Well known manual on Sufi practices which provided the main source for some chapters
in Zayn al-Dīn Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālīʾs Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm
al-dīn. Our MS contains of the altogether 48 sections parts of section 32 concerning
the different stages of certainty (maqāmāt al-yaqīn). The text starts with the ending
of the chapter on the stage of patience (al-ṣabr), bayān al-ākhir min tafḍīl al-ṣabr
(f. 1b), and concludes with the chapter on the stage of trust in God (f. 178b: sharḥ
maqām al-tawakkul wa-waṣf aḥkām al-mutawakkilīn wa-huwa al-maqām al-sābiʿ min maqāmat
al-yaqīn), dhikr tashbīh al-tawakkul bi-al-zuhd (f. 228b). f. 237b: short poem by Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240; EI2 III/707-711; GAL I/441-448
S I/790-802) with a commentary by Kamāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Razzāq ibn Abī al-Ghanāʾim
al-Kāshī (Kashānī, Qashānī, d. 730/1329-1330, GAL II/204-205 S II/280-281; EI2 I/88-90) f. 238a: entry discussing that the whole content of the Quran are contained in the first surah,
written by Farrukh ibn Maḥmūd in Shawwāl 1013 in the city of Sidon (Ṣaidā situated
in South Libanon) f. 239b: Invocation to ranunculus (kabīkaj) that it may protect the pages of this MS from worms.
Dark brown Oriental leather binding with fore-edge flap and envelope flap; central
ornament of the covers: mandorla with lobed perimeter, two fleuron pendants and an
infill of floral scrolls and chi clouds; the curved corners present a quarter section
of the mandorla; frame consist of multiple lines and a border of stamps in the shape
of the letters; the same ornamentation is to be found on the envelope flap except
that the mandorla has got no pendants there; doublures of leather, seven small gilt
circles arranged in the shape of a flower are positioned in the middle of the inside
of the covers
