Prayers and Charms [IO Islamic 2284]

• Prayers and charms.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 2284 in the India Office collections.
• [metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 374 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

374.

2284. Size 8 in. by 5^1/2 in.; foll. 122. Twenty-one lines in a page.

I. Foll. 1-13v. A treatise on augury, imperfect at the beginning. It gives a description of twenty-four omens (فأل), connected with the names of as many prophets, the last being Muḥammad.

The first heading is: فأل ادریس عم. Fol. 1v. gives a table of contents.

II. Foll. 13v.-29. A treatise on lawful magic (العلم الروحانی), by an unknown author. It has the superscription نوع آخر عزائم و منادل غیر ذلک.

The preface begins: الحمد لله الذی کون الاکوان و دبر الزمان.

1. Fol. 31-43. کتاب شرح المنظومة الدمیاطیة المسمی بالمواهب السنیة لسیدی احمد بن محمد ابن عیسی عرف بابن زروق المالکی مذهبا الخ.

A commentary on a rhymed prayer, which contains all the names of God, by Nûr al-dîn Dimyâṭî. The commentator is Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ‘Îsâ, commonly called IBN ZARRÛḲ (Burnusî, d. A.H. 896). See Cat. Mus. Brit. 109, and ib., Add. et Corr. ad 77.

1. Foll. 89-102. A treatise on the letters of the Abujad, by Shams al-dîn Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Ya’ḳûb Kûfî TÛNISÎ.

It begins:الحمدلله رب العالمین قال الشیخ...نحمد من احاط بالجلیات و الخفیات; and it ends abruptly in the chapter on the letter ح.

The rest of this MS. consists of a variety of amulets, charms, magic circles and squares, and also some prayers, mostly written continuously.

Slightly injured by damp.

On the title-page is a note in Turkish, and at the foot of it another note, partly effaced, with the signature of Ḥâjjî Sulaimân b. Muḥammad, and the date, A.H. 1102.

[College of Fort William, 1825.]