Persian Manuscripts : Laṭāyif-i Ashrāfīلطايف اشرفی

Niẓām al-Dīn Yamanī fl. 15th cent. نظام الدین یمنیNiẓām Ḥajī Gharīb Yamanī نظام حاجی غریب یمنی

Persian Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This defective copy of the <i>Laṭāyif-i Ashrāfī</i> (Noble Pleasantries) by Niẓām al-Dīn Yamanī (fl. mid-15th c.) elucidates the mystical doctrines of the author's teacher of thirty years, Sufi master Mīr Sayyid Ashraf Jahāngīr Simnānī (d. after 1436), who remains revered throughout the Indian subcontinent today. Born and raised in Iran, Simnānī spent time with the poet Ḥāfiẓ before he departed for India, where he ultimately passed away. Comprised of sixty <i>laṭīfah</i> , the work compiles various discourses and anecdotes of Simnāni that he personally reviewed and edited, as well as other events late in his life, added posthumously. The work proved influential as many subsequent writers of Sufi biographies reference passages, such as Jāmī (d. 1492), in his <i>Nafaḥāt al-Uns</i> (Breaths of Fellowship).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>This manuscript, completed by Sayyid Sulṭān valad-i Sayyid ‘Abd Allāh in 1021 AH (1612–13 CE), appears to be one of the earliest surviving copies of this work. Probably completed in the Mughal Empire, the royal library of the Kings of Awadh (Oude) in Lucknow subsequently acquired it.</p>