كتاب الفَهرست

The Kitab al-Fihrist

Extant mss. Introduction and Translations.

IN PROGRESS AND REVISION 09

LAST REVISED 13-10-09

Stephen Lambden UC-Merced

The Arabic Kitāb al-fihrist ('The Book of the Index', 21st. June 1845) commences  with the basmala  then the same four isolated letters as are contained in the Kitab al-Rūḥ Surah : ADD

Opening words of the Kitab al-Fihrist from Ms. 6007C

In the name of God, the Merciful the Compassionate.

Alif-Lām-Mīm-Rā'-Alif

(A-L-M-R-A).

 This is a Book from God containing the directive of a wondrous servant [the Bāb]. It, assuredly, is a Book which was sent down on the part of the Baqīyyat-Allah (Remnant of God... 

The use of the isolated letters A-L-M-R-A (abjad 271+1 = 272) with another alif ("A") might suggest messianic fulfillment for these first four f these specific isolated letters, the seventh set in the Qur'an, Surah 13 (Thunder) are qur'anic isolated letters which collectively allude to  the date of the advent of the Qa'im, namely A-L-M  (Q.2) up till A-L-M-R (Q. 13) = 1,267 = 1260 AH = 1844 CE.  This be`Ause a well-known hadîth relayed by Abī Lubayd Makhzumi  reckoned that the date of the parousia of the messianic Qa'im would be indi`Ated through the abjad-numeri`Al value of the first seven sets of qur'anic isolated letters from Q. 2 (A-L-M)  up till Q. 13 ( A-L-M-R). It may well be that by using A-L-M-R-A the Bāb means to draw attention to the messianic prediction realized with A-L-M-R. The Alif after these four letters (A-L-M-R) might indi`Ate the year one (Alif = abjad 1) or the beginning, first year of the era of fulfillment.

 

With the first paragraph the Kitāb al-fihrist  thus begins as follows:

[1]

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

 [2]

 المرا

Alif-Lām-Mīm-Rā’-Alif

“A”- “L”- “M”- “R”- “A”.

[3-8]

 و انه لكتاب من الله  قد نزل من لدن بقية الله امام حق قديم و انه لهو الحق في السموات و الارض لا يعزب من علمه شيیءِ و لا يحيط بذكره خلق  و انه لامام حي عظيم ان اتبع حكم ما اوحی اليك الان من ربك  فان الامر قد قضی و كل في حشر البديع ليبعثون 

         [3] And this is a Book which was sent down  from God containing a directive (ḥukm) from a wondrous servant. [4] It is indeed a Book which hath come down from the Remnant of God (Baqiyyat-Allāh),  an Imam, a True One, and Ancient of Days [Pre-existent] (al-ḥaqq al-qadīm). [5] He is indeed the True One (al- ḥaqq) [for whomsoever are]  within the heavens and on the earth. [6] No single thing escapes His knowledge neither do the creatures befittingly encompass  His Dhikr  (Remembrance) for He is assuredly  an Imam, One Living (al-ḥayy) and a Mighty One (al-`aẓīm). [7] So follow  whatsoever decree (ḥukm) He hath now inspired for unto thee for such cometh from thy Lord. [8] The Cause  (amr)  hath indeed been initiated such that all shall certainly be raised up [resurrected] at the wondrous [new eschatological] Assembling  (fī ḥashr al-badī`).

 

For the full text and translation see

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Manuscripts of the Kitāb al-fihrist 

  • (1) Tehran Baha'i Archives = INBA 4011C pp. 62-69.
  • (2) Tehran Baha'i Archives = INBA 5014C pp. 285-293.
  • (3) Tehran Baha'i Archives = INBA 600[6]7C pp. 339-348.
  • (4) Princeton Univ. Lib. Ms.
  • (5) INBMC 43 :123-4 (Final Pages only).
  • (6)  Ms. ?? French trans. and tabulation in Nicholas, 1905 (Séyyèd Ali Mohammed...) pp.22-46 

The Bab's Index of his writings towards the end of the Kitāb al-fihrist 

        MacEoin in his Sources (pp. 50-52) conveniently spells out (on the basis of two mss. INBA 6003C [sic.] (pp. 285-93) and INBA 4011C (pp. 62-69) a list of the writings of the Bab indexed at the end of his Kitab al-Fihrist. Here I reproduce this list with a few corrections and supplementary annotations :

  • 1. Qayyūm al-asmā' (112 suras, each individually named)

