Ṣûfism and Ethics [IO Islamic 676]

• Ṣûfism and Ethics.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 676 in the India Office collections.
• [metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 653 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

653.

676. Size 8^3/4 in. by 5 in.; foll. 256. Thirteen and twenty-one lines in a page.

I.Foll. 1-208. A Commentary (ممزوج) on Ibn ‘Arabî’s Abridgment of his own فصوص الحكم , called نقش النصوص , by ‘Abdl al-raḥmân JÂMÎ (d. A.H. 898).

It is entitled نقد النصوص , and written alternately in Arabic and Persian.

Cf. Ḥ. Kh. vi. 380; Von Rosenzweig, Biographische Notizen, no. 4. The work is also to be found in Flügel, Hdss. Wien, iii. 336, no. 1900, where, however, the introduction is omitted. This introduction is of considerable length (to fol. 45). It begins:الحمد لله الذى جعل صفائح قلوب ذوى الهمم ¹ قابلة لنقش فصوص الحكم .

The author says subsequently (fol. 2v.):اما بعد اين كلمۀ چند است از نصوص ارباب خصوص بشرح معانى نقش الفصوص که شیخ کامل مکمل ... ابن العربى .. از كتاب فصوص الحكم كه خاتم مصنفات ويست اختصار فرموده است الخ.

He gives his name in the epilogue, which concludes with a Persian poem.

Very neatly written in Nasta’liḳ, in narrow columns.

Ornamented and gilt. Emendations and some notes on the broad margin. The first two leaves pasted on modern paper.

II.Foll. 209-248. A Commentary (ممزوج) on Ibn ‘Arabî’s رسالة الغوث , or الغوثية , the same as no. 655.

The beginning is wanting. The first words, باظهار الصدق , are from the preface. The commentary begins with an explanation of the Basmalah, as follows: اى ابتدأ باسم الله الذى عبارة عن الذات الخ.

Well written in Nasta’liḳ; the text not accurately distinguished. A defect after fol. 214.

There follow some tracts in Persian.

The first piece (I.) was purchased by Muḥammad Muḥsin, at Shâhjahânâbâd, and brought to Lakhnau.

[Johnson.]

¹ Ḥ. Kh. gives these words erroneously as the beginning of Ibn ‘Arabî’s abridgment.