This manuscript in Persian is an untitled Sufi text on meditation containing both poetry and prose. It was completed in early 1520, probably in Herat (present-day Afghanistan) or Mashhad (present-day Iran). The colophon, which is in Arabic, gives the name of the scribe, Mīr 'Alī Ḥusaynī Haravī (circa 1476-1543). The manuscript is on a firm cream-colored paper inlaid into light cream (folios 1-8) or pale greenish-blue margin paper, with the writing enclosed within alternating gold and cream (or green) bands with black ruling. The margin paper is profusely decorated with floral and animal motifs. The text is in nastalīq script, eight lines to the page. The binding is contemporary leather with medallions. A former owner's stamp appears on folio 1a. Sufism, a mystical and introspective interpretation of Islam that emerged after the initial spread of the religion, combines Islamic teachings with gnosticism. The practice embraced the idea of enlightenment through spiritual knowledge, informed by pre-Islamic Greek, Zoroastrian, and Indian spiritual practices. By the 13th century, Sufi thought in the Persian-speaking world was expressed primarily through poetry or in poetic works of prose, such as this treatise. World Digital Library. Untitled Sufi text on meditation containing both poetry and prose.
This Persian manuscript dated 1025 AH (1616) contains two works on prosody by Nūr al-Dīn 'Abd al-Rahmān Jāmī (1414-92), as well as an incomplete, anonymous work on astronomy. Jāmī was a great poet, scholar, and mystic who lived most of his life in Herat, present-day Afghanistan. The 69 leaves of the manuscript are on a variety of papers: thin, pink-colored laid paper (folios 1a-31b); cream-colored laid paper (folios 32a-35b); pink-colored laid paper (folios 36a-37b); cream-color laid paper (folios 38a-40b); light-green-colored laid paper (folios 41a-45b); tan unpolished paper (folios 46a-53b); orange-to-rose-colored unpolished paper (folios 54a-61b); and dark-yellow-colored paper (folios 62a-69b). The text is in a nastaʻliq script, but different numbers of lines are used in different parts of the manuscript: 14 lines (folios 1b-40b), 10 lines (folios 41a-45b), and 12 lines (folios 46a-69b). Certain pages have circular figures showing classical poetic metrical schemes. The binding is newer, in a flexible leather without ornamentation. World Digital Library. Two works on prosody by the poet Jāmī, 1414-1492; and an incomplete, anonymous work on astronomy.
Abstract: "Holographic copy of a commentary on al-Shahīd al-Awwal's treatise on Shiʻite law. Complete through the middle of kitāb al-diyāt."Ms. codex.Title from leaf 1b, line 13.Physical description: Varying lines per page; written in small, cramped nasʻtaliq in black on tan glazed, laid Arabic paper. Headings in red; text of the Lumʻah overlined in red. Catchwords and marginal corrections. Some staining, mainly marginal; outer edges of leaves 1-6, 173-175 moldered.Origin: Holograph; part 1 dated 6 Jumādá II 956 H 2 July 1549 (leaf 99a).Incipit: الحمد لله الذي شرح صدورنا بلمعة من شرائع الاسلام كافية في بيان الخطاب ونور قلوبنا من لوامع دروس الاحكام
Abstract: Commentary on al-Alfīyah fī al-ṣalāh al-yawmīyah of al-Shahīd al-Awwal.Binding note: Full red leather.Ms. codex.Title from leaf 2b, line 9.Manuscript erroneously foliated beginning on the first flyleaf. Record follows erroneous foliation.Physical description: 22 lines per page; written in naskh with elements of nastaʻliq on glazed, laid European paper. Catchwords; occasional use of rubrication. Leaves 2-6, 47-55, 62, 92-93, 97 are replacements, likely early 19th century. Leaf 62 is blank and there is a lacuna after leaf 61. Most of text block is detached from binding. Damp-stained; numerous paper repairs.Origin: Possibly 18th century. Copied by Muḥammad ʻAlī ibn al-Shaykh ʻAbbās al-Balāghī (leaf 97a).Incipit: الحمد لله الذي شرع فرائض الصلوة