  • 2. Du`a-yi Ṣaḥīfa (14 prayers, each separately listed)

  • 3.  Letters:
    (i) 5 to Mullā Ḥusayn [Bushrū'ī]
    (ii) 3 to Mīrzā Sayyid Ḥasan
    (iii) to the ulama [Kitab al-`ulamā']
    (iv) to Mullā Ḥasan Gawhar
    (v) to Sulṭān `Abd al-Majīd
    (vi) 6 to his uncle [Ḥājī Mīrzā Sayyid `Alī]
    (vii) 2 to Ḥājī Mullā Muhammad
    (viii) 2 to his wife
    (ix)  3 to the Ḥanbalī, Maghribī, and Ḥanafī Imāms
    (x) to Ḥājī Muharnmad Karīm Khān [Kīrmānī]
    (xi) to Ḥājī Mullā Muhammad `Alī [Barfurushi]
    (xii) to MIna `Abd al-Bāqī Rashtī
    (xiii) to Mīrzā Sayyid Ḥasan Khurāsānī
    (xiv) to Shaykh Rafī`
    (xv) 2 to Mullā Ṣādiq [Muqaddas] Khurāsānī, Ism Allāh al-Asdaq (d. Hamadan 1889 CE).
    (xvi) to Muhammad Kāẓīm Khān
    (xvii) to Shaykh Khalaf
    (xviii) to Shaykh Sulaymān
    (xix) to Sharīf Sulaymān of Mecca
    (xx) to Sayyid Ibrahīm [Mahāllatī?]
    (xxi) to Sayyid `Alī Kirmānī
    (xxii) to Sulaymān Khān
    (Total: 38 letters)

The Thirty Eight Letters/ Alwāḥ (Tablets) of the Bab with annotations:

  • (i) Five addressed  to Mullā Ḥusayn Bushrū'ī, the first of the `Letters of the Living' (d. Tabarsī 1849 CE).

  • (ii) Three addressed to Mīrzā Sayyid Ḥasan, the great Afnan and brother-in-law of the Bab (d. xxxx/xxxx CE).

  • (iii) The Kitāb al-`Ulamā' ("Book of the Ulama") primarily addressed to the divines (`ulama') of Qajar Persia and elsewhere,

  • (iv) to Mullā Ḥasan Gawhar (d.  CE) a leading Shaykhī

  • (v) To the Ottoman Sulṭān `Abd al-Majīd (d. xxxx /xxxx CE).

  • (vi) Six Letters/Tablets addressed  to the maternal uncle of the Bab, Ḥājī Mīrzā Sayyid `Alī (d. 1852 CE), his guardian known as the Khāl-i A`ẓam ("the Greatest Uncle"). One of the seven martyrs of Tehran.

  • (vii) 2 to Ḥājī Mullā Muhammad (d.    CE).

  • (viii) Two for  Khadījah Bagum (d. 1882 CE), the wife of the Bab and cousin of the mother of the Bab. See Balyuzi, The Bab (1973); at the front is a good photograph of the autograph original text of the `First Letter to the wife of the Bab'.

  • (ix)  Three Tablets to the Sunni Ḥanbalī, Maghribī, and Ḥanafī Imāms

  • (x)  Tablet to the Shaykhi leader Ḥājī Mirza Muharnmad Karīm Khān Kīrmānī (d. 1871 CE).

  • (xi) to Ḥājī Mullā Muhammad `Alī Barfurushi, Quddus, the last `Letter of the Living' (d.    CE).

  • (xii) to MIna `Abd al-Bāqī Rashtī (d.   CE).

  • (xiii) to Mīrzā Sayyid Ḥasan Khurāsānī (d.   CE).

  • (xiv) to Shaykh Rafī` (d.   CE).

  • (xv) Two Letters/Tablets to to Mullā Ṣādiq [Muqaddas] Khurāsānī, Ism-Allāh al-Asdaq (d. Hamadan 1889 CE). See Nicolas 1905 (french trans.) and Afnan `Ahd-i a`la,  101 (extract from the Second Letter).

  • (xvi) to Muhammad Kāẓīm Khān (d.    CE).

  • (xvii) to Shaykh Khalaf (d.    CE).

  • (xviii) to Shaykh Sulaymān  [of Muscat?] (d.    CE). Partly translated in Selections, pp. 35-37.

  • (xix) to Sharīf Sulaymān of Mecca (d.    CE). Partly translated in Selections, pp. 29-30.

