[IO Islamic 1458] انيس المريدين و شمس المجالس

Anîs-almurîdîn u shams-almajâlis

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1778 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Hermann Ethé, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, 2 vols. (Oxford: India Office, 1903): volume 1, number 1458 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1778

Anîs-almurîdîn u shams-almajâlis (انيس المريدين و شمس المجالس).

The story of Yûsuf and Zalîkhâ in Persian prose, told by the Shaikh-alislâm Khwâjah Abû Isma’il ‘Abdallâh Muḥammad al-Anṣârî of Harât (who was born A.H. 396 in the month of Sha’bân=A.D. 1006, May ; and died the 9th of Rabi’-alâkhar, A.H. 481=A.D. 1088, July 2), for the benefit of his friends and disciples, in order to give them sound moral lessons and higher mystical instruction. The book is divided into fourteen Majlis, and interwoven with many verses of the Ḳurân, traditions, and sayings of other renowned Shaikhs.

Beginning:الحمد لله الّذى ابدع وجود الانسان فى احسن تقويم و احسن اعضاؤه بلطائف صفة القديم الكريم الرّحيم الخ.

Comp. on the author Safînat-alauliyâ, No. 300 (col. 304 in this Cat.). Other works by the same renowned Ṣûfî are the مناجات or رساله, and the نصيحت or پند خواجه نظام , see the two following copies ; the منازل السّائرين , originally written in Arabic (see G. Flügel iii. p. 321 sq. ; O. Loth, Arabic Cat., p. 165, where two Arabic commentaries on the same are described ; Ḥ. Khalfa vi. p. 129 ; a Persian translation, entitled جامع منازل, will be noticed further down in this Cat.) ; the تفسير قرآن (see on this and the preceding work Haft Iḳlîm, No. 619, col. 423 in this Cat.); the الهى نامه (see G. Flügel iii. p. 412, No. 1, and W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 33, No.2) ; the زاد العارفين (see Rieu ii. p. 738b) ; the اسرار نامه or كتاب اسرار (ib. ii. p. 774b) ; the تحفة الوزرا, also styled رسالۀ تحفة الملوك در نصيحت و بند و بست , containing forty section, each with four good advices (see G. Flügel i. p. 609, and iii. p. 412 ; Ḥ. Khalfa ii. p. 243, No. 2690, and compare with them Bodleian Cat., col. 765) ; another set of نصائح or ‘good advices’ (Bodleian Cat., col. 764, and No. 1767, 11 in this Cat.) ; a treatise on mystical questions, addressed by the heart (دل) to the soul (جان), see G.Flügel iii. p. 412, No. 2, etc. Anṣârî also edited an enlarged version of the طبقات الصّوفيّة , or, as Safînat-alauliyâ, No. 284 (col. 303 in this Cat.), calls it, طبقات مشايخ, by Shaikh Abû ‘Abd-alraḥmân (according to others merely ‘Abd-alraḥmân) Muḥammad bin Ḥusain bin Muḥammad bin Mûsâ Sullami al-Nîshâpûri, who died A.D. 412, in the month of Sha’bân (A.D. 1021, Nov-Dec. ; see also Rieu i. p. 349a, Ḥ. Khalfa vi. p. 129), a work, which Jâmî’s نفحات الانس (see Nos. 1357, 8, and 1359-1367 above) are chiefly based.

For further works of Anṣârî, see the preface to the edition of his lyrical poems, by Shukovski, St. Petersburg, 1895.

The present story of Yûsuf and Zalikhâ is dated the 25th of Dhû-alḥijjah, A.H. 1013 (A.D. 1605, May 14), at Burhânpûr, by Maḥmûad bin Muḥammad of Lucknow.

No. 1458, ff. 173, ll. 15-23; Nasta’lîḳ , by many different hands ; worm-eaten ; size, 93/8 in. by 53/8 in.