[IO Islamic 868] Akhbâr-alaṣfiyâ

<strong>Akhbâr-alaṣfiyâ .</strong> <strong>This manuscript is now IO Islamic 641 in the India Office collections.</strong> <strong>[metadata:</strong> <strong>Hermann Ethé</strong><strong><em>, </em></strong><strong><em>Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office,</em></strong> <strong>2 vols. (Oxford: India Office, 1903): volume 1,</strong> <strong>number 868 here with notations and hyperlinks]</strong>. <br> 641 Akhbâr-alaṣfiyâ (اخبار الاصفيا ) . A much smaller and less known work, of very similar contents, giving likewise biographies of all the famous Saints and Shaikhs who have lived or stayed in <em>India</em>, compiled by ‘Abd-alṣamad bin Afḍal Muḥammad bin Yûsuf Anṣârî, a nephew of the famous Abû-alfḍl and editor of his official letters, the مكاتبات علاّمى , see above, Nos. 271-286 in this Cat., compare also Rieu iii. p. 1087^a, where as title of the present work is given: اخبارات الاصفيا . It was completed A.H. 1014 (A.D.1605, 1606) and dedicated to the emperor Jahângîr, see fol. 1^b, fol. 6^b, last line, fol. 7^a, ll. 15 and 16, and fol. 7^b, ll. 14 and 15. It contains short biographical accounts of 245 male and 4 female persons, beginning, like the preceding work, with Ghauth alṣamadânî Ḳuṭb-i-rabbânî Shaikh Muḥyî-aldîn Abû Muḥammad ‘Abd-alḳâdir alḥasanî alḥusainî aljilânî ( born A.H. 471 = A.D. 1079, died A.H. 561 = A.D. 1166 ), see fol. 8^b, and ends with Fâṭimah Sâlimah, on fol. 70^a. A complete index on ff. 1^b-5^a; the work itself begins thus, on fol. 6^b: جهان جهان آفرين مرجان و جهان آفرين را كه جهان دانش و جان سخن بصاحب فطرتان الخ , and concludes on fol. 70^b. Ff. 71^b-74^b are filled by another hand with a story of Shaikh Sharaf-aldîn Abû ‘Alî Ḳalandar of Pânîpat (who died A.H. 724=A.D. 1324, see Rieu ii. p. 668, and iii. p. 1090^b sq.). Copied by Bâḳir Sâmânî, in the thirty-first year of ‘Âlamgîr’s reign (A.H. 1098, 1099 = A.D. 1687, 1688). No. 868, ff. 74, ll. 19-28; very irregularly and unequally written in Shikasta; size, 10^5/8 in. by 6^3/8 in.