Delhi Persian 1093 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Kashf al-asrār min aʻmāl ahl al-abrār va al-akhyār by ʻAbd al-Qādir Jīlānī Qādirī (1650-c.1729)

Summary of Contents: Devotions, prayers and invocations for the use of Sufis by (f. 2r.) one ʻAbd al-Qādir ibn ʻUmar Jīlānī al-Qādirī, not to be confused with the founder of the Qādirīya order. This work was composed by the author (f. 441r) in Lahore at the age of 82 in 1142/1729. The preface lists more than 17 popular religious manuals on which he has drawn. This copy appears to be an autograph, completed by a son or pupil, due to the author's failing eyesight. The end is defective.

Author: ʻAbd al-Qādir ibn Sayyid ʻUmar Jīlānī al-Qādirī عبدالقادر بن سید عمر جیلانی القادری

Title: Kashf al-asrār min aʻmāl ahl al-abrār va al-akhyār

Incipit: ربنا لا تزع قلوبنا بعد از هدیتنا و هب لنا من لدنک رحمه انک انت الوهاب.

Explicit: دعاء شب سی ام امیر المومنین علی کرم الله وجهه در شب سی ام از ماه

The text is deficient at the end (f. 465v) and the last sentences have been erased, possibly to indicate the text ends there, followed by a seal, both of which suggest that the end was already missing at the time the seal was stamped.

Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex

Extent: ff. ii+ii+465+iii

Dimensions (leaf): 270 × 180 mm.

Dimensions (written): 190 × 97 mm.

Foliation:

India Office stamped foliation.

Collation

Catchwords.

Condition

Slightly worm-eaten. Remargined and gauzed by the India Office at the time of rebinding.

Layout

No. of lines vary between 19-24 lines per page.

Hand(s)

Nastaʻlīq in black ink, with headings, overlinings and punctuation marks in red, in two hands: ff 1v-441r, with a few shikasta elements, copied by the author, ʻAbd al-Qādir ibn Sayyid ʻUmar Jīlānī al-Qādirī; ff. 441r-465v, copied by a pupil or a disciple of the author with occasional misspellings.

Additions:

Marginal corrections and additional references added in red.

A note on f. 1r introduces the author as the father of Sayyid Shāh Chirāgh Gīlānī, the author of a work called Rawz̤ah-ʼi ʻAlīyah.

A note by the second scribe on f. 441r, says that he started copying this book on 5 Ramazan 1142 (24 March 1730) in Lahore, due to the author, addressed as "ḥaz̤rat" losing his sight at the age of 82.

Binding

Red half-leather India Office binding stamped 11 Dec 1935.

Seal(s):

Black Government of India Delhi MSS oval stamp (ff. 1r, 464v).

Damaged partially legible circular seal of an official of the Mughal emperor Muḥammad Shāh (r. 1702-1748) dated year 21, 1154 AH (1741) (f. 465v).

History

Origin: Undated, but the second scribe began copying on 5 Ramazan 1142 AH (24 March 1730) Lahore, India

Provenance and Acquisition

Belonged to an official of the Mughal emperor Muḥammad Shāh (his seal dated 1154/1741).

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

Acquired by the Government of India in1876

Record Sources

Based on A.J. Arberry's description in "Drafts for Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the India Office Library, vol. III", Mss Eur E207/3, f. 90r, and R. Levy's description, Mss Eur E207/13, ff. 11-12. Revised by Sheida Heydarishovir

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card for admissions procedures contact British Library, Registering for a Reader Pass. For information on catalogues and ordering manuscripts see Finding and ordering Persian manuscripts in the British Library.

Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World