DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14678808
title: [IO Islamic 424] كيمياى سعادت

description: Kîmiyâ-i-Sa’âdat

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1781 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 424 here with notations and hyperlinks].


1781

Kîmiyâ-i-Sa’âdat (كيمياى سعادت).

The famous ethico-mystical work on the religious and moral duties of a true believer, by the great Shaikh Zain-aldîn Abû Ḥâmid Muḥammad bin Muḥammad al-Ghazâlî of Ṭûs, with the epithet of Ḥujjat-alislâm, who was born A.H. 450 (A.D. 1058), and died the 14th of Jumâdâ-alâkhar, A.H. 505 (A.D. 1111, Dec. 18) ; comp. on the author and his various works, Safînat-alauliyâ, No. 303 (col. 305 in this Cat.) ; Haft Iḳlîm, No. 686 (ib., col. 428) ; Schefer, Chrestomathie Persane, ii. p. 212 sq.; and especially R. Gosche, Ghazzâlis Leben und Werke, in ‘Abhandlungen der Berliner Akademie,’ 1858, p. 239 sq. ; see also Schmölders, Essai sur les écoles philosophiques chez les Arabes ; Munk, Mélanges de philosophie, p. 336, etc. Other copies of the same works are described in Rieu i. p. 37 ; Bodleian Cat., Nos. 1429 and 1430 ; W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., pp. 288 and 289 ; J. Anmer, pp. 61 and 62 ; A F. Mehren, p. 5 ; Cat. des MSS. et Xylographes, p. 256 ; Fleischer, Cat. Dresd., Nos. 4 and 255 ; see also Ḥ. Khalfa v. p. 285, No. 10,998. It has been printed in Calcutta, without a date, and lithographed in Lucknow, A.H. 1279 and 1282, and in Bombay, 1883. A Turkish translation of the same appeared in Constantinople, A.H. 1260, and was rendered into English under the title of ‘Alchemy of happiness, by Mohammed al-Ghazzali, the Mohammedan Philosopher,’ by H.A. Homes, Albany, N.Y., 1873. The Kîmiyâ-i-Sa’âdat is a popular abridgement of the author’s own Arabic work on a larger scale, the احياء علوم الدّين (printed in Cairo, A.H. 1278 ; in Lucknow, A.H. 1281 ; in Bûlâq, A.H. 1306 ; comp. Ḥ. Khalfa i. p. 180 sq.; Hitzig in Z.D.M.G. vii. pp. 172-186 ; Loth, Arabic Cat., p. 166; Arabic Cat. of the Brit. Mus., p. 386 ; G. Flügel iii. p. 91 sq.).

The work is divided into a preface and four books (رُكن), each of which comprises ten chapters (اصل). The preface itself is subdivided into four chapters (عنوان).

Beginning of the preface, on fol. 1b: شكر و سپاس فراوان بعدد ستارگان آسمان و قطرۀ باران و برگ درختان الخ.

‘Unwân I, on self-knowledge (اندر شناختن خويش), on fol. 3b.

‘Unwân II, on the knowledge of God (اندر شناختن الله), on fol. 15a.

‘Unwân III, on the knowledge of the present world (در معرفت دنيا), on fol. 23a.

‘Unwân IV, on the knowledge of the future world (در معرفت آخرت), on fol. 26a.

Rukn I (here called, as in the larger Arabic work, رُبْع اوّل), on religious worship (اندر عبادت), on fol. 39b, beginning: ربّ يسّر ولا تعسر چون از معرفت عنوان عنوان مسلمانى الخ.

Rukn II (again called رُبْع دوم), rules for intercourse with one’s fellow-men (آداب معاملات), on fol. 88b.

Rukn III (again رُبْع سيوم), the cutting off of obstacles in the road of faith (اندر بريدن عقبات راه دين, usually called, as in the Arabic original, مهلكات, pernicious influences from which the soul must be freed), on fol. 179a.

Rukn IV (here called correctly ركن چهارم), on qualities that lead to salvation (اندر منجيات), on fol. 299a.

Many marginal glosses and annotations. Dated by Shams-aldîn bin Ḥasan aljîlânî, the first of Rabî’-althânî, A.H. 905 (A.D. 1499, Nov. 5).

No.424, ff. 441, ll. 25 ; slight illuminations at the beginning, and at the head of the first three rukn ; clear Naskhî in the greater part of the MS. ; size, 10 in. by 6½ in.