Delhi Persian 937 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Summary of Contents: Renowned and early compendium on religious and ethical obligations, rituals, and mystical thought, abridging into Persian from the original Arabic treatises, the Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, Javāhir al-Qurʾān, and other compositions by the same author, the great Ghaznavid theologian writing from the Shāfiʿī perspective of Sunnī Islam, the 'Ḥujjat al-Islām' Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazzālī al-Ṭūsī (d. 1111). The treatise was prepared for the benefit of Persian speakers in simple prose and expanded explanations. The treatise comprises several sections treated in the present copy as discrete items, including a preface (f. 11v), extensive introduction (f. 14v), and a total of four large chapters termed rukn (beginning ff. 57v, 110v, 224v, 341v, respectively), and brief conclusion (f. 477v). Volume not dated; items b-e dated (ranging Muḥarram 914-Jumādá al-Avval 916/May 1508-August 1510), possibly originating from Timurid Iran or Central Asia. Item a is the latest section added to this collection, but without date. Annotations and corrections by the scribe, as well as by later hands, in margins. Several areas of concentrated annotations, possibly notes of ownership and provenance (such as ff. 11v, 224v). Small archaic Timurid nastaʿlīq and ornamental linked naskh in illuminated headings. Illuminated frontispiece (ff. 1v-2r), illuminated ʿunvāns (ff. 110v, 224v, 341v), with gilt, black, and blue rulings framing text. Inscriptions and seals, many erased or otherwise obliterated, throughout. Additional ornamental device added in margin (f. 57v). Multiple foliations (3 in Persian, pencil, and stamped), revealing substantial variance between older and later phases of numbering taking into account the subsequent addition of the list of contents. Lacking original binding. Binding, red half leather IOL covers, stamp dated 11 Dec 1935. Labels transferred to folio preceding opening flyleaves. Folios cut, remargined and tightly rebound; multiple phases of water and fungal stains, wormholes, stains, smudging, later repairs, text erasures and scratching off of text; gauze overlay at beginning. Folios 168-174 belong after folio 319. Condition poor. Seals, some erased.