A Wedding Gone Wrong The Rather Worldly Woes of a Rather Wealthy Qādirī Sufi Shaykh. Two 18th Century Documents from the Ottoman Court Records of Ḥamā and Aleppo

A rather intricate legal case took place first in Ḥamā’s and then in Aleppo’s Ottoman Islamic courts around the middle of the 18th century. The setting, the social standing of the individuals involved, and the alleged circumstances of the case all contribute to make clear that this was not just another routine court case. Altogether, the two documents are a good example of the scope and quality of the information preserved in the archives of local courts and they both demonstrate the extent and modes of implementation of Islamic law in a specific Ottoman milieu. The long inventory of personal property in the Aleppo document gives us a good idea of the social status and affluence enjoyed by the plaintiff – a member of the Jīlānī/Qādirī family - and an interesting insight into material culture and what constituted wealth and affluence at the time.

تاریخ فیروز شاہی / مؤلف ضیاءالدین برنی ; ترجمہ, سید معین الحق

application/pdfIn Urdu, translated from Persia

مقدمہ ابن خلدون : یعنی معدمہ کتاب العبر ودیوان المبتداء و الخبرفی ایام العجم و البربر و من عاصرهم من ذوی السلطان الاکبر کا اردو ترجمہ / ترجمہ راغب دحمانی دہلوی

application/pdfIn Urd

[Mufradāt alfāẓ al-Qurʼān, 18th century?].

