Koranic Science, Commentary [IO Islamic 896] سواطع الالهام

al-Qurʼān القرآن الكريم

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 896 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 104 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

104.

896. Size 101/4 in. by 61/4 in.; foll. 530. Twenty-one lines in a page.

A Commentary (ممزوج) on the Koran, entitled سواطع الالهام, by Abu’l-faiḍ b. Mubârak, commonly known by the poetical name of FAIḌΠ(born A. H. 954, at Agra, died A. H. 1004). Cf. Ḥ. Kh. iii. 629; Cat. Lugd. iv. 42; and Sprenger Cat. MSS Oudh, p. 127.

A very curious composition, in which all letters with diacritical points are avoided. The author began it at the suggestion of his father Mubârak (d. A. H. 1001), and having been interrupted in is labours by a political mission in the service of Akbar,2 completed it in A. H. 1002 at Lahore.

The preface begins:

الله لا اله الّا هو، لا اعلمه ما هو، و ما ادرکه کما هو، احامد المحامد، و محامد الاحامد، لله مصعدًا (مُصْعِدِ .r) لوامع العلم و ملهم سواطع الالهام

It is followed by a succession of introductory remarks in two chapters. In the first, which is entitled:

السواط الصالح (الصوالح r.) لصىر الكلام ، (الحوامل 1) لاحوال محرّر سواطع الالهام

The author gives an account of himself and his family, as well as of the origin and nature of his work. Those names and dates which contain letters with diacritical points are expressed by logogriphs. This chapter is concluded by a poem in praise of the present work. The second chapter (foll. 8-16) treats of general subjects, and is inscribed السواطع اللوامع لعلوم کلام الله العلام، و اسراره الصوالح لصدر المرام.

An indifferent copy, written in two hands. It ends in the author’s epilogue, the last leaf being wanting. Coloured lines round each page.

Foll. 193-206 are misplaced, and should stand thus: 201-6, 199, 200, 193-198.

Seal of Khiradmand Khân, a servant of ‘Âlamgîr, A. H. 1115.

1 From the following MS.

2 Apparently his mission into the Dekhan. See Elphinstone’s India, p. 534.