Delhi Persian 1183 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Large fragment from a selected portion of a treatise on aspects of Sufism, focusing on gnosis of the self and divine, by an unnamed author.

Defective at beginning.

Lacunae between folios 2-3 and 5-6.

Although divided into seven sections termed bāb, only two bāb are here present.

Colophon not dated (f. 8r): completed in the baldah (city) of Jahāngīrnagar (diacritics omitted).

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

See IOL microfilm 1302.

Item b.

Treatise setting out ten virtues in the life of a Ṣūfī by the Kubrāvī Ṣūfī, poet and scholar, Sayyid ʿAlī ibn Shihāb al-Dīn al-Hamadānī, known as Amīr al-Kabīr (d. 786/1385). According to Levy, the work maybe a translation of a similar Arabic treatise, al-Uṣūl al-ʿasharat al-Najmīyah, by Najm al-Dīn Kubrá.

Dated colophon (f. 11r): completed on Friday, 22 Jumādá al-S̲ānī 1095/6 June 1684. Space for the regnal year has been left blank.

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

See IOL microfilm 1302.

Item c.

Discursive homiletic treatise instructing aspirant Ṣūfīs to observe piety by the Kubrāvī Ṣūfī, poet and scholar, Sayyid ʿAlī ibn Shihāb al-Dīn al-Hamadānī, known as Amīr al-Kabīr (d. 786/1385).

Not dated at end.

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

See IOL microfilm 1302.

Item d.

Untitled dissertation advocating moral conduct among aspirant Ṣūfīs by an author whose name is not indicated within the work. However, a later note ascribes the work to a certain Badr al-Dīn Balkhī RRVMY (Rūmī?).

Not dated at end.

See IOL microfilm 1302.

Item e.

Rare treatise on the tenets of the Naqshbandi school of Sufism by Sayyid Naṣīr al-Dīn ʿUbayd Allāh Aḥrār Ghijduvānī, known as Khvājah Aḥrār (d. 895/1490), conventionally thought to be lost, and later translated into Chaghatay Turkic by the Timurid or Mughal ruler, Emperor Ẓahīr al-Dīn Muḥammad Bābur (d. 937/1530).

The work was written at the request of the author’s father, hence the title.

Not dated at end. Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī. See IOL microfilm 1302.

Item f.

Treatise collecting the teachings and thoughts of the saint and founder of the Naqshbandī Ṣūfī order, Bahāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad Bukhārī the Naqshband (d. 791/1388), compiled by his disciple, the theologian and author of a tafsīr of the Qurʾān, Yaʿqūb ibn ʿUs̲mān ibn Maḥmūd Ghaznavī Charkhī (d. 838/1434-5).

Dated colophon (f. 40v): completed by Shaykh Rajab Allāh (?) in RY 27 [of Emperor ʿĀlamgīr I], 1[0]93/1682.

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

See IOL microfilm 1302.

Item g.

Untitled treatise comprising dicta attributed to some of the Ṣūfī teachers, collected by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

See IOL microfilm 1303.

Item h.

Brief extract from a Ṣūfī treatise entitled Kanz al-mulūk comprised of moral precepts ascribed in a superscription to Jāmī (d. 898/1492) with the title Naṣīḥat'nāmah.

Not dated at end.

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

See IOL microfilm 1303.

Item i.

Brief extract from a Ṣūfī treatise comprised of moral precepts ascribed in a superscription to Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (d. 657/1230).

Not dated at end.

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

See IOL microfilm 1303.

Item j.

Didactic treatise comprised of questions and answers on moral subjects supposedly asked by the Persian minister Buzurjmihr of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, the latter defined here as the master. The work does not mention an author, compiler, or chain of transmission.

Not dated at end.

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

See IOL microfilm 1303.

Item k.

Untitled collection of religious anecdotes, with an account of Ṣūfī initiation, by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

See IOL microfilm 1303.

Item l.

Brief note on penance from the perspective of an initiated Ṣūfī quoting large portions of Arabic prayers.

Not dated at end.

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

See IOL microfilm 1303.

Item m.

Untitled Ṣūfī manual or dastūr al-ʿamal on discipline, daily obligations, ablutions, and prayers, with the author’s reminiscences, ascribed in a lengthy superscription to one Shaykh Ḥājjī Muḥammad.

Not dated at end.

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

See IOL microfilm 1304.

Item n.

Adapted Persian translation by Muḥammad ibn Shaykh Muḥammad al-Sabzavārī (an author with many sobriquets) apparently based on a treatise of mixed Arabic and Persian filled with divine revelations, talismanic amulets and magical charms, later subject to the commentary of the Imām Humām (Imām Mūsá al-Riz̤āʾ) and passed onto Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Tamīmī, author of the Javāhir al-Qurʾān.

The work consists of twelve chapters or bāb.

Not dated at end.

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī. Large excerpts of Arabic in naskh, occasionally overlined.

See IOL microfilm 1304.

Item o.

Excerpt from the preface of a treatise of Ṣūfī devotions in refined prose and verse, by one Mīr Abū al-Qāsim ibn Shāh Mīrzā ibn Asad Allāh al-Ḥusaynī al-KSYVY (al-Kīsavī?). Both title and author are mentioned only in a subscription at the end of the excerpt.

Not dated at end.

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

Water staining.

See IOL microfilm 1304.

Item p.

Untitled collection of eighteen Persian murāsalāt or letters ascribed to the great Qādirī Ṣūfī master, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir Gīlānī (Jīlānī), Muḥyī al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ Zangīdūst (d. 561/1166).

The work is followed by several other works, including a collection of Ṣūfī anecdotes, the treatise Risālah-'i murīdīyah, followed by another collection of Ṣūfī comments.

Not dated at end.

Annotations in margins.

