A late African copy of the Dalāʼil al-khayrāt, a 'manual' composed of blessings and prayers for everyday life and in particular for the pilgramige to Mecca. Partly composed of selections from the Qur`an and sayings of the prophet, the original work is attributed to the Sufi Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Jazūlī (d. 1465 CE), who lived in in Marrocco . This text has been copied by hand throughout the Islamic world from North West Africa to South East Asia until the last century, with many copies containing illuminations and illustrations. The present manuscript is an example of an originally unbound copy, held together by a string, which is attached to the cardboard cover, probably self made or comissioned by the last owner of the book. The text is clear and in the right order. Not containing illustration, it is an evidently used copy, bearing witness of a tradition of manuscript production common to its region of descent.Layout: 106 59Script: African script in brown ink; vocalization in red ink
This Aljamiado manuscript contains a compendium of Islamic law written by Baray de Reminjo with the help of a young scholar known as Mancebo de Arévalo. The treatise was composed in Spain in the third decade of the XVI century. A Latin note at the top of the first page states that the manuscript was given as a gift from Engelbertus van Engelen to Henry Sike in 1703.Layout: 23 lines to the page
The only known copy of a brief treatise on Naqshbandi practices and rituals by Tāj al-Dīn ibn Zakariyya Mahdī Zamān al-Rūmī, of the Indian branch of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order, who died in Mecca in AH 1050/AD 1640. Not available in a printed edition. According to Trimingham (1971, pp. 93-94) Tāj al-Dīn ‘had an interesting career and eventually found a niche in Mecca away from the rivalries which ensued after the death of Muḥammad Bāqī bi’llāh. From this vantage point he had much to do with commending the Naqshbandī Way to Arabs. He translated books like Jāmī’s Nafaḥāt and ‛Alī al-Kāshifī’s Rashaḥāt ‛Ain al-Ḥayāt into Arabic. Al-Muḥibbī devotes a long article to him in his Khulāṣat al-Athar’. See Muḥibbī, M., Khulāṣat al-athar fī a‛yān al-qarn al-ḥādī‛ashar (Cairo, 1384), i, 464-70. It is perhaps better to describe Bahā’ al-Dīn al-Naqshbandī (AD 1318-1389) as the ‘crystallizer’ of the Naqshbandī ṭarīqa, which bears his name, rather than its ‘founder’. It is certain that the Naqshbandī tradition itself does not regard him as a founder nor as the initiator of the silsila as it is clearly noted in this text for example.Condition: Some water and damp staining, text not affected, overall in good condition.Layout: 19 lines to the page, except for f.1r with 16 lines and f.12r with 22 linesScript: Black riqa‛ scriptAdditions: Folio 1r: Inscription in black reads Cambridge classmark of the manuscript: ‘Add. Ms. 1073’. Some other inscriptions in black: text and numbers. Inscription in pencil on top right corner reads: ‘176 pennies’ (this was most probably the manuscript’s price at some point). Another inscription in pencil in the middle of the page reads: ‘From Flugel Cat. 1244, 10/4 ‘72’. It is possible that there was a sale of Flugel’s library in 1872 following his death in 1870. 