46 Literary Intelligence. [No. 1. 



take what I find, particularly if the MSS. are old. I have the eighth 

 and last volume of thejA«^| ajj of Tan al Jawzy (d. 597), one out of 

 about twenty volumes of Kortoby, and about twenty portions of 

 other commentaries — some of the fourth century. I also have nearly a 

 complete copy of the historical commentary of Sohayly (d. 581) which 



is short, but exceedingly valuable, the title is ^ *&f\ U j*^| j *-&-»j*3 



In speaking of Sufism I ought to have mentioned Ooshayry (d. 

 465) and his book being the groundwork for the history of this 

 science. I have already two most beautiful copies at Calcutta, and 

 here I found a third one ; it is incomplete, but old. 



The science on which all our enquiries into the early history of 

 the Islam must be based, is the ^J^W| J^o\ J-£ The book in com- 

 mon use on it, is the Ibn iZajar's Nokhbah ^^ with commentary ; 

 I have two copies of it in India, but it appeared to me always very 

 unsatisfactory. In our Society is an excellent copy of the Alfyyah 

 with a very large commentary which is much more full. Here I 

 found Nawowy's yt?~>i?j V-ir^ which is very useful. He refers to 

 a larger work of his called ^j\ of which this is an abridgment, but 

 the Tishad 'Aurf he says is an abridgment of the work of Ibn Q&\&7i 

 (born 577, died 643.) This is the work to get hold of. I have the 

 l5 Iax£^!| <k/ojiai/o,on the subject with two complete commentaries, one 

 of which is dated 962, but the book is hardly more valuable than the 

 unsatisfactory notices in the preface to 'Abd al-iZaqq Dihlawy's 

 Mishkat, or those in the introduction to the Dilly edition to Ter- 

 midzy or those in the Sifr alsa'adat. Of much more value is the 

 cio^i v Ls^| o^£ by Abu Bakr A^mad b. 'alyy b. Thabit b. A7*mad 

 b. Mahdiy of the sixth century. He gives the opinions of the an- 

 cients on the subject, quoting his asnadinfull. Unfortunately I have 

 been able to obtain only a small portion of it. Among works, con- 

 taining traditions, I met with one volume of Bayhaqy ; he is so often 

 quoted that I had very great expectations, but as it contained merely 

 traditions bearing on prayers, I was much disappointed. More im- 

 portant — for me at least — is the Mocannaf cii/A-Ji of Abu Bakr 'abd 

 Allah b. Mo/id b. Aby Shaybah 'absy. The eighth volume y^l 

 ^m\D\ (a very thick one) is in the Syrian Society, and contains upwards 

 of 100 pages bearing on the Campaigns of Mohammad. I do not 