Neat nastaʿlīq-i khafī.

See IOL microfilm 1304.

Item q.

Untitled commentary on the mystical rubāʿīyāt of Khvājah Muḥammad Bāqī Naqshbandī (d. 1012/1603-4) by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Large and distinct scribal nastaʿlīq, with naskh for Arabic.

Annotations and supplementary rubrication in margins.

See IOL microfilm 1304.

Item r.

Untitled commentary on the mystical rubāʿīyāt of by an unnamed author. It is possible this work continues the contents of the previous work (item q), according Arberry.

Dated colophon (f. 107v): completed by Ḥaqq al-Yaqīn for Khvājah Bahāʾū al-Dīn (sic, read Bahāʾ al-Dīn), an afternoon (date not specified), in RY 1 of Emperor Muḥammad Shāh, (1131-2)/1719-20.

Large and distinct scribal nastaʿlīq, with naskh for Arabic.

Annotations in margins and end.

See IOL microfilm 1304.

Item s.

Untitled collection of correspondence on Ṣūfī matters by Khvājah Muʿīn al-Dīn Sijzī (d. 633/1236) addressed to Khvājah Quṭb al-Dīn Ūshī Dihlavī (d. 634/1237), assembled by an unnamed compiler.

Not dated at end.

Bold shikastah āmīz written irregularly at oblique angles.

See IOL microfilm 1305.

Item t.

Ṣūfī treatise commenting on the Islamic creed as recorded in the prayer Āmantu bi-Allāh, by the "Rāz-i Ilāhī," Shaykh Burhān al-Dīn ibn Kabīr Muḥammad Burhānpūrī (d. 1083/1672-3).

Not dated at end.

Bold shikastah āmīz written irregularly at oblique angles.

See IOL microfilm 1305.

Item u.

Treatise comprised of Ṣūfī anecdotes arranged into seven universes or ʿavālim with seven corresponding sections or bāb, by a certain Shāh Murtaz̤á, descended from Shāh Ḥamzah and Shāh Ḥāfiẓ, who describes himself as a devotee of the Chishtī Ṣūfī, Shāh Burhān al-Dīn ibn Shāh Mīrānjī Shams al-ʿUshshāq.

Not dated at end.

Bold shikastah āmīz written irregularly at oblique angles.

See IOL microfilm 1305.

Item v.

Treatise compiling esoteric Ṣūfī prayers, aphorisms, anecdotes, selected quotations from the Qurʾān and Ḥadīs̲, as well as poems by one ʿAbd al-Jalīl, who according to Arberry may be the same as ʿAbd al-Jalīl Bilgrāmī (d. 138/1726).

Colophon not dated (f. 157r): completed by (stylised monogram) Bābā Kishan (?).

old shikastah āmīz written irregularly at oblique angles.

See IOL microfilm 1305.

Item w.

Ṣūfī treatise containing a number of early Urdu verses and quotations by a certain ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad Muʾmin, who gives the name of his murshid or spiritual leader, Khvājah Faz̤l Allāh, tracing the spiritual lineage to Shāh Ḥusayn and Shāh ʿInāyat Allāh, whose Urdu verses are often quoted.

The work consists of five sections termed faṣl.

Dated colophon (f. 181r): completed 1061/1651.

Tight Indian taʿlīq.

Annotations in margins.

Arabic prayer in awkward naskh added on folio 181v.

See IOL microfilm 1305.

Item x.

Fragment from an untitled description of a visit to Makkah, largely in Arabic mixed with Persian poetry, by Muḥammad Shaykh Ibrāhīm al-ʿĀmilī.

Not dated at end.

Awkward nastaʿlīq.

Gauze overlay.

See IOL microfilm 1305.

Item y.

Untitled Persian translation of an unidentified commentary on the Munājāt or private utterances and prayers ascribed to Imām and Caliph ʿAlī, by one Sayyid Raḥmat Allāh ibn Shāh ʿAzīz Allāh.

Colophon (f. 204v): completed 25 Ramaz̤ān (year not mentioned).

Rough shikastah āmīz hand for passages of Persian, with clumsy naskh for Arabic and a small, squat shikastah āmīz hand for subscript Persian translations, moving to a more disciplined and even nastaʿlīq hand after folio 200.

See IOL microfilm 1305.

Item z.

Ṣūfī treatise on divine unity by an unnamed author.

The work consists of two discourses or maqālah.

Not dated at end.

Rough shikastah āmīz hand.

See IOL microfilm 1305.

Item aa.

Bī sar'nāmah mas̲navī by the eminent Ṣūfī poet and thinker, Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār Nayshāpūrī (d. 627/1230).

Not dated at end.

Small but awkward nastaʿlīq hand, arranged into multiple alternating diagonal and vertical columns.

See IOL microfilm 1305.

Item bb.

Untitled Persian paraphrase based on an Arabic commentary on a Shaṭṭārīyah Ṣūfī treatise of Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Khīvaqī, known as Abū al-Janāb Najm al-Dīn Kubrá (d. 618/1221), by an unnamed translator.

Dated colophon (f. 235v): completed 8 Shavvāl in RY 5 (in raqm) of Emperor Muḥammad Shāh, 1140/18 May 1728.

Awkward scribal nastaʿlīq hand with bold naskh for Arabic passages.

Concluding passages have been crammed into the lower margin, along with the dated colophon.

See IOL microfilm 1305.

Item cc.

Untitled collection of forty brief letters on mystical doctrine and practice by the seventeenth-century Sunnī saint, ʿAbd al-Jalīl Lakhnavī Ṣiddīqī. One of the letters is addressed to the contemporary Naqshbandī saint, Aḥmad Fārūqī Sihrindī (d. 1034/1624).

Not dated at end.

Scribal nastaʿlīq hand.

See IOL microfilm 1305.