[IO Islamic 1827] تمهيدات عين القضات

Tamhîdât-i-’Ain alḳuḍât

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1793 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 1827 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1793

Tamhîdât-i-’Ain alḳuḍât (تمهيدات عين القضات).

A work on the Ṣûfic doctrine, compiled by Abû-alfaḍâ’il (according to Rieu i. p. 411b, Abû-alma’âlî) ‘Abdallâh bin Muḥammad al-Miyânajî, with the honorary epithet of ‘Ain-alḳuḍât of Hamadân, who was a pupil of Shaikh Aḥmad Ghazâlî (the brother of Muḥammad Ghazâlî, died A.H. 517=A.D. 1123, 1124), and put to death, A.H. 533 (A.D. 1138, 1139), by order of Sulṭân Sanjar’s vizier, Ḳiwâm-aldîn Abû-alḳâsim Darguzînî. see Safînat-alauliyâ (No. 307, col. 305 in this Cat.) ; Haft Iḳlim, No. 1017 (ib., col. 452) ; Makhzan-algharâ’ib, No. 1523 (Bodleian Cat., col. 350). Ḥ. Khalfa iii. pp. 459 and 536, places his death in A.H. 525 (A.D. 1131) ; comp. also the Arabic Cat. of the British Museum, p. 454b, and Cat. des MSS. et Xylographes, p. 249.

It is divided into ten chapters or اصل , and begins, on fol. 1b, thus: سپاس بيحدّ و ثناء بيعدّ مر حضرت آن خداى را كه در مبداء الوهيّت او ديدۀ عقل حيران است الخ.

From this subdivision into ten اصول, and the wording of the ten headings, always beginning تمهيد اصل, it is evident, that the Tamhîdât are identical with the Zubdat-alḥaḳâ’iḳ fî kashf-al aldaḳâ’iḳ ( زبدة الحقائق فى كشف الدّقائق ), described in No. 1247 of the Bodleian Cat. and G. Flügel iii. pp. 413 and 414, where also a Turkish translation of the work is noticed (which, however, gives to the original the title كنز الحقائق و كشف الدّقائق) ; on the different wording of the preface, see Ḥ.Khalfa iii. p. 536, No. 6810, where besides the work is stated to have been divided into one hundred sections.

An extract from the same is noticed besides in the Bodleian Cat., col. 750, l. 1. The Tamhîdât of ‘Ain-alḳuḍât served as basis for a mystic work of the same title by the poet Mas’ûd-i-Bak (put to death A.H. 800=A.D. 1397, 1398), see Rieu ii. p. 632a. Another Persian work of the great Shaikh is the extensive collection of letters, addressed to his Ṣûfic friends, and described in Rieu i. pp. 411 and 412. He also wrote occasionally Persian poetry. The margin of this copy is filled throughout with valuable glosses and explanations.

No date.

No. 1827, ff. 170, ll. 14 ; very clear and distinct Nasta’lîḳ ; illuminated frontispiece ; the first two pages splendidly adorned with gold ; sprinkled with silver though ; size, 101/8 in. by 55/8 in.