Delhi Persian 1236* (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Single folio extracted from the beginning of a lengthier untitled magical spell and protective amulet or taʿvīz̲ intended to inspire friendship, by an unnamed author.

Although bound with item b, the present treatise and distinctive scribal hand end abruptly without continuing to folio 2r.

Not dated at end. Datable to the seventeenth century.

Scribal shikastah āmīz.

Item b.

Fragment of an untitled spagiric treatise on the methods and recipes of magical potions, ointments, and amulets from vegetal and animal products, by an unnamed author.

The work is probably defective at the beginning and ends without formal conclusion.

This copy is characterised by frequent orthographic errors.

Not dated at end.

Rough shikastah.

Item c.

Unidentified Arabic prayer based on a non-standard recension of the popular prayer for completing the recitation of the Qurʾān.

Not dated at end.

Awkward naskh with vocalisation.

Item d.

Single folio extracted from the beginning of the semiautobiographical introduction of an untitled treatise by ʿAfīf Kāshānī Badavānī, describing his early interest in debating religious doctrine, tradition, and history, and his education with masters of the ‘maz̲hab-i Nuʿmānī’ (Ḥanafīyah) at the age of twenty-one.

Defective.

Not dated at end. Datable to the mid eighteenth century.

Item e.

Excerpts from the dictionary of Persian and Arabic Muʾayyad al-fuz̤alāʾ by Muḥammad ibn Lād, by an unnamed compiler.

Defective at end.

Not dated at end.

Nastaʿlīq.

This copy is prefixed with a note (f. 10r) endorsing the work as the Subḥat al-abrār of Jāmī in the ‘khaṭṭ-i vilāyat’.

This copy is additionally followed by a puzzling note on riverside ocular treatments (f. 17r).

Item f.

Single folio extracted from the beginning of an untitled collection of Arabic aḥādīs̲ or traditions of the Prophet Muḥammad (d. 632) and the jurisprudential pronouncements of the ʿulamāʾ or religious scholars followed by Persian translations, selected on the theme of the justice of kings from sources like the Navādir al-fatāvá, by an unnamed compiler writing for benediction or ‘tayammunan’.

The text originally on the verso face has been rotated to presently face recto.

Margins are crowded with at least three distinct hands or phases of annotations comprised of 1) a ghazal and separate bayt by Saʿd al-Dīn Nizārī Qūhistānī (sic, d. 720/1320) in a shikastah āmīz hand, 2) a twice repeated bayt mentioning Saʿdī Shīrāzī (d. 691/1292) in an archaic semi-calligraphic nastaʿlīq hand, 3) a lengthy note commenting on traditions associated with the Suhravardī Sufi saint, Shaykh Abū Muḥammad Bahāʾ al-Dīn Zakariyā Multānī (d. 661/1262) in a more cursive shikastah āmīz hand.

Not dated at end. Datable from the mid to late sixteenth century.

This copy is additionally followed on folio 19r by notes stating 1) the Makhzan-i adviyah of (or by?) Ḥakīm Barakat Allāh has been exchanged with the Qarābādīn of Miyān Aḥmad ʿAlī, 2) Subḥat al-abrār in the ‘khaṭṭ-i vilāyatī-'i khvush khaṭṭ’. The right margin retains the overlapping edge of an endpaper with tabulated Sanskrit numerical calculations, indicating the leaf was once a flyleaf opening a manuscript.

Item g.

Fragment from a treatise by an unnamed author describing the circumstance for the commission of the Shāhnāmah and the employment of the poet Firdawsī Ṭūsī and his relations with contemporary poets at the court of Yamīn al-Dawlah Sulṭān Maḥmūd of Ghazni.

The work, though not defective, ends abruptly after a selection of verses, without formal conclusion.

Not dated at end.

Modified ornamental form of shikastah āmīz.

Item h.

Single folio extracted from the middle portion of an unidentified treatise on mathematics, with rūpyah-based fiscal calculations set out in margins, by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end. Datable to the mid to late eighteenth century.

Fluent shikastah āmīz hand.

Item i.

Single bifolium extracted from the beginning of a treatise dealing with traditions on Islamic doctrine, informally titled Favāʾid-i ʿajībah, by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Nastaʿlīq.