Or 402

A Chaghatay version, by ‘Alī Shīr Navā’ī, of Nafaḥāt al-uns, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Jāmī’s tazkira of Sufi saints. This is one of the last works of ‘Alī Shīr Navā’ī. He says in the preface that ever since 881 AH, when his revered master, Nur ud-Dīn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Jāmī had written the text at his request, he had contemplated translating the work into an easier style for the benefit of Turkic readers. He had, nonetheless, long been deterred by the difficulties of the task. It was not until 901 AH that he began doing so.

Navā’ī states that he has added some Sufi notables mentioned in the Tezkiret ul-Evliyā of Ferīd ud-Dīn Attār, but omitted by Jāmī, as well as notables from India from Shaikh Ferīd Sheker Genj onwards, some Turkic Shaykhs from Khwājah Ahmed Yesevī to his own time, and Jāmī himself and some of his disciples, while also omitting some of the passages he deemed to be unhelpful.

The original work is considerably abridged in the translation, both with regard to the number of notices and to their extent. There are, moreover, two lacunae, apparently caused by the loss of some leaves of the manuscript from which the present copy was transcribed. The first occurs at f 88v and extends from the notice of Ibrāhīm bin Shaybān to that of Abul-Khayr Māliki. The second occurs at f. 236r and extends from the end of the notice of Abu'r-Rebi' el Kefīf el-Mālakī to the beginning of the notice of Shems ud-Dīn Hafiz Shīrāzī. The notices of female notables are also omitted.

The translator's additions consist of brief notices of thirty-three Indian notables, inserted after the life of Shaykh Nizām ud-Dīn Khālidi Dihlevi, beginning with Shaykh Ferīd Sheker Genj (f. 213v), and ending with Shaykh Shādī (f. 226r). They also include a notice of Jāmī, which immediately follows that of Hāfiz Shīrāzī, and concludes the work (ff 236v-237r). In this last notice, the translator refers to his previous work, the Khamsat al-Mutahayyirīn. The notices of the Turkic Shaykhs described in the preface are missing from the current manuscript.

This manuscript was copied in India in the 11th or 12th centuries AH (17th or 18th centuries CE).