Manuscript. Persian and Arabic. Caption title. Scribe not identified. Gift of A.A. Kachif, Nov. 20, 1930. Written in Iran. Paper; thick, polished light cream color paper with no watermarks; elaborate floral unwan in gold, blue, red, and white with wide borders of a similar floral pattern and similar colors of fol. 1b and 2a; an outer border of two very thin lines accompanies all the text on facing pages; the text itself is enclosed in a border of black, white, gold, and red; floral section headings in gold, red and blue; lines of the text are separated by a cloud design in gold; text in black ink with small red overlining of some letters; catchwords. Nastaʻliq; in written area 13 x 7.5 cm. Fol. 1b-24a. Library of Congress. Persian manuscript, M100. Binding; dark brown half leather with lacquered papier-mâché floral design on a copper colored background surrounded by contrasting green, red and green borders also with floral designs; inner sides of cover also lacquered with a paintings of dark pink roses on a brown background. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
Shiite prayer book; consists of prayers to be said on the visitation of Caliph ʻAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib's tomb. This manuscript of Durrat al-tāj (The crown jewel) is a Shiite prayer book, consisting of prayers to be said when making a visitation to the tomb of Caliph ʻAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (circa 601-61). 'Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib is one of the most revered religious and holy figures of Islam. In Iran, he is referred to by the honorary name Amir al-Muʼminin, which translates from Arabic as “Commander of the Faithful” and is used to refer to him in Persian. Written works by 'Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib and sayings attributed to him are sacred to the Shiite faithful, particularly among Persian speakers. The manuscript was probably written in Iran, possibly in the 17th century. The paper is of a thick, cream-colored polished Middle Eastern style, without distinctive chain or laid lines, and no watermark. The text is written in black ink in naskhī script, nine lines on each page, with gold decorations between lines. The borders of the written area are lined with black ink, with profuse decoration outside of the written area. The text is rubricated. The title was added by a later hand. There is no colophon. The binding is referred to as chahargusheh, meaning a frame binding made around a Kashmiri shawl dating from the first half of the 1700s (circa 1740s). World Digital Library.
An incomplete compilation including an Arabic treatise on the sultanate and caliphate based on a hadith of Kaʻb al-Akhbār with an interlinear Persian translation, an Arabic treatise on the legal division of human actions into lawful and unlawful, and two unidentified poems in Persian; the last of the poems is incomplete.
Manuscript. Persian with passages in Arabic. Title supplied by cataloger. Scribe not identified. Written in either Iran or India. Paper; cream color laid paper with horizontal chain lines and watermark of a cross within a circle; black ink with minimal rubrication and some red overlining; catchwords. Naskh; 14 lines in written area 14 x 9.5 cm. Fol. 1a-69b. Library of Congress. Persian manuscript, M140. Flexible brown leather binding. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
Lithographed. Obedience to king, a religious decree and Islamic reference guide issued during the royal era in Afghanistan in 20th century. In Persian and Pushto; includes Arabic citations.
On recitation and reading of the Qurʼān. This work is an introduction to the rules of pronunciation during the recitation of the Qur'an. It was written for students at the elementary and intermediate levels in Afghanistan. In the preface the author states that in teaching the rules of proper pronunciation, the focus should be on skills that young Persian- or Pushto-speaking students have not been exposed to, e.g., the proper pronunciation of letters in Arabic, mudd (prolongation), awqaf (pause), and other topics. The book begins with a list of makharij (emission points) for the letters. These are listed as 17 locations in the throat, tongue, lips, nose, and mouth. The conventions for sounding the letters are divided into various categories. For the letter nun (n) the following cases are listed: izhar (clarity, i.e., the clear pronunciation of the letter if it is following by "letters of the throat" such as the ʻayin); idgham (merging, i.e., of two consecutive words, when the first word ends in a nun, and the second word is followed by ra', r, or lam, l); iqlab (conversion, i.e., the conversion of the nun to a mim, m, if it is followed by a ba', b); and ikhfa' (concealment, which covers the remaining cases for the letter nun, and is accompanied by a ghunnah, or nasalization). A previous owner has added occasional corrections to the text. The work was published in the year 1300 AH of the solar Islamic calendar, corresponding to 1921 or 1922. This anonymously written work was printed at the Ministry of Education Press in Kabul, under the auspices of Muhammad Sulayman Khan, who served as minister of education under Amanullah Khan (reigned 1919-29). World Digital Library.