Elegant though incomplete copy of the alphabetic lexicon of Qurʼānic vocabulary compiled by Abū al-Qāsim al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal al-Rāghib al-Isfahānī (d.1108 or 9).Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center, Isl. Ms. 1030Origin: Lacks dated colophon ; paper, decoration, etc. would suggest 18th century.Former shelfmark: Mich. Isl. Ms. temp. no. 179Binding: Pasteboards covered in red leather ; Type II binding (with flap, now lost) ; lower doublure (board lining) in olive green-tinted and gold-flecked paper ; lower cover carries stamped and gold-painted mandorla (filled with symmetrical vegetal composition reminiscent of Déroche class. OSd 3 or 9) and pendants with gold-tooled and painted accents in small rosettes and strokes, as well as tooled guilloché roll border and gold-painted rules ; once sewn in light blue thread, two stations, now failed ; worked endbands in light blue and gold, only traces of tailband and primaries remain ; overall in extremely poor condition with spine leather and lining, upper cover and flap entirely lost, partial losses and severe staining / abrasion to lower cover (also fully detached), pest damage, etc. ; housed in box for protection.Support: European laid paper of several types ; mainly a type with 10 laid lines per cm. (horizontal), chain lines spaced 27-29 mm. apart (vertical), and watermark of scrollwork (see p.22, 388, 500, etc.) ; another type with 12 laid lines per cm. (horizontal), chain lines spaced 21-25 mm. apart (vertical) and watermark of large double-headed eagle under crown and scroll with "B G" underneath and shield / escutcheon at center with six circles and band of smaller eagles (see p.112, 132, 172, etc.) ; another type with 10 laid lines per cm. (horizontal), chain lines spaced 25-27 mm. apart (vertical), and watermark of grapes / raisin (see p.346, etc.) and name "...MON" (see p.324, 348, etc.) ; another type with 9 laid lines per cm. (horizontal), chain lines spaced 25-29 mm. apart (vertical), watermark of grapes (raisin) under crown (see p.378, etc.) and "P G" countermark (see p.394, etc.) ; burn and losses to leaves (with loss of text in final leaves, p.505 to close).Decoration: Illuminated headpiece (ʻunwān / sarlawḥ) in at opening on p.4 consisting of rectangular panel with empty gold cartouche flanked by floral accents in gold, blue, and orange-red on grounds of blue and gold, surmounted by scalloped w-shaped piece filled with swirling floral vegetal decoration in gold with blue and orange red accents on a blue and gold ground, all set in a well consisting of bands of blue, gold interlace and orange red and surmounted by vertical stalks (tīgh) in blue with red accents ; section headings set off in simple illuminated rectangular pieces ; written area surrounded by a heavy gold frame defined by black fillets and outermost red rule ; keywords, section headings, notabilia, occasional vocalization and some abbreviation symbols rubricated ; occasional textual dividers in the form of hāʼ in red.Script: Naskh ; elegant, carefully executed Ottoman hand in a thin line ; mainly serifless (though very subtle head-serif occasionally appears) with effect of tilt to the left though adhering to baseline, marked elongation of horizontal strokes, curvilinear descenders (many sweeping), pointing mainly in distinct dots, many open counters, partially vocalized.Layout: Written in 25 lines per page ; frame-ruled.Collation: i, V-1 (9), 13 V(139), IV (147), 12 V(267) ; almost exclusively quinions ; catchwords present ; pagination in pencil, Western numerals, supplied during digitization (includes front flyleaf).Explicit: "قال الله تعالى واتوا النساء وصدقاتهن نحلة والانتحال ادعاء الشيء وتناوله ومنه يقال فلان ينتحل الشعر ونحل جسما"Incipit: "الحمد لله رب العالمين وصلواته على نبيه محمد واله اجمعين قال الشيخ ابو القاسم الحسين ابن محمد ابن المفضل الراغب ... كنت قد ذكرت في الرسالة المنبهة على فوائد القرآن ان الله تعالى كما جعل النبوة بنبينا مختتمة وجعل شرائعهم شريعة من وجه منتسخة ... فالفاظ القرآن هي لب كلام العرب وزبدته وواسطته وكرائمه ... وقد استخرت الله تعالى باملاء كتاب مستوفى فيه مفردات الفاظ القرآن على حروف التهجي ..."Title supplied by cataloguer from opening matter on p.6.Ms. codex.Rowson, E.K. "al-Rag̲h̲ibal- Iṣfahānī, Abu 'l-Ḳāsim al-Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad b. al- Mufaḍḍal." In EI2,Brockelmann, C. GAL,Elegant though incomplete copy of the alphabetic lexicon of Qurʼānic vocabulary compiled by Abū al-Qāsim al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal al-Rāghib al-Isfahānī (d.1108 or 9).Mode of access: Internet.Purchased in Egypt by Mr. Sulaiman ;UM Library inscription on verso of added front flyleaf (p.2) "Spec. Coll. Lib. 690713-156 Sulaiman 1968" ; on 'title page' now obscured by affixed bifolium, a waqf statement dated 1212 [1797 or 8] in name of Katkhudā-yi Baghdād Aḥmad Pāshā ( كتخداى بغداد احمد پاشا / Kethüda-yi Bağdad Ahmet Paşa ) accompanied by two oval seal impressions (compare statement in Isl. Ms. 1014) ; notabilia (side-heads)

[Mecmua-yi eşar, late 18th century?].

