296

THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.429, cont.)

return it to him after three months. (I am grateful to Barara Flemming for reading the letters for me.) The manuscript was eventually acquired by Taeschner in August 1930 (cf. below). (1) ff. lb-19a §edd-name -a-i An anonymous treatise on the origin, later development, meaning and practice of the ceremony of girding on waist-belts (§edd), as practised among futuwwa members and stiffs. The title is found in the index (la) and in a heading preceding the text on f. lb. The work does not seem to be documented. The tradition, documented by quotations from hadith, began when the Angel Jabra’Il gave Muhammad his crown and other garments, and girded on the belt (ku$ak) which had belonged to the Prophet Ibrahim (cf. ff. 2b, 5a), who later girded it on ‘All (8b). The latter passed the tradition on to other companions, among them Salman FarisI (9a). Another tradition maintains that Adam was the first to be girded (11a). The ceremony of the girding by a shaykh and master is explained in detail from f. 1 lb. A survey of the forty-two stages of enlightenment of the aspiring dervish begins on f. 15b. Questions and answers on praying are found on f. 18b. The treatise ends in some conclusive remarks on the importance of the ceremony and the virtue of becoming an active ahi or stiff. Marginal additions; marginal pencil notes by Taeschner. Begins (lb, after a besmele): s uuLx. (jjl «I/Ia-a. s -3i) 1 ,,I o JjI fliIa-a. j yJU, i all j-a! jAi* W t--—■- j-9 (ji£)$*• • • • J LT - *" * “* ... j Vl lllljl ... Ends (19a): j £ a V. ui I jl (Jjbl jAi i» | tlLuf tji jl (jjï 4"i~ a . . I j. ii. .if 1 aJL) j $ jLi-oa j v.La I >~i a >•>■ jaI^, Literamre: Hamid Algar, ‘Shadd’. in El 2 . (2) 19b-20a A text fragment in praise of God and the Prophet, partly in Arabic, written by the same scribe who copied (1), which seems to be the introductory part of a version