  • (xx) to Sayyid Ibrahīm [Mahāllatī?] (d.    CE).

  • (xxi) to Sayyid `Alī Kirmānī (d.    CE).

  • (xxii) to Sulaymān Khān  (d.    CE).
     

  • 4. Kitāb al-fihrist (i.e., the present work)

  • 5. Ṣaḥīfa a`māl al-sana (14 bābs listed)

  • 6. Khuṭbas:
    (i) 2 [written] in Bushihr
    (ii) [written] in Banakan
    (iii) [written] in Kanakan
    (iv) on the `Īd al-Fiṭr
    (v) [written] in Jidda
    (vi) on the sufferings of Ḥusayn
    (vii) 3 [written] on the way to Mecca
    (viii) for Mullā Ḥusayn [Bushrū'ī], written on board ship
    (ix) on the `ilm al-ḥurūf
    (Total: 12 khuṭbas)

  • 7. al-Ṣaḥīfa bayna Haramayn (8 biibs listed)

  • 8. Tafsīr al-basmala (about 157 verses)

  • 9. Tafsīr Surat al-baqara

  • 10. Kitāb al-rūḥ (700 suras, 7000 verses)

  • 11. Jawāb al-masā'il (replies ta 41 questions)

  • 12. Prayers written in reply to questions:

  • (i) in reply to twenty questions

  • (ii) in reply to al-`Alawiyya

  • (iii) in reply to Mullā `Abd al-KhāIiq [Yazdī]

  • (iv) in rep1y to Karbalā'ī `Alī Aṣghar

  • (v) on the sijdat al-shukr  ('thanksgiving prostration') in reply to Mullā `Abd al-Jalīl [Urūmī]

  • (vi) in reply to Mīrzā Muhammad `Alī Nahrī

  • (vii) in reply to Mullā Aḥmad Khurāsānī [Mu`āllim-i Ḥisārī?], Di`bil, and the son of Mīrzā `Alī al-Akhbarī

  • (viii) in reply to Mīrzā Hādī and Mīrzā Muhammad `Alī Qazvīnī

  • (ix) in reply to Mullā Ibrahīm Mahallatī

  • (x) in reply to Sayyid Ja`far Shubbar

 

ln addition to the above, the Bab here lists the titles of a number of works stolen from him by a Bedouin in the course of his pilgrimage journey. According to a statement in the khuṭba written in Jidda, this occurred on Il Safar 1261119 February 1845, between Medina and Jidda. 35 = The date given in the manuscript used by me (lNBA 600[6]7C) is 1 Safar, which is obviously incorrect. However, Ishraq Khavarï cites another manuscript in which the date is clearly given as 11 Safar (see idem, Taqwïm-i tàrikh-i amr [Tehran, 126 BEl1969-70J, p. 24~

Works of the Bab stolen between Mecca and Medina as listed in the Kitab al-fihrist. 

According to the Khuṭba al-Jidda (Sermon at Jeddah) of the Bab the Bedouin theft took place on 11th Safar 1261 / 19 February 1845. With a few corrections and notes supplementary to MacEoin  who sometimes repeats errors of Nicholas' Séyyèd Ali Mohammed  (see Sources, p.52-3) the stolen works were:

  • 1. A Ṣaḥīfa containing fifteen prayers (in 5 bàbs)

  • 2. A commentary on the Misbāḥ 36 (in 100 ishrāqs)  36 = There are numerous Shi'ite books with this abbreviated tiùe, but the most likely in this context is the M4blil) a/-sharï`A wa mifliJl} a/-l}aqïqa, a work of one hundred chapters ascribed to the Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq. Presumably, each ishriJq of the Bab's commentary was devoted to one chapter of the original. The Bab refers to the Mi:,bJf, in his $al}ïfa-yi `Ad/iyya (p. 10). 2:255)

  • 3. A commentary on the Qaṣīda of al-Himyārī  (in 40 suras, each of 40 verses)

  • 4. A commentary on the Surat al-baqara in the manner of the commentary on the Sura Yusuf (i.e., the Qayyum al-asma')

  • 5. A commentary on the Surat al-baqara from the second half to the end

  • 6. Twelve khuṭbas

  • 7. Ṣaḥīfat al-Hajj

  • 8. A commentary on the Ayat al-kursī (Throne Verse: i.e., Qur'an 2:255 )  in 200 suras, each of 12 verses

  • 9. Six letters

For further derails see my forthcoming paper  and URL :