Scholastic Theology [IO Bijapur 184] شَرْح المقاصد

• Scholastic Theology. شرح المقاصد
• This manuscript is now IO Bijapur 184 in the India Office collections.
• [metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 461 here with notations and hyperlinks].

461.

B 184. Size 11^1/2 in. by 8 in.; foll. 278. Twenty-nine lines in a page.

Sa’d al-dîn Mas’ûd b. Omar TAFTÂZÂNÎ’S (d. 22^nd Muḥarram, 792 [=10 January 1390 CE], at Samarḳand) Commentary on his own Compendium (مختصر) of Metaphysics and Muḥammadan Theology, المقاصد. This commentary was written in Dhû-alḳa’dah, 784 [=January 1383 CE]. Cf. Ḥ. Kh. vi. 48.

The elaborate preface begins:

نحمدک یا من بیده ملکوت کل شی، و به اعتضاده، و من عنده ابتداء کل حی، و الیه معاده

The author says subsequently:

و بعد فقد کنت فی أِبّان الامر، و عنفوان العمر، ... اسرح النظر فی العلوم طلبا لازهارها و انوارها، و اشرح الکتب من الفنون کشفا لاستارها عن اسرارها الخ

The text and the commentary are distinguished by the words قال and اقول, but only a few words are given from the former in each case. Copies of the Maḳâṣid seem to be rare. It consists of the following six chapters (مقصد): I. (fol. 3v.) فی المبادی; II. (fol. 24v.)فی الامور العامة; III. (fol. 74) فی الاعراض; IV. (fol. 117v.) فی الجواهر; V. (fol. 173) فی الالهیات; VI. (fol. 222) فی السمعیات

Written in a good small hand. The colophon runs as follows:

لقد زبر ما برز کالابریز من العلاب و الهادی مبادی طریق الصواب (!) حرره نور بن احمد المشتهر بشیخ الاسلام بمحروسة هراة هدنت عن المخافات فی العشر الثانی من المائة التاسعة

Then follows a list of the works of Taftâzânî, with their respective dates, derived from the author himself.

Two blanks are left on foll. 138 and 152 for diagrams.

Foll. 137-172 are in a different hand.

On the last page is the note of an owner, named Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Sa’d, who read and collated this volume several times, and intended to write a commentary on it. This note is dated A. H. 863 [=1478-79 CE].

Bîj. Libr., A. H. 992 (Nauras)[= 1584 CE]. In the original binding, which is tastefully ornamented.

 [Charles] Stewart’s] Cat. 224, iv.

• [ed note: Quick link to works by the same author.]