Elegant collection of poetic excerpts in Persian and Turkish organized according to arrangment in tables at opening (see pp.6-20), compiled by the Ottoman grand vizier and littérateur, Koca Mehmet Ragıp Paşa (d.1763).Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center, Isl. Ms. 423Origin: Lacks dated colophon but decoration, paper, etc. would suggest late 18th century.Former shelfmark: "101 T. De M. [i.e. Tammaro De Marinis]" inscribed in pencil on verso of front flyleaf (p.2).Binding: Boards faced in red cut velvet with dark red leather over spine, fore edge flap and edges / turn-ins (velvet faced, leather edged framed binding) ; Type II binding (with flap) ; board linings and flyleaves in a decorative paper, silver-flecked and painted with charming bird and floral motifs in gold with subtle pink and green accents ; leather framing upper and lower covers carries tooled borders (in a series of s-shaped stamps) flanking gold-painted vegetal accents and tooled rosettes ; design continues on flap ; edges of text block gold-painted with a chain design (series of s-shapes) ; sewn in dark pink thread, two stations ; worked chevron endbands in pink and yellow, good condition ; overall in fairly good condition with minor lifting of spine leather, abrasion and minor losses of leather from upper cover, etc.Support: Mainly non-European (likely Persian) laid paper of at least three types ; opening type with roughly 10 laid lines per cm. (vertical, somewhat indistinct, curving) and grouped chain lines faintly visible (see p.22, etc.), cloudy formation, thin and crisp though sturdy, well-sized and burnished, brown in color ; another type with roughly 9 laid lines per cm. (quite curved, fairly indistinct) and chain lines rarely visible (see p.114, etc.), cloudy formation, sturdy, well-sized and burnished, dark cream in color ; final type with 8-9 laid lines per cm. and no chain lines visible, quite sturdy and well-burnished, some leaves tinted bright magenta ; occasional leaves (see p.206, etc.) and opening added leaves carrying table of contents on European laid paper with 10 laid line per cm. (vertical), chain lines spaced 25-28 mm. apart (horizontal) and a raisin watermark of grapes under fleur de lis (see p.10, 16, 18, 206, etc.) ; flyleaves in European laid paper with "GFA" under eagle watermark.Decoration: Elegant illuminated headpiece (ʻunwān / sarlawḥ) at opening on p.22, consisting of rectangular piece with empty gold cartouche flanked by vegetal motifs, surmounted by w-shaped piece overlaid with similar floral vegetal motifs in mint green, light pink, light blue, orange-red, and white on a ground of gold and light blue, itself surmounted by vertical stalks (tīgh) in light blue and red, all set in a well of pink and gold bands ; written area (and occasionally divisions within, columns otherwise divided by red rules) surrounded by frame consisting of gold band defined by black fillets ; headings and keywords rubricated.Script: Nastaʻlīq (talik) ; elegant Ottoman hand in a medium line ; serifless with slight effect of words descending to baseline, elongation and thickening of horizontal strokes, pointing mainly in strokes (rather than distinct dots) ; a few excerpts at opening and close in other hands, mainly naskh.Layout: Written in roughly 17 lines per page, mainly divided to two columns with lines of each column on the diagonal ; frame-ruled.Collation: ii, II+1 (5), I+1 (8), 7 V(78), IV (86), IV+1 (95), 2 VI(119), I+1 (122), ii ; chiefly quinions with a few quaternions and senions ; catchwords present ; leaves between sections and at close originally left blank (see pp.194-200 and p.213 to close) ; foliation in red ink, Hindu-Arabic numerals ; pagination in pencil, Western numerals, supplied during digitization (includes flyleaves).Incipit: "بو مجموعۀ زيبا بر قطعۀ بهشت رعنا وبر روضۀ غناى معنا در كه ... منتخبات ازهار نامدار اثارى ايله مشكين بهار وجويبار اشعار سلامت شعارى نمونۀ جنات تجري من تحتها الانهار در حائز قصب السبق مضمار بلاغت شعر وانشا صدر اعظم واسبق مرحوم ومبرور راغب محمد باشانك دواوين عديدۀ شعراى روم بلاغت مرسوم ...Title supplied by cataloguer.Ms. codex.Kaya, Nevzat. "Rāgıb Meḥmed Paşa and his library." In Theoretical approaches to the transmission and edition of Oriental manuscripts. Proceedings of a symposium held in Istanbul, March 28-30, 2001, Eds. Judith Pfeiffer and Manfred Kropp. (Beirut: Ergon verlag Würzburg in Kommission, 2007):Babinger, Fr. "Rāg̲h̲ib Pas̲h̲a, Ḵh̲od̲j̲a Meḥmed."Elegant collection of poetic excerpts in Persian and Turkish organized according to arrangment in tables at opening (see pp.6-20), compiled by the Ottoman grand vizier and littérateur, Koca Mehmet Ragıp Paşa (d.1763).Mode of access: Internet.Acquired by purchase (funds donated by Horace Rackham).Occasional glosses

Divan-ı Ragıp Paşa, [late 18th century?].

