Koranic Science, a Commentary [IO Bijapur 299]

al-Qurʼān القرآن الكريم

This manuscript is now IO Bijapur 299 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 97 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

97.

B 299. Size 101/2 in. by 61/2 in.; foll. 690. Twenty-three lines in a page.

A Commentary (ممزوج) on the Koran, entitled تبصیر الرحمان و تیسیر المنّان بعضَ ما یشیر الی اعجاز القران, and ascribed by Ḥ. Kh. ii. 182, to ZAIN AL-DÎN ‘ÂLÎ b. Aḥmad b. ‘Alî b. Aḥmad Umawî Ḥanbalî, “who died in A. H. 710.” This date, however, is incorrect. For it appears from the preface that the work was written in A. H. 831. The author says, alluding to the first Muhammadan conquerors (fol. 1v.): حتی اعرضوا عن المعارضة بالحروف الی المقارعة بالسیوف فاحتملوا بذل المُهج فلم یعارض الی مدّة ثمانمائة واحدی و ثلثین من الحجج الّا معارضة رکیکة. Cf. Cat. Bodl. i. 47 and ii. 566. Printed at Dehli, A. H. 1286.

This commentary is preceded by a long introduction (foll. 1-6). It begins: الحمدلله الذی انار بکلامه قلوب اولی الالباب، لیبصروا به مع عقولهم طریق الصواب.

Written in two different hands, of the tenth century.

Red lines round each page. One leaf is wanting after fol. 32. The first few leaves are worm-eaten.

Seal and signature of Muḥammad ‘Âdil Shâh of Bîjâpûr, on the title-page. The MS. belonged previously to Ḳâḍi Khûshḥâl (A. H. 1030), and before him to Ibrâhîm b. Dâ’ûd الوصالی (A. H. 981).

Catal. p. 222, v. 2.