This manuscript is written in the rather inelegant “Bihari” hand, which C. Stewart quite properly described as “a branch of the Cufick”. The scribe has used a curious colour-scheme for each page, writing line 1 in blue, line 2 in red, lines 3–6 in black, line 7 in red, line 8 in blue, line 9 in red, lines 10–13 in black, line 14 in red, and line 15 in blue: the garish effect is further accentuated by the use of gilt ornaments to mark the verses, sections, etc., and by a minute Persian interlineary translation in red ink. There are rather crude ornamental panels on foil. 1–2, 199–200 (beginning of S. xix), and 412–13. The pages are somewhat damaged by damp, and some have been torn and inexpertly mended. The binding is Indian, of about 1830.

The following three qmahia are all inscribed on a long, narrow slip of yellowed Persian paper originally kept in a metal tube and worn by the owner. It is number 33 of my collection. The list of copiers together with their genealogies which usually ends such documents is missing and the writing is poor. The scribe makes mistakes, for instance, being unfamiliar with the word lilipiatha he writes at first “liliatha piamana” (nonsense), then several times “liliatha”, but becoming convinced at last that he is mistaken, he transcribes thereafter lilipiatha as written in the roll from which he copied. He occasionally omits a word though it is obvious that he intended to write it. In such cases I have inserted what is missing in brackets. Another peculiarity is that the laqab or worldly name of the person for whom the phylactery was written is given as well as the religious or magical name. In most magic documents the latter alone is given. From the laqab, Shabur br Dahba, it may be deduced that the owner was of the Iranian group of Mandæans who dwell on the banks of the Karun River.

H. Ritter has referred again to the Arabian manuscript Tübingen Weisweiler, nr. 81, in Islam, 21 (1933), p. 91. It contains the only copy hitherto known of the oldest mystic book on the subject of love, the k. 'aṭf al-alif al-ma'lūf 'alā' l-lām al ma'ṭūf of Abū'l-Ḥasan 'Alī b. Muḥammad al-Dailamī. The year of al-Dailamī's death has hitherto not been established; he was a pupil and the rāwī of the well-known author on mysticism, Abū 'Abdallāh Muhammad b. Khafīf (died 371 h. = a.d. 981), therefore probably one of the older contemporaries of Ibn Sīnä (died 428 h. = a.d. 1037). A year ago, Dr. Arberry kindly drew my attention to the fact that this manuscript contained some quotations of ancient authors which could not be traced and which might be worth considering. The opinions of the astronomers, scientists, and on love are discussed in the first part of the book; the passage on the scientists (32b 7–33b 9) is specially interesting, as it offers two hitherto absolutely unknown fragments, one of the last century of the Alexandrian-Greek literature, the other very probably of a lost dialogue of Aristotle.