Ṣûfism and Ethics [IO Bijapur 400]

Ṣûfism and Ethics. 

This manuscript is now IO Bijapur 400 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 667 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

667.

B 400. Size 10 in. by 6 in.; foll. 50. Twenty-three lines in a page.

هذه اجابة الاخ الفاضل الكامل بحلّ الابواب الاربعة (!) من كتاب الانسان الكامل للفقير الى عفو سيده الغنى القدير احمد بن محمد بن عبدالنبى المدنى الانصارى القرشى لطف الله به الخ.

A Commentary on five chapters (from 50 to 54) of ‘Abd al-karîm Jîlî’s mystic work الانسان الكامل , by AḤMAD B. MUḤAMMAD b. ‘Abd al-nabî Madanî (d. A.H. 1071). The author wrote it at the request of Jamâl al-dîn Muḥammad ‘Alî b. ‘Allân 1 Ṣiddîḳî, of Makkah, and completed it on 21st Ramaḍân, 1056, at Madînah. See, for a full account of Jîlî’s work, Flügel, Hdss. Wien, iii. 376 sq., where also the titles of the chapters here commented on are given (p.377). Cf. Ḥ Kh. i. 459.

The preface begins:الحمد لله موضع الشرائع لاتباع الطرائق . The author says subsequently: و بعد يقول الفقير الى ربه الغنى احمد بن محمد المدنى انه ورد الىّ كتاب من بلد الله الحرام من بقيّة الفضلاء و نخبة النبلاء علامة الوقت جمال الدين الاخ محمد على بن علان الصديقى .. مضمونه انه يسأل بعد التحيّة .. هل تعلمون احدا من الخواص رفع الستور عن بعض مجنّبات عرائس الانسان الكامل بحاشية او شرح فان كان فتكتبوه لنا و ان لم تقفوا على شئ من ذلك فلعلّكم تتقيّدون لنا فى شئ من ذلك يكون تذليلا لبعض صعابه .. من الباب الموفى خمسين فى روح القدس الى الباب الرابع و الخمسين فى الوهم الى آخر الباب ولو فى نحو كراسين و الحال انى لم اقف للكتاب على حاشية ولا شرح فرجوت الله بكرمه تيسير ملتمسه الخ.

Chapter 50 begins on fol. 2, chap. 51 on fol. 8v., chap. 52 on fol. 23v., chap. 53 on fol. 36v., and chap. 54 on fol. 40.

Plainly written, of the end of the eleventh century Emended.

A note at the end, in the handwriting of Zain b. ‘Abdallah Muḳaibil, gives the date of the work as written above, and it also states that the present copy was taken from one which had been revised by the author, in Shawwâl, 1056. He also wrote the above title, with the addition of some notes and an extract from SUYÛṬÎ’s البدور السافرة , which had been written in the author’s own copy.

1 Or, Muḥammad b. ‘Alî ‘Allân, so fol. 49v.