A descriptive and analytical catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the Wellcome Institute of Medicine / by Fateme Keshavarz.

  • Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine
Date:
1986
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: A descriptive and analytical catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the Wellcome Institute of Medicine / by Fateme Keshavarz. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    40/718 (page 36)
    Silsilat al-zahab , Yusuf va Zulaykhä and flshi <c at al-lama c at . Though of less obvious medical interest then the works of Khâqânî, most of Jâmî's writings, concerning spiritual tranquility and integ ration of personality, could be seen, in terms of the beliefs of the time, as relevant to such modern disciplines as psychiatry and psycho logy. Indeed, the Sufi contribution to psychological techniques, which in recent years has attracted the attention of many including some 32 _ - psychiatrists, can be studied in the Wellcome manuscripts of Jami's works. Three of these works appear in one manuscript, neatly copied and dated A.H. 992/[A.D. 1584].^ The Subhat al-abrär , a masnavl on the ethical teachings of Sufism, was composed 887/1482 and dedicated to Sultan Husayn Bayqara, the last Timilrid ruler in Eastern Iran (875- 899/1470-93).^ This text is written on the central portion of each folio. On the margins appear the Tuhfat al-ahrär and the Si 1 si 1 at al-zahab . The first was dedicated to Khvijah Näsir al-Din c Ubayd Allah (d.895/1489), a leader of the Naqshbandlyah order of the Sufi s often 35 praised by the poet, while the dedicatee of the second was once again Husayn Bayqara. Both of them, much like the Subhat al-abrar , are didactic poems which discuss ethical issues with Jâmî's usual Sufi 32 Riza Arasteh , Growth to selfhood: the Sufi contribution . London, 1980. (Arasteh is a lecturer at Princeton University and a practicing psychiatrist). 33 WMS.Per.136(A), 136(B) and 136(C). 34 A. A. Hikmat, JämT: mutazammin-i tahqlqät dar tärlkh-i ahvál... , Tehran, 1941, pp.195-96. 35 Hikmat, ibid., p.9.