Delhi Persian 81A (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Miscellaneous works on Sufism, 4 items (a-d)

Summary of Contents: Collection of works on Shaṭṭārī and esoteric Sufism, comprised of several heterogeneous fragments from separate sources. Volume not dated; item c dated (Rajab 1223/August 1808). Scribal nastaʿlīq and naskh by multiple hands. Extensive annotations in margins and in interlinear spaces. Discontinuous foliation in pencil. Lacking original binding. Binding damaged (tooled and painted brown leather over delaminating pasteboards, revealing fragments from Qurʾān leaves and Arabic verses; wormholes), labelled. Additional loose paper wrapper (letter dated 18 October 1845 requesting translation from Arabic); watermarked (lion rampant guardant holding sceptre in crowned oval frame; not dated); torn, creased, stained. Folios mostly bound; cropped, wormholes, later repairs. Condition fragile.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic

1. ff. 1r-1v

Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Delhi Persian 81A a.

Untitled collection of notes on different kinds of revelations and manifestations based on awrād or the pronouncements ascribed to Shāh Muḥammad Ghaws̲.

Not dated at end.

Miniscule rough nastaʿlīq.

2. f. 2v

Delhi Persian 81A b.

Untitled collection of magical and numerological prescriptions, including magic squares or vifq al-aʿdād, by an unnamed compiler.

Not dated at end.

Miniscule rough nastaʿlīq.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic

3. ff. 3v-208r

Author: Shaykh Muḥammad Ghaws̲ Gavālyārī شيخ محمّد غوث گواليارى

Title: Javāhir-i khamsah

Title: جواهر خمسه

Delhi Persian 81A c.

Extensive treatise on esoteric aspects of Sufism and the occult sciences by Shaykh Muḥammad Ghaws̲ Gavālyārī, or Muḥammad ibn Khaṭīr al-Dīn ibn Laṭīf ibn Muʿīn al-Dīn Qattāl ibn Khaṭīr al-Dīn ibn Bāyazīd ibn Khvājah Farīd al-Dīn Nayshāpūrī ʿAṭṭār (d. 970/1562), the latter descends from the Ismāʿīlī imams after Imām Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq.

The author wrote the work at the age of fifty, in 956/1549.

Dated colophon (f. 208r): completed by ʿAbd al-Ḥakīm for Ghulām Aḥmad Khān Ṣāḥib, Rajab 1223/August 1808.

The manuscript is a composite of fragments from different manuscripts of different ages and origins.

Multiple diagrams.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic

4. ff. 208v-209r

Title: Shajarah-'i ʿishqīyah-'i ātish'khvārah-'i Pīrān-i Shaṭṭārīyah

Title: شجرهٴ عشقيّهٴ آتش خوارهٴ پيران شطّاريّه

Delhi Persian 81A d.

Spiritual genealogy of the Shaṭṭārīyah Ṣūfī order, beginning with Sayyid Ghulām Qādir (d. 1223/1808), traced back to Shaykh Muḥammad Ghaws̲ Gavālyārī, and thence to Imām ʿAlī ibn Abū Ṭālib.

The work is compiled by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end; datable to late 1808.

The work is followed by a brief collection of esoteric notes.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Physical Description

Form: codex

Extent: 209 ff.

Dimensions (leaf): 285 × 165 mm.

Hand(s)

History

Origin: Rajab_1223 AH; August 1808 CE ; India

Provenance and Acquisition

Purchased by the Government of India at sale organised by Delhi Prize Agents, 1859; administrative deposit India Office Library, 1876

1876

Government of India

Availability

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