Epistle on the Customs of the Naqshbandiyya Order

Title:

Epistle on the Customs of the Naqshbandiyya Order

Creator:

Tāj al-Dīn ibn Zakariyya Mahdī Zamān al-Rūmī (d. AH 1050/AD 1640)

Date:

AH 1203/AD 1788-9

Description:

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

Language:

Arabic

Type (Narrower):

Manuscripts

Type (Broader):

Text

Provenance:

Purchased by Cambridge University Library at the Leipziger Bucher Auction on 22 May 1872, from the sale of Flügel, Gustav, 1802-1870 Flügel 's personal library.

Medium:

Paper

Publisher:

Cambridge University Library

Rights:

Images made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC 3.0)
This metadata is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

Identifier:

MS Add.1073

Is part of:

Oriental Manuscrupts: Islamic Manuscripts Collection

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