10/4 would be the price: 10 shillings and four pence. Cambridge University stamp at the bottom indicating date of acquisition: ‘20 July 78’. Folio 1v: Title in red script reads: hādhā risāla Tāj al-Dīn al-Rūmī quddisa sirruhu. Followed by the basmala in black and the introduction. Marginal annotations in black presenting two couplets of poetry preceded by: kunt ḥaḍart mawlāna quddisa sirrahu al-a‛lā. Folio 2r: Author’s name given on line 4 as Tāj al-Dīn ibn Mahdī Zamān al-Rūmī. The text reads: hādhihi al-ṭarīqa al-‛aliyya al-Naqshbandiyya akhadhaha ‛abd al-faqīr al-kāmil fī al-nuqṣān wa-’l-‛ājiz fī al-maghfira al-raḥmān Tāj al-Dīn ibn Mahdī Zamān al-Rūmī min al-khawāja Muḥammad al-Baqī [AD 1563-1603] wa-huwa akhadhahā ‛an mawlāna khawāja Kay (sic.) [Aḥmad] al-Amkankī (pronounced most probably as Amkanjī) wa-huwa ‛an [missing a link here being Darwīsh Muḥammad] al-walī al-khawāja Muḥammad al-Zāhid wa-huwa ‛an al-Ghawth al-‛a‛ẓamal-khawāja ‛Ubayd Allāh al-Aḥrār ibn Maḥmūd al-Shāshī (i.e. from Tashkent) ‘Ḥaḍrat Ishān’ [AD 1404-1490] quddisa sirrahu wa-huwa ‛an al-shaykh al-shuyukh mawlāna Ya‛qūb Jarkhī (pronounced most probably as Charkhī) [d. 851/1447] wa-huwa ‛an ḥadrat al-khawāja al-kabīr khawāja Muḥammad Bahā’ al-Dīn al-Naqshbandī wa-huwa ‛an al-Sayyid [Amīr] al-Kulālī al-Bukhārī wa huwa ‛an al-khawāja Muḥammad Bāba al-Sammāsī wa huwa ‛an haḍrat al-‛Azīzān khawāja ‛Alī al-Dāmitī (sic.) (most probably al-Rāmitīnī) wa huwa al-mashhūr bi-‛Azīzān wa huwa ‛an khawāja Maḥmūd Injīr (or Anjīr) al-Faghnawī wa huwa ‛an al-khawāja ‛Arif al-Riwkarawī (pronounced most probably as Riwgarawī) wa huwa ‛an al-khawāja ‛Abd al-Khāliq al-Ghujdāwanī [missing a link here being Abū al-‛Abbās Khiḍr] wa huwa ‛an al-Shaykh Ibn Ya‛qūb ibn Ayyūb Yūsūf al-Hamadānī (in Shadows of the Prophet: Martial Arts and Sufi Mysticism by D. S. Farrer the name is Abū Ya‛qū Yūsūf al-Hamadānī p.273) wa huwa ‛an ‛Alī (possibly Abū ‛Ali Aḥmad (or Faḍl) b. Muḥammad) al-Farmadī Tūsī wa huwa ‛an al-shaykh Abū al-Ḥasan al-Kharaqānī … the silsila continues further on the following two pages to include the spiritual teachers such as Abū Yazīd al-Bistāmī, Ja‛far al-Ṣādiq, al-Qāsim b. Muḥammad b. Abū Bakr al-Siddīq, Salmān al-Fārsī, Abū Bakr al-Siddīq and last but not least the Prophet himself. Further marginal annotations on folios 8v, 9r, 9v, 10v and 11v. Folio 12v: Continuation to the closing remarks in the margin within an upside down triangle outlined in red stating the name of scribe as Sayyid Darwīsh Sayyid Darwīsh . Date of completion inscribed in black: 1203.Binding: Ottoman marbled boards with brown leather spine
Contains the only extant copy of al-Māturīdī's Kitāb al-tawḥīd. This treatise discusses the opinions of different religious groups -both Muslim and non-Muslim- on a variety of theological issues, with especial attention to the polemics concerning the attributes of God.Layout: 21 lines to the page
This manuscript contains al-Makkūdī (d. 1404)'s commentary on one of the most popular Arabic grammatical works, the Alfīyah of Ibn Mālik, Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd Allāh, d. 1274 Ibn Mālik (d. 1274) . The exceptional importance of this manuscript resides in the fact that it has preserved marginalia and commentaries written by its owner, Erpenius, Thomas, 1584-1624 Thomas Erpenius , Dutch Orientalist and author of the first scientific grammar of Arabic written in Europe. The Arabic text of al-Makkūdī is interleaved with folios containing Erpenius annotations, which provide important information about the way Arabic was studied in Modern Europe, and also about Erpenius' relationship with the Morisco Aḥmad ibn Qāsim al-Ḥājarī, with whom he read al-Makkūdī's work.Layout: 28 lines to the pageScript: Main text in Maghribi script in brown ink. Marginal notes in European nask, brown ink.
