Philosophy [IO Islamic 201]

Philosophy.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 201 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 561 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

561.

201. Size 91/2 in. by 51/4 in.; foll. 129. Mostly twenty-one lines in a page.

I. Foll. 1-102. An unfinished System of Philosophy, accompanied by a Commentary; both by the celebrated Indian philosopher MAḤMÛD JAUNFÛRÎ Fârûḳî, who flourished in the eleventh century. The original text ((المتن is entitled الحكمة البالغة, and the commentary الشمس البازغة. Under the latter title the work was printed at Lakhnau, A.H. 1280. See regarding the author Afsos’s Ârâish-i-maḥfil, Calcutta, 1809, p. ٩٢. Compare no.554.

The preface begins: احمدالله حمد الشاكرين.The author wrote it during his last illness. He gives in it an account of his work. It was to extend over all the parts of philosophy, viz., Logic, Physics, and Metaphysics; but only the Physics had been worked out to a certain point , while the other two parts , the third in particular, remained in an unfinished state.

The author disposes at the same time of some materials which he did not use for the present work; namely, discussions regarding the elements (المباحث المتعلقة بمبادى الاجسام), which are to form a separate treatise under the title الدَّوْحة الميّادة فى حديقة الصورة و المادّة.

In accordance with the above statements, we have here only the physical (or second) part of the work, as far as it was finished. The original text as given in portions, introduced by قلتُ, and the commentary follows it with اقول. Begins:قلتُ الجملة الثانية فى العلم الطبيعى و فيها ستة فصول (فنون.r) اقول القدر فى اقتصارنا من الحكمة فى كتابنا هذا على النظريّة.

The first فنّ is the auscultatio physica, السماع الطبيعى .It consists of two books (مقالة), the first of which treats of the elements, فى مبادى الاجسام , and the second (fol. 18v.) of the accidents, فى اللواحق العامة للاجسام.

The second فنّ (which is wrongly described here as the fourth chapter of the first) is فى السماء و العالم, and forms one مقالة (fol. 87v.). The third فنّ (fol.98v.), فى الكون و الفساد, is unfinished.

Some words from the preface are explained in Persian, on the upper margin of fol. 1v. Fol.79 should be placed after 76, and foll.82 and 83 should be transposed.

II.Foll. 103-129. A treatise by the same author, on the First Matter, رسالة اثبات الهيولى.

Begins:اعلم ان مهد الخوض فى نظم البرهان على وجود الهيولى الاولى فى الاجسام مقدمات منها ينتظم البرهان.

These two pieces are written alternately in two hands, Nasta’lîḳ and Shikastah, difficult to read. The second has the following postscript:هذه رسالة مضبوطة .... المعروفة برسالة اثبات الهيولى للعلامة ... المسمى بالمحمود الجونفورى ... و كتبها عزيزالله حنفی ابن شیخ حبیب الله حنفی الردولی برد الله مرقده 1 حين قراءة كتابه الاعظم فى الحكمة اليمانية المسمى بالشمس البازغة على 2 ... لحضرة الاستاد المولى... الشيخ كمال الدين السهالوى ... باعانة بعض احباء المخلصين اعنى محمد مسكو دریابادى (!) .. قد وصل بالاختتام فى يوم الجمعة من ستة عشر من الربيع الاول فى مقام فتحبور سنة ١١٢٩ الهجرة النبوية.

Revised and emended. Slightly injured by insects. Seal of Ḥâfiẓ Raḥmat Khân (A.H. 1164)

1 This word has been subsequently altered into مزجعه , i.e.مضجعه

2 The next words are illegible.