Tuḥfat al-ʻulamā' (An offering for religious scholars) is ostensibly a tract addressed to the ʻulamā' (religious scholars) of Afghanistan, asking them to actively discourage the suspicion held by their followers toward things foreign. It was written by order of the Afghan ruler Sher Ali Khan (reigned 1863-66 and 1868-79). Little is known of the author, ʻAbd al-Qadir Khan, although he is identified as a qāḍī (judge) indicating his religious authority. ʻAbd al-Qadir uses numerous quotations from the hadith literature to argue that practices originating with "non-believers" may be in accordance with the sharia provided these practices benefit the Islamic ummah (community). The foreign practices in question mostly have to do with the military--that military spending and a strong military are consistent with Islamic teachings remain major themes throughout the work. Although the heavy reliance on the Qur'an, the hadith, and quotations by learned men in the Islamic tradition (such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and Muhammad al-Ghazali) demonstrate the expertise and the erudition of the author (or, possibly, authors), the polemical and often repetitious arguments serve to emphasize the purely propagandistic aspects of Tuḥfat al-ʻulamā'. The timing of the publication is noteworthy. For much of his career Sher Ali Khan was in the enviable position of managing the conflicting interests of tsarist Russia and Great Britain, two colonial powers locked in the "Great Game" for mastery over Afghanistan. The publication of Tuḥfat al-ʻulamā' in 1875 predates the Second Anglo-Afghan War (and Sher Ali's retreat from Kabul) by several years. The book was published in the Mustafawi printing press, which was founded by Sher Ali Khan, and is one of the earliest works printed in Afghanistan. World Digital Library.
Caliph 'Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (circa 601-61) is one of the most revered religious and holy figures of Islam. In Iran, he is referred to by the honorary name Amir al-Muʼminin, which translates from Arabic as “Commander of the Faithful” and is used to refer to him in Persian. Written works by 'Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib and sayings attributed to him are sacred to the Shiite faithful, particularly among Persian speakers. Shown here is an illuminated 18th-century manuscript copy of the Munājāt (Supplication) of ʻAli ibn Abī Ṭālib. Included are both the original Arabic and a translation into Persian. The text is written on a moderately heavy cream-colored paper in gold (folio 1b and 2a) and black ink (folio 2b to the end) within five borders. The borders are colored in, from the outermost to the innermost, in blue, red, gold, red, and green. The pages are divided into four boxes to accommodate the main text and the translation, three containing two lines and one containing one line, or seven lines for each page. The Arabic text, in naskhi script, is in larger boxes with elaborate interlinear decoration; the Persian translation, in nastaʻlīq script, is in narrower boxes with panels of floral decoration on either side. An unknown Persian text appears on folio 1a, part of which is missing along the left margin due to trimming and on the upper-right margin due to damage to the first folio (mended with some loss of this text but no damage to main text). The name and date "Vahīd Ḥusaynī 1209" (1794 or 1795) appears at the lower-left corner of the written area of folio 7b; an unknown Persian text in a later hand appears on the endpaper. World Digital Library. Munājāt (Supplication) of ʻAli ibn Abī Ṭālib.
Manuscript. Arabic and Persian; colophon in Turkish (Arabic script). Title from container. Scribe not identified. Probably written in Iran. Paper; cream color paper with no visible watermarks; elaborate unwans on fol. 1b and 2a with text enclosed in a wide ruled border of gold red and green; remainder of text enclosed in ruled border in gold black and red; interlinear Persian translation in red ink; verses are separated by gold discs. Individual sūrahs have titles in red and gold; extensive commentary in Persian in the margins throughout; black ink; Persian translation in red ink; catchwords. The Holy Koran in the Library of Congress, 17 Naskh (Qurʼānic text); nastaʻliq (Persian translation); 12 lines in written area 21 x 11.5 cm. Fol. 1b-325a. Library of Congress. Arabic manuscript, M133. Binding lacking; marbled endpapers in pastel colors and tan. Explicit/Colophon: Kemal Paşa merhumun ve çocuğum vakf olunmuṣtur, sene 1304, Recep. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
Commentary and explanation of some Qurʼānic verses. Kashf al-asrār (The unveiling of mysteries) is a book of Qur'anic commentary dating from the early 20th century. The author, Shir Ahmad, was from Kabul, Afghanistan. In the Kashf al-asrār, Shir Ahmad makes repeated reference to an earlier and more comprehensive commentary but states that, because of the great bulk of the earlier work, he was forced to write a short text dealing with various essential topics. The Kashf al-asrār is organized as an introduction and 13 sections, with each section treating a collection of related verses from the Qur'an. Shir Ahmad writes the introduction in Persian, in which he makes a customary plea about the potential shortcomings of his work. In the subsequent section the commentary is in Arabic. The Qur'anic verses under consideration are written in the same color and in the same naskh calligraphy as the commentary, but they are set off by use of a larger script size. Somewhat unexpectedly, Shir Ahmad switches back to a Persian commentary (written in the nasta'liq calligraphic style) mid-way through the subsequent section. The work concludes with a table of contents. Shir Ahmad's Kashf al-asrār shares its name with a number of works, including a celebrated 12th century Qur'anic commentary by Rashid al-Din Maybudi. The book was printed and published in 1910 or 1911 in Kabul by Matbaʻah-i ʻUmumi. World Digital Library.