Khulāṣat al-ikhtiṣāṣ fī maʻrifat al-qūwā wa-al-khawāṣṣ Contains Ibn al-Raqqām’s Kitāb khulāṣat al-ikhtiṣāṣ fī ma‘rifat al-qūwā wa’l-khawāṣṣ [Compendium of competence in knowing faculties and characteristics], preceded by an anonymous poem on agriculture. As stated in the incipit, Ibn al-Raqqām’s treatise is an abridgement of Ibn Waḥshīya Ibn Waḥshīyah, Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī, 9th cent. ’s Al-Filāḥa al-Nabaṭīya. The work consists of an agricultural tract in fifteen chapters, and an account of 309 plants, with their actions and properties, which are listed and numbered in the table of contentsLayout: 23 linesScript: Clear Naskh, black inkAdditions: Catchwords in the interior bottom-margin of versos marginalia Marginal commentaries in black ink marginalia Numbers referring to the index of plants written in red ink in the margins of ff. 30v-118v
This manuscript bearing the title al-Mughnī fī al-Ṭibābah contains a medical work written by the physician Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn (d. 1101) commonly entitled al-Mughnī fī tadbīr al-amrāḍ wa-maʿrifat al-ʿilal wa-al-aʿrāḍ. The treatise, which was dedicated to the caliph al-Muqtadī (d. 1094), classifies a number of diseases according to the part of the body they affected, describing their causes, symptoms and treatments in an original three column display. The date in the colophon of the manuscript is obliterated, but several ownership statements provide a terminus ante quem in the second half of the sixth century A.H / twelfth century C.E.Layout: 22 lines to the page. Main text written in one column and three columns to list disease المرض, cause السبب and symptom العرض
Fragments of a Hijazi Qurʼān probably written in the second century A.H. / eighth century A.D., containing verses from the Sura al-Anfāl (سورة الأنفال).Layout: 23 lines to the page
Fragment of an Abbasid Qur'ān probably written in the third or fourth century A.H. / ninth or tenth century C.E, containing verses 8-24 from Sura al-Yūsuf (سورة يوسف). The script seems to correspond to a mediocre version of the Abbasid Style D IV as described by F. Deroche.Layout: 18 lines per pageScript: The script seems to correspond to a mediocre version of the Abbasid Style D IV as described by F. Deroche.
Fragment of an Abbasid Qur'ān probably written in the third or fourth century A.H. / ninth or tenth century C.E, containing verses 67-72 from the Sura Yūnus (سورة يونس). The script seems to correspond to the Abbasid Style D.Vb as described by F. Deroche.Layout: 5 lines per pageScript: The script seems to correspond to the Abbasid Style D.Vb as described by F. Deroche.
Fragment of an Abbasid Qur'ān probably written in the third or fourth century A.H. / ninth or tenth century C.E, containing verses 54-120 from Sura al-Māʾida (سورة المائدة), and the first two verses of Sura al-Anʿām (سورة الانعام) . The script seems to correspond to the Abbasid Style D.IV as described by F. Deroche.Layout: 7 lines per pageScript: The script seems to correspond to the Abbasid Style D.IV as described by F. Deroche.
Fragment of an Abbasid Qur'ān probably written in the third or fourth century A.H. / ninth or tenth century C.E, containing verses from the Sura al-Nisāʾ (سورة النساء). The script seems to correspond to the Abbasid New Style as described by F. Deroche.Layout: 7 lines per pageScript: The script seems to correspond to the Abbasid New Style as described by F. Deroche.
