Islamic Traditions, ALKAFI [IO Islamic 568]

Tradition.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 568 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 144 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

144.

568. Size 111/2 in. by 63/4 in.; foll. 884. Twenty-nine lines in a page.

The famous Collection of Shî’ah Traditions, entitled الکافی, by Abu Ja’far Muḥammad b. Ya’ḳûb KULÎNÎ (d. A. H. 328). See on it and on the author, Ṭûsî, p. ٣٢٦; Ibn al-Athîr, ed. Tornberg, viii. p. ٢٧٣; 1 Liber as-Sojutii de nomin. relat., ed. Veth, p. ٢٢٤; Sprenger, Life of Mohammad, p. 68. Copies are rare in Europe.2 A few extracts from the work are to be found in Cat. Mus. Brit., p. 452, vi., and a commentary on it in Do Jong, Cat. Bibl. Acad. Reg. Scient., p. 174.

The preface begins: الحمدلله المحمود لنعمته المعبود لقدرته. The work is divided into twenty-nine or thirty books, according to the subjects. Their order in the present copy differs from the list of Ṭûsî. Besides, some portions are in a strange state of confusion, of which the owner of this copy must have been conscious, and which he tried to conceal by spoiling the text at the end and at the beginning of several books with ornaments.3 Owing to the identity of their first words, foll. 287 sqq. and 555 sqq. have been misplaced, but they cannot be re-arranged properly, in the present condition of the MS. The only way of making the whole run coherently is to break the connexion of کتاب الصوم and الحج کتاب (foll. 474 and 475). Then the books would stand in the following order:

I. (fol. 7v.) العقل و الجهل; II. (fol. 22v.) التوحید; III. (fol. 45) الحجّة, containing the Shî’ah doctrines on the Imâmate; IV. (fol. 155) الایمان و الکفر; V. (fol. 251v.) الدعاء; VI. (fol. 280-286, 555, 556) فضل القران; VII. (fol. 557-565) العشرة;4 VIII. (foll. 475-554, 287-302) الحجّ; IX. (fol. 302v.) no title (الطهارة); X. (fol. 318) الحیض; XI. (fol. 325)الجنائز; XII. (fol. 358v.) الصلوة; XIII. (fol. 414) الزکوة; XIV. (foll. 446-474) الصوم; XV. (fol. 566) الجهاد; XVI. (fol. 581v.) العتق و التدبیر و الکتابة; XVII. (fol. 587v.) الصید; XVIII. (fol. 593) الذبائح or الاطعمة (the former title is given at the beginning, the latter at the end of this book; more likely they are two separate books, as in Ṭûsî’s list; then the latter begins on fol. 595, where is the heading باب علل التحریم و هو اوّل الاطعمة); XIX (or XX.) (fol. 627v.) الاشربة; XX. الزیّ و التجمّل و المروّة; XXI. (fol. 667v.) الدواجن; XXII. (fol. 672v.) الوصایا; XXIII. (fol. 690) المواریث; XXIV. (fol. 716v.) الحدود; XXV. (fol. 741) الدیات; XXVI. (fol. 770) الشهادات; XXVII. (fol. 777) الاحکام; XXVIII. (fol. 785) الأیمان و النذور و الکفّارات; XXIX. (or XXX.) (fol. 793) الروضة, on ‘Alî and the early Imâms personally.

A very elegant copy, transcribed by order of a Saiyid of Iṣfahân, by Muḥammad Ḥusain b. Ḥâjjî Jalâl al-dîn Shîrâzî. Dated Friday, 1 Jumâda II., 1162. The names of the original authorities (Muḥammad and the Imâms) in gold, and those of the Shaikhs of the author in red. The titles in red, but the words کتاب and باب in gold. The beginning of each book is ornamented and gilt. Gold and blue lines round the pages.

The table of contents (foll. 1-7) comprises only Books I-VII, and is inscribed accordingly: فهرست ما فی اصول محمد بن یعقوب الکلینی رحه من الکتب و الابواب اما الکتب فسبعة بهذا التفصیل. The chapter are said to be 498 in number.

[Johnson.]

1 Read وقیل instead of وقُتل in the text in question.

2 I am informed by Prof. Wright, of Cambridge, that there is another copy in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.

3 A gross mistake occurs also in the concluding words on fol. 302r.: تم کتاب الاصول و یتلوه کتاب المیاه. In reality this is the end of کتاب الحج, and no books with the above titles occur in the work. The book following next, on the verso of the same fol. (کتاب الطهارة), is without title.

4 This book, which is entirely detached, is inserted here according to the table of contents. It does not occur in Ṭûsî’s list.