Details
Object numberMS 1490 [Handlist 79a]
TitleMunīrat al-baṣā’ir
Creatoral-Sulṭān al-Khaṭṭāb (Author)
DescriptionAl-Khaṭṭāb b. al-Ḥasan b. Abi’l-Ḥufāẓ al-Ḥajūrī al-Hamdānī, generally called al-Sulṭān al-Khaṭṭāb, was a chieftain of the Ḥajūr clan in north-western Yemen in the last years of the reign of al-Sayyida Arwā bint Aḥmad. He is reported to have been murdered by a kinsman in 533/1138. His writings belong to the formative period of the Ṭayyibī da‘wa. He is the subject of an important monograph by Poonawala (which I quote from the second edition of 1999), which contains a critical edition of al-Khaṭṭāb’s dīwān and summaries of his other extant writings.
The present work responds to ten questions put to the author by an unnamed 'brother'. In the introduction (here fol. 3a) he refers to al-Ṭayyib as ‘the imam of our age’, but also gives him the decidedly apocalyptic title al-qā’im bi amr allāh. This tells us in any case that it was written after the disappearance of al-Ṭayyib in 524/1130. It is summarised in Poonawala (1999), pp. 156-157. This is by far the oldest recorded copy.
REFERENCES: al-Majdū‘, p. 198; Ivanow (1933), no. 181; Ivanow (1963), no. 189; Poonawala (1977), p. 135, no. 2; Gacek (1984), no. 97 (2 copies); Cortese (2000), no. 115; Cortese (2003), no. 105.
DESCRIPTION: red leather binding, gilded; in its original form the manuscript consisted of 64 numbered folios, of which the first (perhaps blank) is lost; the original title page is on the recto of the fol. numbered 2 and the text begins on its verso; there is an unnumbered extra page just one side inscribed, in a different hand) inserted between folios 26 and 27, and another, in yet another hand, after fol. 60 (the text seems out of place), now numbered in pencil as 61; the remaining 4 folios were then renumbered as 62 to 65; the original64 folios are gathered in 8 quires of 8 folios each, all except the ftrst of which are numbered in the upper left-hand corner of the ftrstquire; replica title page and table of contents on the two sides of the folio preceding the original title page; catchwords; 19 x 15 em (14 x 11 em); 13 lines; black ink with rubrics in red; neat naskh with some archaic features, mostly vocalised; many marginal corrections and additions; the colophon seems to indicate that the
copying was completed on Sunday, the 12th (written يب) of the month Dhu’l-qa‘da 1006, but the indicated date corresponds to Monday, 15 June 1598, so there seems to be a slight error, unless the scribe is not an Ismaili and thus not using the Ismaili tabular calendar; the latter possibility is perhaps supported by the curious fact that the scribe goes on to invoke blessings 'on our lord Muḥammad and his family and his companions'; title indicated on labels on the front cover and spine; title and author indicated on the two title pages; seals inscribed 1284.
The present work responds to ten questions put to the author by an unnamed 'brother'. In the introduction (here fol. 3a) he refers to al-Ṭayyib as ‘the imam of our age’, but also gives him the decidedly apocalyptic title al-qā’im bi amr allāh. This tells us in any case that it was written after the disappearance of al-Ṭayyib in 524/1130. It is summarised in Poonawala (1999), pp. 156-157. This is by far the oldest recorded copy.
REFERENCES: al-Majdū‘, p. 198; Ivanow (1933), no. 181; Ivanow (1963), no. 189; Poonawala (1977), p. 135, no. 2; Gacek (1984), no. 97 (2 copies); Cortese (2000), no. 115; Cortese (2003), no. 105.
DESCRIPTION: red leather binding, gilded; in its original form the manuscript consisted of 64 numbered folios, of which the first (perhaps blank) is lost; the original title page is on the recto of the fol. numbered 2 and the text begins on its verso; there is an unnumbered extra page just one side inscribed, in a different hand) inserted between folios 26 and 27, and another, in yet another hand, after fol. 60 (the text seems out of place), now numbered in pencil as 61; the remaining 4 folios were then renumbered as 62 to 65; the original64 folios are gathered in 8 quires of 8 folios each, all except the ftrst of which are numbered in the upper left-hand corner of the ftrstquire; replica title page and table of contents on the two sides of the folio preceding the original title page; catchwords; 19 x 15 em (14 x 11 em); 13 lines; black ink with rubrics in red; neat naskh with some archaic features, mostly vocalised; many marginal corrections and additions; the colophon seems to indicate that the
copying was completed on Sunday, the 12th (written يب) of the month Dhu’l-qa‘da 1006, but the indicated date corresponds to Monday, 15 June 1598, so there seems to be a slight error, unless the scribe is not an Ismaili and thus not using the Ismaili tabular calendar; the latter possibility is perhaps supported by the curious fact that the scribe goes on to invoke blessings 'on our lord Muḥammad and his family and his companions'; title indicated on labels on the front cover and spine; title and author indicated on the two title pages; seals inscribed 1284.
DocumentationBlois, François de. Arabic, Persian and Gujarati Manuscripts: The Hamdani Collection. London: I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2011.
Object typemanuscript