Prayers and Charms [IO Islamic 2352]

Prayers and charms.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 2352 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 372 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

372.

2352. Size 6 in. by 31/2 in.; foll. 131. From five to nine lines in a page.

A Prayer-book, made up of different portions, mostly well written. Of the twelfth century.

Foll. 1-14. Sûrah 18.

Foll. 15-57.

Some portions of the Koran, viz. Sûrahs 36, 48, 56, 67 and 78. With an interlinear Persian translation.

Fol. 49v. Ten verses from the Koran, all speaking of love. They are to be used as a charm.

Fol. 52. A Shî’ah prayer, سَهْمُ اللیلِ, ascribed to the Imâm Mahdî صاحب الزمان; with advice how to use it (شرح دعاءِ سهم اللیل). It is taken from the glosses on (Ṭûsî’s?) المصباح, by الکفعمی.

Begins: اللهمّ انّی اسئلک بعزیز تعزیز اعتزاز عزّتک.

Notes in Persian are on the margin. According to one of them, this piece is derived, through two successive copies, from a MS. of Mîr Muḥammad Bâḳir Dâmâd.

Foll. 58-67. A prayer, comprising invocations of prophets and demons.

Begins: اللهم یا صانع کل مصنوع.

It is preceded and followed by other prayers, charms in Persian, etc., which are rather illegibly written.

Foll. 68-114.

A long prayer for Muḥammad, beginning: الحمد لله علی ما مضی. It is followed by two short prayers of the same kind.

Fol. 86v. The Burdah.

Fol. 108. A mystic Ḳaṣîdah, beginning: أنا المطلوبُ فاطْلُبْنِی تَجِدْنِی. The last two words are repeated at the end of every verse.

Foll. 115-131. Various Persian notes and tracts, mostly illegibly written. At the end is a list of the names of God.

Seal of Tippu on the first page.

[College of Fort William. 1825.]