Delhi Persian 1229 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Fragment of a divinatory treatise in mas̲navī form on methods for interpreting fāʾl or omens from the Qurʾān(with verses quoted), organised in alphabetical order, by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Nastaʿlīq tending to shikastah āmīz.

Item b.

Fragment of a Chaghatay Turkic mas̲navī celebrating the romance of the Prophet Yūsuf (Joseph) and Zulaykhā (title of Rāʿīl, Potiphar’s wife), composed by an unnamed poet evidently from the court of the Timurid ruler of Herat, Shāh Abū al-Ghāzī Sulṭān Ḥusayn, known as Mīrzā Bāyqarā, praised in the poem’s introductory section.

The poem was based on an unidentified Persian original.

This copy is defective at end.

Not dated at end.

Large areas of space left vacant on folios 37v and 57v, possibly indicating gaps for illustrations in the original text. The latter folio, though almost entirely blank, retains its catchwords and thus indicates subsequent folios are lost.

Frequent interlinear and marginal annotations and corrections in Chaghatay and Persian; irregularly cropped.

Nastaʿlīq tending to alternate between taʿlīq and naskh.

Item c.

Fragment of an untitled larger collection of Arabic Aḥādīs̲-i Nabavī or traditions of the Prophet Muḥammad (d. 632) and Aḥādīs̲-i qudsī or traditions based on divine revelation, omitting the full chain of isnād or authorities and arranged in a numbered sequence (here, discontinuous), by an unidentified compiler.

Frequent lacunae and disordered arrangement of folios.

This copy comprises approximately 28 traditions, by the count of the numbered headings indicates the original copy possessed at least twice as many traditions.

Defective at end.

Not dated at end.

Awkward naskh.