Elegant copy of the Dīvān (collected verse and prose) of the Ottoman Grand Vizier and littérateur, Koca Mehmet Ragıp Paşa (d.1763), opening with münşeat. Contribution to the cataloguing from Hossein Mottaghi.Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center, Isl. Ms. 422Origin: Lacks dated colophon ; paper, decoration, etc. suggest latter 18th century.Former shelfmark: "479 T. De M. [i.e. Tammaro De Marinis]" inscribed in pencil on verso of front flyleaf.Binding: Pasteboards covered in brown leather ; Western style binding ; pastedowns and flyleaves in shell marbled paper (mainly in red and blue) ; upper and lower covers carry gold-stamped scrollwork designs with central lozenge, corner motifs and vegetal border, gold-stamped designs continue on spine ; now sewn in white thread over two recessed cords, four stations ; stuck-on endbands in green ; register in sheer silk ribbon ; edges of text block gold-flecked ; overall in fair condition with damage to upper board corner, minor abrasion, some negative draw in covers, etc.Support: European laid paper with 11 laid lines per cm. (vertical), chain lines spaced 18-21 mm. apart (horizontal), and watermark of scrollwork with three stylized hats in shield and "F C" below (see fol.5, 6, 15, 16, etc.), sturdy and quite well-burnished to glossy, alternating bifolia tinted yellow.Decoration: Elegant illuminated headpiece (ʻunwān / sarlawḥ) at opening of "منشآت" on fol.1b, consisting of scalloped w-shaped piece filled with swirling floral vegetal decoration in light green, pink, light blue, white, red, and gold on grounds of gold and dark blue, bordered in white, black, gold, red and blue bands, surmounted by vertical stalks (tīgh) in blue and red and set in a well of pink with red accents ; other fine illuminated headpieces at opening of "صلحيه نمچه" on fol.49b, opening of "تقريضات" on fol.69b, opening of "قصائد" on fol.71b, opening of "تخميسات" on fol.79b, and opening of ghazals on fol.84b ; written area surrounded by gold frame, with divisions within defined by narrow gold bands outlined in black fillets ; keywords rubricated ; overlining in red ; textual dividers in the form of gold discs.Script: Nastaʻlīq (talik) ; fine, compact hand in a heavy line ; serifless, with effect of words descending to baseline, closed counters, and elongated horizontal strokes.Layout: Written in 15 lines per page, with written area mainly divided to two columns ; frame-ruled.Collation: i, 12 V(120), V-1 (129), i ; exclusively quinions ; catchwords present.Incipit: "حركت كردن از شتائيه بطرف صيفيه وبعد ازين نقل كردن بجنات محبوبيه جناب برارنده نه طباق افلاك جل ذاته عن درك الادراك ..."Title from inscription on 'title page'.Ms. codex.Kaya, Nevzat. "Rāgıb Meḥmed Paşa and his library." In Theoretical approaches to the transmission and edition of Oriental manuscripts. Proceedings of a symposium held in Istanbul, March 28-30, 2001, Eds. Judith Pfeiffer and Manfred Kropp. (Beirut: Ergon verlag Würzburg in Kommission, 2007):Fihris al-makhṭūṭāt al-Turkīyah al-ʻUthmānīyah allatī iqtanatʹhā Dār al-Kutub al-Qawmīyah mundhu ʻām 1870 ḥattá nihāyat 1980,Elegant copy of the Dīvān (collected verse and prose) of the Ottoman Grand Vizier and littérateur, Koca Mehmet Ragıp Paşa (d.1763), opening with münşeat. Contribution to the cataloguing from Hossein Mottaghi.Mode of access: Internet.Acquired by purchase (funds donated by Horace Rackham).Several former owners' marks on 'title page' (fol.1a) including ownership statement in name of Tahir Efendizade Mehmet Asım (طاهر افندى زاده محمد عاصم / Ṭāhir Afandīʻzādah Muḥammad ʻĀṣim) accompanied by his seal, ownership statement in name of Ali Fuat ( السيد على فؤاد / al-Sayyid ʻAlī Fuʼād ), ownership statement dated 1247 [1831 or 2] in name of Mehmet Naili ( السيد محمد نائلى / al-Sayyid Muḥammad Nāʼilī ), statement and oval seal impression in name of one Ahmet (احمد) ... [?], several borrowing statements (also on fol.69a) in name of one Süleyman Fehim (سليمان فهيم), etc. ; occasional glosses