Islamic Traditions [IO Islamic 2264]

• Tradition.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 2264 in the India Office collections.
• [metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 181 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

181.

2264. Size 8^1/2 in. by 6 in.; foll. 191. Twenty-three lines in a page.

A defence of the orthodox doctrine on the Khalifate, or the righteousness of the three predecessors of ‘Alî, against Shî’ahs and heretics, by Shihâb al-dîn AḤMAD B. ḤAJAR Haithamî Makkî (d. A. H. 973). It is entitled الصواعق المحرقة.

See Ḥ. Kh. iv. 110,¹ for an abstract of the preface. Cf. Bibl. Sprenger. 708, and Stewart’s Catal. 136.

This work is mainly founded on the Sunnî tradition and on old authors. The above title, and the name of the author, do not occur in the text. There are really eleven chapters instead of ten, as stated in the preface,² viz.: I. (fol. 6v.) فی بیان کیفیة خلافة الصدیق; II. (fol. 40v.) فیما جاء عن اکابر اهل البیت من مزید الثناء علی الشیخین; III. (fol. 44) فی بیان افضلیة ابی بکر علی سائر هذه الامة; IV. (fol. 68v.) فی خلافة عمر; V. (fol. 70v.) فی فضائله و خصوصیاته; VI. (fol. 80v.) فی خلافة عثمان; VII. (fol. 83) فی فضائله و مآثره; VIII. (fol. 89) فی خلافة علی; IX. (fol. 92v.) فی مآثره و فضائله; X. (fol. 103v.) فی خلافة الحسن و فضائله; XI. (fol. 108-158) فی فضائل اهل البیت النبوی. There follows (foll. 158-168) a supplement to the last chapter, containing extracts from a treatise on the same subject (فی مناقب اهل البیت), by Sakhâwî (Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-raḥmân, d. A. H. 902), with which the author became acquainted fourteen years after the completion of the present work, when numerous copies of the latter had spread all over the world (“the farthest West, Transoxania, Kashmîr, India, Yaman, etc.”). Though these extracts were not considerable, and could easily be added as marginal notes, yet it seemed to him impossible to gather all the copies of the text for that purpose (!). He therefore gives them separately, divided into four short chapters (باب). The work concludes with a double appendix (خاتمة), fol. 168v.: فی امور مهمّة, and fol. 174: فی بیان اعتقاد اهل السنة و الجماعة من (فی .r) الصحابة الخ.

Carefully written, by Sulaimân b. ‘Abd al-karîm Khaṭîb Sanabânî (السنبانی, sic) ³ Shâfi’î. Dated Wednesday, 10 Rajab, 993. An index to the work is on the title-page.

The last pages (foll. 188v.-191) are filled with extracts from SUYÛṬÎ’s منهاج السنة, etc., ill written.

The book bears only a modern inscription, which begins: کتاب الصواعق المحرقة لاخوان الشیطان و الابتداع و الضلال و الزندقة تالیف الامام الخ. In an Oriental binding of brown leather.

[Coll. Fort William, 1825.]

¹The correct title of the work is given in Add. et Corr. vii. 780.

²See Ḥ. Kh. l.c.

³Probably of Sanabân in Yaman. See Yâḳût, iii. ١٥٦.