[IO Islamic 1214] رسالۀ غزالى

Risâla-i-Ghazâlî

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1792 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 1214 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1792

Risâla-i-Ghazâlî (رسالۀ غزالى).

The mystical treatise, contained in this copy, is, as a comparison with W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 42, No. 30, shows (see also Rödiger in Z.D.M.G. xvi. P. 221), a Persian paraphrase of the same Muḥammad al-Ghazâlî’s famous treatise, ايّها الولد (edited and translated by Hammer-Purgstall, Vienna, 1838 ; comp. also G.Flügel iii. p. 274, where two Arabic commentaries on the same, by Ḥasan bin ‘Abdallâh, composed A.H. 756=A.D. 1355, and by Khâdimî respectively, are noticed), but slightly differing in wording from the Berlin copy which bears the heading, خلاصۀ تصانيف امام محمّد غزالى در علم سلوك (‘the quintessence of Ghazâlî’s compositions on the science of the mystic road’).

Beginning:الحمد لله ..... امّا بعد بدانكه يكى از جملۀ تلميذان امام المرشد ..... ابى حامد . بن محمّد (محمّد بن محمّد read) الغزالى بعد از آنكه مدّة مديد و سالهاى فراوان روزگار خود را مستعير بتحصيل علوم داشته بوده و از هر فنّ بهرۀ تمام داشته روزى با خود انديشه كرد كه من سالهاى رنج بردم و علم بسيار حاصل كردم خود اكنون ندانم كه اين علمها از هر نوع علم كدام نافع و دستگير من خواهد بود الخ.

Among the numerous Arabic works of Ghazâlî, the more prominent (apart from the ايّها الولد and the احياء علوم الدّين) are : المنقذ من الضّلال و المفصح عن الاحوال (edited and translated by A. Schmölders in ‘Essai sur les écoles philosophiques chez les Arabes et notamment sur la doctrine d’Algazzali,’ Paris, 1859); كتاب الدرّة الفاخرة (edited and translated by L. Gautier. Geneva, 1878); منهاج العابدين (see a Persian translation of it further down in this Cat., and a Turkish one by Nihânî in G. Flügel iii. p. 463) ; تهافت الفلاسفة (with the criticism of Khwâjazâda, who died A.H. 893=A.D. 1488, noticed in G. Flügel ii. p. 597, and Ḥ. Khalfa ii. p. 466, No. 3764); المقصد الاسنى فى شرح اسماء الله الحسنى (G. Flügel iii. p. 326, and Ḥ. Khalfa vi. p. 90, No. 12,790) ; الوسيط (Ḥ. Khalfa vi. p. 437) ; جواهر القرآن (Ḥ.Khalfa ii. p. 646) ; المنجول (Schefer, Chrestomathe Persane, ii. loc. cit. above) ; تفسير ياقوت التأويل (quoted in Safinat-alauliyâ, No. 303) ; مشكوة الانوار (quoted in the Nafaḥât-aluns) ; a commentary on the 12th Sûrah (سورة يوسف ), see O. Loth, Arabic Cat., p. 24 ; الاستدراج and بداية الهداية (mentioned by Gautier); Arabic letters etc. Among the Persian works of Ghazâlî are especially noteworthy (besides the كيمياء سعادت) : نصيحة الملوك or كتاب التّبر المسبوك فى نصيحة الملوك, with an Arabic translation, noticed in G. Flügel iii. p. 272 ; J. Aumer, p. 268 ; O. Loth, Arabic Cat., p. 168 ; Ḥ. Khalfa ii. p. 177, and vi. p. 352, etc.; انوار حكمت (Bodleian Cat., No. 1246, and Rieu ii. p. 830b, No. xx) ; a Persian letter, addressed to Mu’ayyad-almulk, the son of the great Niżâm-almulk (Schefer, Chrestomathie Persane, ii. p. ٢.١) ; and several works, some of which are of doubtful authenticity, viz. جامع كبير or روضة الفردوس (G. Flügel iii. p. 449) ; ينابيع الحكمة (ib., p. 450); كنز الاخبار (ib., p. 451) ; كتاب توبة الانبياء and قصص بحر الاسرار (ib., p. 454).

The present copy is dated the 11th of Ṣafar, A.H. 1083 (A.D. 1672, June 8), by ‘Abd-alraḥmân, the son of ‘Abd-alḳâdir ‘abbâsî.

No. 1214, ff. 1-17b, ll. 17; Nasta’lîḳ; size, 77/8 in. by 41/4 in.