IX. A Biography of Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Jâm

W. Ivanow

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00050334

IX. A Biography of Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Jâm

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

W. Ivanow

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In the autumn of 1915 I found at Buârâ a few leaves of a Persian MS. forming part of an unknown work devoted to the biography of the famous saint Shay Aḥmad-i-Jâm, surnamed Zindah-Fîl. There were only thirteen leaves, 23 by 18 and 16 by 13·5 cm., written on old Oriental paper, eighteen or nineteen lines in a page, in a comparatively elegant old character (like that of MSS. copied at Herât). This MS. was copied apparently in the tenth or eleventh century a.h. (The first page is written perhaps with a different qalam, but the hand seems to be the same as in the other parts.)

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , April 1917 , pp. 291 - 365

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00050334 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1917

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^{page 291 note 1} For scanty materials on his biography, mostly based on Jâmî, 's article in NafaḥâtGoogle Scholar, see Sprenger, , Catalogue of the Library of the King of Oudh, vol. i, pp. 323 ff.Google Scholar; Rieu, , Catalogue of the Library of the British Museum, p. 551Google Scholar; Ethé, H., Catalogue of the India Office Library, p. 568Google Scholar; Catalogue of the Bankipore Library, vol. i, p. 30; also Grundriss der Iranischen Philologie, p. 284.Google Scholar Oriental works, (a) edited: Dawlat-shâh, ed. Browne, E. G., p. 348Google Scholar; Majâlis-ul-'Ushshâq (Nawalkisbor, 's edition at Cawnpore), pp.70–3Google Scholar; Ḥabîb-us-Siyar, (Bombay, 1857), vol. ii, p.71Google Scholar; Majâlis-ul-Mu'minîn (Tebriz, ed.), p. 262Google Scholar; Âteshkadah, (Bombay, 1277), p. 73Google Scholar; Bûstân-us-Siyâḥat (Ṭehrân, ed.), p. 197Google Scholar; Majma'-ul-Fuṣaḥâ (Ṭehrân, ed.), vol. i, p. 67Google Scholar; Riyâḍ-ul-'Arifîn (Ṭehrân, ed., 1305), p. 31Google Scholar; Ṭarâ'iq-ul-Ḥaqâ'iq (Ṭehrân, ed., 1316), vol. ii, p. 261.Google Scholar (b) In MSS.: Sharḥ-î-Nafaḥât by 'Abd-ul-afûr Lârî; MS. in Asiatic Museum at Petrograd; Ivanow's Bukhara Collection No. 951; Sullam-us-Samawât in the same library; also Taqî-Awḥadî, Haft-Iqlîm, Safînat-ul-Auliyâ (by Dârâ Shikûh— there is an Indian litho. ed.), Riyâḍ-ush-Shu'arâ, ilâṣat-ul-Afkâr, Ṣuḥuf-i-Ibrahîm, Mazan-ul-arâ'ib, etc.

^{page 292 note 1} Every page of the Persian text is divided into four parts (a, b, c, d), each containing five lines of the MS. (d very often 3–4 lines). The pages of the original are numerated by leaves—1, 1 v., 2, 2v., etc.

^{page 292 note 2} The author says:

…

^{page 293 note 1} Not mentioned in Ḥâjjî alîfah's Dictionary.

^{page 293 note 2} Ḥâjjî, alîfah, vol. iii, 480Google Scholar; Jâmî, Nafaḥât (ed. Lees, Nassau, Calcutta, 1859, p. 406).Google Scholar

^{page 293 note 3} Ibid., p. 576. Besides this—Majâlis-ul-Mu'minîn, p. 263Google Scholar (Tebriz ed. ), where he is called, not Abû-Bakr, but 'Alî, certainly because of the Shi'ah tendencies of the author.

^{page 293 note 4} Not mentioned in Ḥâjjî alîfah's Dictionary.

^{page 294 note 1} Nafaḥât.

^{page 294 note 2} Lith. Ṭehrân, , 1316, vol. ii, p. 261.Google Scholar

^{page 294 note 3} In the present MS. 'Aṭṭâr is mentioned but once as the author of a poem (fol. 2d).

^{page 295 note 1} Ed. Browne, E. G., p. 348.Google Scholar

^{page 295 note 2} Rashaḥât, lith.

^{page 296 note 1} See Dârâ Shikûh's Safînat-ul-Awliyâ—in the Catalogue of India Office Library, by Ethé, H., c. 305.Google Scholar

^{page 297 note 1} See the MS. in the Asiatic Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Petrograd, Ivanow's Buārā Collection No. 951.

^{page 302 note 1} There is a strong tendency to connect the shay with Abû Sa'îd. He is said to have been born in the same year as the last-named saint died, etc. In a later biographical work (probably of the tenth century a.h.)— The unknown author says: …

^{page 302 note 2} It is by no means an exceptional case. We know in the history of Sufic orders that there were many shays who acted in the same way, fol. i. The famous Chishti pîr Chira-i-Dehlî died in 757 a.h.

^{page 302 note 3} Ed. by Zhukovsky, W., St. Petersburg, 1899.Google Scholar

^{page 303 note 1} Not mentioned in Ḥ.. Dict.

^{page 303 note 2} Ḥ.. iii, 587.

^{page 304 note 1} Ḥ.. vi, 31.

^{page 304 note 2} Not mentioned in Ḥ.. Dict.

^{page 304 note 3} Ḥ.. ii, 9.

^{page 304 note 4} Lith. by Nawalkishor, , Cawnpore, 1898.Google Scholar

^{page 304 note 5} All these are not mentioned in Ḥ.. Dict.

^{page 304 note 6} There were several kings in India with the same name of Fîrûz-shâh. The one alluded to is probably the Sulṭân of Delhî, Abû'l-Muaffar Fîrûz-shâh III (Tolûq), who ruled 752–90 a.h. and was especially devoted to religious questions, and about whom the author is more likely to have heard much more than about his predecessor, having learned perhaps something from persons who had already visited that town.