Islamic Manuscripts : A collection of mystical and theological treatises

Islamic Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This manuscript, entitled <i>A collection of mystical and theological treatises</i> contains four separate works. The <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(4);return false;'>first</a> is a commentary on the Awarif al-Ma`arif (عوارف المعارف) of Suhrawardī , a well known work on Sufi doctrine in 63 chapters. The explanations, which are partly in Persian and partly in Arabic, are on selected words and passages of the text. In his introduction (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(4);return false;'>ff. 1v-3v</a>) the author states that he used the translation of his grandfather, Ẓāhir al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʻAlī al-Shīrāzī, d. 1316 (ظاهر الدين عبدالرحمن بن علي الشيرازي) (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(5);return false;'>2r</a>), praising it as the best translation of the original work. The same translation is also mentioned by Jāmī, 1414-1492 (جامی) in his Nafaḥāt ʼal-ʼuns (نفحات الانس).<br /><br /> The <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(148);return false;'>second</a> is on a number of traditions from the al-ṣaḥīḥ (الصحيح of Bukhārī, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʻīl, 810-870 (البخارى، ابن عبد الله محمد بن اسمعيل) <br /><br /> The <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(190);return false;'>third</a> is a work entitled Kitāb al-Qaṣd ilā Allāh, which contains a collection of al-Shādhilī’s mystical sayings organized into 57 chapters. The works of the Moroccan Ṣūfī, who lived between ca. 593-656 A.H./ca. 1196-1258 C.E., have not survived; and only the texts collected by his disciples have come down to us, notably those included in the Laṭāʾif al-Minan by Ibn ʻAṭāʼ Allāh, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, d. 1309 and the Durrat al-Asrār by Ibn al-Ṣabbāgh, Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Qāsim<br /><br /> The importance of this manuscript lies both in the text it has preserved and in its arrangement. A collation of the sayings of the Kitāb al-Qaṣd ilā Allāh with those transmitted by Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh and Ibn al-Sabbāgh reveals that this manuscript contains unedited content which has not been collected in other works. Although the name of the compiler is unknown, the coherent arrangement of the chapters and the completeness of their contents also suggest that this work was copied or compiled from a source that predated the aforementioned works of al-Shādhilī’s pupils. </p>