Abstract: "Commentary on al-Muḥaqqiq al-Ḥillī's Mukhtaṣar al-nāfiʻ; incomplete at end."Binding note: Full black leather with blind-stamped central mandorla, pendants, and fillets; blue paper doublures.Ms. codex.Title from leaf 3b.Physical description: Part 1, 25 lines per page; written in small naskh with elements of nastaʻliq in black. Part 2, 25 lines per page; written in medium naskh in black. Entire manuscript on glazed, laid Arabic paper. Rubrication and catchwords; a few marginal notes. Edges moldered; marginal damp-staining and mildewing.Origin: Part 1, 29 Shawwāl 1059 H 5 November 1649, by Zayn al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad al-Jazāʻirī (leaf 145b). Part 2 by a different hand, likely around the same time.Incipit: الحمد لله المتفرد بالقدم و الکمال
Abstract: Collection of three treatises.Binding note: Brown leather over paper pasteboards, with on the upper and lower covers a blind-tooled outer frame consisting of two double fillets. Marbled-paper pastedown and fly leaf. Fol. 361b gold sprinkled.Contents: 1. fol. 3b-92b: Sharḥ al-ʻarshīyah / Mullā Ismāʻīl Iṣfahānī Muḥammad Ismāʻīl ibn al-Sumayʻ al-Iṣfahānī.Contents: 2. fol. 95b-356b: Sharḥ Ḥikmat al-ishrāq / Mullā Ṣadrā Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, d. 1641.Contents: 3. fol. 357a-361a: al-Maqālah al-ʻUjālah fī al-qaws wa-al-hālah / Abū Muḥammad Saʻd Allāh Muḥammad Saʻd Allāh.Ms. codex.Title supplied by cataloger.16 long lines per page. Written in shikastah nastaʻlīq in black ink with use of red. Light cream glazed wove paper ; frame-ruled. Catchword on the verso of each leaf. On fol. 1a: Table of contents ; ownership statement dated Ramaḍān 1360 1941 ; no. "371" in Arabic script (repeated on a label pasted on the upper cover). Title on the fore-edge of the text block.
Abstract: "Second half of a commentary on al-Muḥaqqiq al-Ḥillī's Mukhtaṣar al-nāfiʻ; contains Kitāb al-nikāḥ to the end."Binding note: Full brown leather with gold-painted fillets.Ms. codex.Title supplied by cataloger, per Mach and Ormsby.Physical description: 15-18 lines per page; written in casual naskh in black on blue glazed, laid European paper. Handwriting switches to nastaʻliq with elements of shikastah on leaf 209a. Catchwords; marginal notes. Rubrication on leaves 1b-7a. Marginal insect damage and mild staining.Origin: Original text completed Jumādá II 1204 H February-March 1790; this copy, likely first half of the 19th century, by Muḥammad Ḥasan ibn Abū ! Dharr al-Māzandarānī (leaf 269b).Incipit: الحمد لله ... کتاب النکاح و هو لغة الوطى على الاشهر و شرعا العقد اجماعا
Abstract: Collection of commentaries on doctrinal and legal texts.Binding note: Full brown leather with central mandorla and pendants blind-stamped on red paper and blind-stamped fillets; blue paper doublures.Contents: 1. leaves 1b-38b: Ḥāshiyat Mawlānā Sulṭān al-Muḥaqqiqīn ʻalá Maʻālim al-dīn wa-malādhdh al-mujtahidīn / Ḥusayn ibn Rafīʻ al-Sulṭān al-ʻUlamāʼ.Contents: 2. leaves 40b-67b: Taʻlīqāt ʻalá sharḥ ilāhīyāt al-Tajrīd / Muḥammad al-Khafrī.Contents: 3. leaves 68b-79b: Taʻlīq ḥawāshī ʻalá mabāḥith jawāhir al-Sharḥ al-jadīd lil-Tajrīd.Ms. composite codex.Title from text 1.Physical description, text 1: 23 lines per page; written in neat naskh in black on glazed, laid European paper. Catchwords. Leaves 1-24 appear to be replacements, written in shikastah with varying lines per page. Occasional damp-staining.Physical description, texts 2-3: 15-19 lines per page; written in nastaʻliq and naskh in black on blue glazed, laid European paper. Catchwords. Mild staining.Origin: Likely first half of the 19th century.
