[IO Islamic 1274] كشف المحجوب

Kashf-almaḥjûb

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1774 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 1274 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1774

Another copy of the same.

This copy is badly injured on the first page, one half of which is torn away, and slightly damaged on some others. Ff. 2 and 3 do not belong to this work, the continuation of fol. 1b being on fol. 4a.

Ff. 256-265 are misplaced, the right order of the leaves is this: 256, 264, 258-263, 257, 265. Beginning the same as in the preceding copy.

The bâbs are found here:--

1.on fol.9a; 2. on fol. 14b; 3.on fol. 21a; 4. on fol. 29a ; 5. on fol. 37a; 6. on fol.39b ; 7. on fol. 44a; 8. on fol.48a; 9. on fol. 54b; 10. on fol. 56a; 11. on fol. 59b; 12. on fol. 108b; 13. on fol. 114b ; 14. on fol. 116b ; the first four Kashf appear here on ff. 178a, 185a, 190b, and 193b ; 15. on fol. 195b ; 5th Kashf, on fol. 199b ; 16. on fol. 203b ; 6th Kashf, on fol. 209a; 17. on fol. 210b ; 7th Kashf, on fol. 213a ; 18. on fol. 216a ; 8th Kashf, on fol. 217b; 19. on fol. 220a ; 9th Kashf, on fol. 222b ; 20. on fol.224b ; 21.on fol. 226b ; 22.on fol. 229a ; 23. on fol. 231a ; 24. on fol. 232b; 25.on fol. 234a ; 26. on fol. 235a ; 27.on fol. 237b; 28. on fol. 239b; 29. on fol. 242a ; 30. 10th Kashf, on fol.246b ; 11th Kashf, on fol. 261b ; 31. on fol. 263a ; 32. on fol. 266b ; 33. on fol. 267b ; 34. on fol. 269b ; 35. on fol. 272a ; 36. on fol. 272b ; 37. on fol. 276b ; 38. on fol. 278a ; 39. on fol. 279b ; 40. on fol. 250a.

This work concludes on fol. 281b, and is followed by two short treatises on the same mystical doctrine, the first of which is complete, fills ff. 283b-289b, and is entitled رسالۀ ابداليّه , composed by Ya’ḳûb bin ‘Uthmân bin Maḥmûd bin Maḥmûd alghaznawî (later الجرخى and السّوزى), who very often refers to ‘Alî bin ‘Uthmân’s Kashf-almaḥjûb and tells us that he was Abû Sa’îd bin Abû-alkhair’s brother and very often in the majlis of Sulṭân Maḥmûd. This treatise begins: الحمد لله الّذى زيّن السّماء الدّنيا بمصابيح و جعلها رجوماً للشّياطين و زيّن الارض با الرّسل (! sic) و الانبياء و الاولياء الخ.

The same Ya’ḳûb bin ‘Uthmân alghaznawî (later الجرخى ) is noticed as authors of a tabulated list of renowned Shaikhs (اسمآء المشايخ الكرام) in W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 4, No. 8.

The second treatise is anonymous and incomplete, beginning: بعد حمد او كه ليس كمثله شئى هيچ شبه ندارد و آن حضرت بيچون رنگ سفيد سيه ندارد الخ.

It fills ff. 290b-295b, continues on fol. 3 and then on fol. 2, where it breaks off with the words: مطلق باشى اى حاجى .... The first treatise is dated the 24th of Jumâdâ-alawwal, A.H. 1095, that is the twenty-seventh year of ‘Âlamgîr’s reign (=A.D. 1684, May 9).

No. 1274, ff. 295, ll. 17; clear and distinct Nasta’lîḳ; size, 107/8 in. by 63/4 in.