Delhi Persian 81C (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Delhi Persian 81C a.

The third section or jawhar from the extensive treatise, Javāhir-i khamsah, treating 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.

Not dated at end. Dateable to the seventeenth century.

Calligraphic to neat scribal nastaʿlīq, occasionally tending to shikastah āmīz, and Persian naskh for Arabic sections.

Archaic numeral forms.

Interlinear translations added by a modern hand in red ink, for example folios 48v-54r.

Frequent annotations and corrections neatly transcribed in various orientations and occasionally ruled in margins.

Delhi Persian 81C b.

Fragment from a commentary on the extensive treatise, Javāhir-i khamsah, treating 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), written by Abū al-Maʿārif Muḥammad ʿInāyat Allāh al-Qādir al-Shaṭṭārī al-Qaṣūrī s̲umma al-Lāhawrī.

The work was written at the suggestion of Abū al-Naṣr Sayyid Ilyās, the successor or khalīfah of the Quṭb al-ʿĀlam Shāh ʿĪsá Sindī Burhānpūrī, possibly the same as Shaykh [Abū al-Barakāt] ʿĪsá Jund Allāh Shaṭṭārī Qādirī (d. 1622).

The work ends without formal conclusion or colophon.

Not dated at end. Dateable to the seventeenth century.

Calligraphic to neat scribal nastaʿlīq, occasionally tending to shikastah āmīz, and Persian naskh for Arabic sections.

Diagrams at end, illustrating the last point on vifq al-aʿdād in triangular or mus̲allas̲ formations.

Delhi Persian 81C c.

Annotations on esoteric Sufism regarding specific incantations for days of the week, by an unidentified hand.

Not dated at end.

Delhi Persian 81C d.

Annotations on esoteric Sufism comprised of spells and incantations with subscript numerological calculations by an unidentified hand.

Not dated at end.

Bold nastaʿlīq.

Delhi Persian 81C e.

Annotations on esoteric Sufism comprised of prayers and instructions on their recitation, by an unidentified hand.

Not dated at end.

Rough nastaʿlīq and naskh.