Abstract: "Commentary on the author's versification of Bahāʼ al-Dīn al-ʻĀmilī's Zubdat al-uṣūl. Brockelmann (GALAbstract: SIIAbstract: 597 (no. 17Abstract: versif.)) mentions only the naẓmAbstract: not the commentary."Binding note: Limp brown leather with black leather doublures, spine, and edges; blind-stamped central mandorla, pendants, and fillets.Ms. codex.Title supplied by cataloger, per Mach and Ormsby.Manuscript erroneously foliated beginning on the first flyleaf. Record follows erroneous foliation.Physical description: 17 lines per page; written in nastaʻliq in black on tan glazed, laid Arabic paper. Original text in naskh with vocalization. Rubrication and catchwords; marginal notes. Outer edge moldered; damp-staining across upper edge."Origin: 30 Muḥarram 1111 H 28 July 1699by Ibn ʻUrf Nuʻaym al-Ṭālaqānī; copied from a copy in the author's hand (leaf 135a)."'Incipit: اقوم اصل يتفرع عليه السعادات'Incipit (naẓm): الحمد لله العلي العالي* ذي النور و البهاء و الافضال
Abstract: "Collection of the author's ghazalsAbstract: arranged alphabetically; incomplete at beginning."Binding note: Limp red leather with black leather doublures.Ms. codex.Title from leaf 2a.Manuscript erroneously foliated beginning on the first flyleaf; record follows erroneous foliation. There are seven front flyleaves, of which only the first four are numbered; the first leaf of the text is numbered 5.Physical description: 19 lines per page, in two columns; written in small nastaʻliq in black on glazed, laid Arabic paper. Catchwords. Marginal damp staining and a few repairs.Origin: Likely 18th century; collated by Muḥammad Ḥusayn Shuʻāʻ al-Mulk al-Shīrāzī on 8 Shawwāl 1354 H 3 January 1936 (leaf 2a).
Abstract: Collection of three texts related to Niʻmat Allāh Valī.Binding note: Orange-brown leather over cardboard. Blind-tooled frames with small motif in the corners. Blue paper pastedowns.Contents: 1. fol. 1a-338a: Dīvān / Niʻmat Allāh Valī.Contents: 2. fol. 338a-340a: Short text on the Mahdī.Contents: 3. fol. 340b-400b: Biography of Niʻmat Allāh Valī, in five chapters.Ms. codex.Title provided by cataloger.Physical description: 17 lines per page. Written in nastaʻlīq in black ink with use of red and occasionally gold (see fol. 343b). The text is framed in gold, black and blue. Dark cream glazed paper with laid lines visible. Some leaves mended (see fol. 1-8 and fol. 400).Decoration: Illuminated title page (fol. 1a). Illuminated headpieces at the beginning of texts 1 and 3 (fol. 1b and 340b).Origin: Text 1 copied on 1 Dhū al-Ḥijjah 924 Dec. 4, 1518 (colophon, fol. 338a). Text 3 copied in 925? 1519 (colophon, fol. 400b, hardly legible).
Tauhid (the belief in the unity of God) is a central tenet of Islam that also serves as one of the main inspirations of the Masnavi (The spiritual couplets) of Maulana Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-73). This principle also appears in the title of Ibrahim Shahidi Dadah's book Gulshan-i Tauḥīd (Garden of Unitarianism), a work that was inspired by Rumi's well-loved Masnavi. Shahidi Dadah (died 1550 or 1551) was born in Mughlah (Muğla, present-day Turkey) and was a Sufi of the MaulawI, or Mevlevi, order. In Gulshan-i Tauḥīd, Dadah chose from the 25,000 verses of the Masnavi 600 verses and appended to each of them five of his own verses, inspired by and amplifying the original. He completed this work in 937 AH (1530-31). The work has had at least one modern printing (Istanbul, 1881). The manuscript copy presented here was completed in 1233 AH (1817-18), probably in Afghanistan. Each Rumi original verse appears in red ink, followed by the Shahidi Dadah verses in black. The copyist has signed his name as Mir ʻAzim ibn Mulla Muhammad Rajab Balkhi. The manuscript is written in a nastaʻliq script on a light-cream paper. World Digital Library. Versified criticism and interpretation of the classical Mas̲navī of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī.