perspectives, consisting of multiple sections, by the Ḥanafī scholar, Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Dīn ibn Shāh Valī Allāh Dihlavī (d. circa 1249/1833). Not dated at end.

This is followed by a discrete tract on the history of early prophets and the pre-Islamic Persian kings based on the Roman or Seleucid calendric systems, also by the same author. Not dated at end.