DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14991243
title: [IO Islamic 2307] مرآت العارفين

description: Mirât-al’ârifîn

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1854 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 2307 here with notations and hyperlinks].


1854

Mirât-al’ârifîn (مرآت العارفين).

A very clear exposition of the principles and doctrines of Ṣûfism in fourteen Kashfs, each followed by a Nuktah, preceded by a Muḳaddimah, and concluded by a Khâtimah.

Beginning:الحمد لله الّذى خلق آدم على صورته الخ .

Muḳaddimah, on fol. 2b, first line:فى اشارات علم اليقين .

Kashf I, on fol. 4a:فى بيان حقيقة الوجود.

Nuktah, on fol. 16b:فى اشارات الفناء و البقاء

Kashf II, on fol. 18b:فى بيان حقيقة التّوحيد.

Nuktah, on fol. 29b:فى اشارات المحو و الاثبات.

Kashf III, on fol.34b:فى بيان حقيقة المعرفة.

Nuktah, on fol.47a:فى اشارات الغيبة و الحضور .

Kashf IV, on fol. 51a:فى بيان حقيقة المحبّة.

Nuktah, on fol. 65b:فى اشارت الصّحو و السّكر.

Kashf V, on fol.68b:فى بيان حقيقة الغيرة.

Nuktah, on fol.81b:فى اشارات السّتر و التّجلّى.

Kashf VI, on fol. 84a:فى بيان حقيقة القرب.

Nuktah, on fol. 97a:فى اشارات الجمع و التّفرقة.

Kashf VII, on fol.99a:فى بيان حقيقة الوصلة.

Nuktah, on fol.109a:فى اشارات الشّرب و الذّوق.

Kashf VIII, on fol.111b:فى بيان حقيقة الكلام.

Nuktah, on fol.121b:فى اشارات كشف الخواطر.

Kashf IX, on fol.124b:فى بيان حقيقة الرّوية.

Nuktah, on fol. 136b:فى اشارات النّوم و اليقظة.

Kashf X, on fol. 140a:فى بيان حقيقة الصّفوة.

Nuktah, on fol. 151b:فى اشارات القبض و البسط.

Kashf XI, on fol.153b:فى بيان حقيقة الارادة.

Nuktah, on fol.164b:فى اشارات الجذبة و السّلوك .

Kashf XII, on fol.166b:فى بيان حقيقة الولاية.

Nuktah, on fol.178b:فى اشارات الخوارق.

Kashf XIII, on fol.181a:فى بيان حقيقة السّماع.

Nuktah, on fol. 191b:فى اشارات التّواجد و الوجد و الوجود.

Kashf XIV, on fol. 194a:فى بيان حقيقة الرّوح.

Nuktah, on fol. 207a:فى اشارات المبداء و المعاد.

Khâtimah, on fol. 208b.

The Author has taken great care to conceal his name, styling himself simply اين درويش, but in his own ghazals, with which the book is interspersed, he betrays it in the takhalluṣ, viz. Mas’ûd (see fol. 65b, last line but one; fol. 81b, l. 4 ab infra ; fol. 97a, l. 1 ; fol. 109a, l. 5 ab infra; fol. 136b, l. 8; fol. 151b, l. 3; fol.164b, l. 8; fol. 178b, l. 4; fol. 191b, l. 5; fol. 202a, l. 3; fol. 207a, l. 4 ab infra; and fol. 209b, l. 3 ab infra), and more distinctly ; Mas’ûd-i-Bak (only once, on fol. 121a, l. 1), Khwâjah Mas’ûd-i-Bak (Of Bak in the district of Bukhârâ), with his original name Aḥmad bin Muḥammad Nakhshabî Shîrkhân (see col. 333 in this Cat. and compare with it No. 856 in the Bodleian Cat.), was a relation of Sulṭân Fîrûz of Dihlî and according to the Makhzan-algharâ’ib (No. 2306, col. 373 in the Bodleian Cat.), originally an independent ruler of Bukhârâ, till he turned a derwish of the Ćishtî order under the spiritual guidance of Shaikh Rukn-aldîn, the son of Shaikh Shihâb-aldîn Imâm (the latter being one of the renowned disciples and Khalîfas of Niżâm-aldîn Auliyâ), or, as the Makhzan-algharâ’ib states (loc. cit.), of Shaikh Naṣîr-aldîn Maḥmûd Ćirâgh of Dihlî (who was likewise a distinguished pupil of Niżâm-aldîn Auliyâ and died the 18th of Ramaḍân, A.H. 757=A.D. 1356, Sept. 14, see Safînat-alauliyâ, No. 116, col. 287 in this Cat.). He was put to death A.H. 800 (A.D. 1397, 1398). In the present work, the 14th Kashf of which is quoted in full in the Sawâṭi’-alanwâr (No. 654 of this Cat.), he often quotes as authority the Ćishtî Shaikh Shiblî, the son of Shaikh Jalâl-aldîn Pânîpatî (who died A.H. 765=A.D. 1363, 1364, see Rieu i. p. 358b). Other works of Mas’ûd-i-Bak are امّ النّصائح; تمهيدات (an imitation of ‘Ain-alḳuḍât’s work of the same title, see Nos. 1793 and 1794 in this Cat.); and the dîwân of lyrical poems, styled نور اليقين  (see Rieu ii. p. 632) or نور العيون (according to Ilâhî, see A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 84) or even نور العين (as the Makhzan-algharâ’ib denotes it).

This copy is dated A.H. 1085 (A.D. 1674, 1675), by Muḥammad Kabîr bin Shaikh Aḥmad.

College of Fort William, 1825.

No.2307, ff. 210, ll. 13; Nasta’lîḳ; size, 83/8 in. by 5 in.