Introducing Manuscripts of Safinat-ul-Auliya by Dara Shikoh and the Necessity of Editing It

Abstract

Safinat-ul-Auliya is one of the most important hagiographies by Muhammad Dara Shikoh (1024-1069 A.H.), which contains detailed information about Sufism and its sects and practices, from the beginning of its creation to the age of the author; which is of great importance in historical Sufi studies. Several manuscripts and one lithographic version of this work have been obtained which have not been compared, verified, and corrected yet. This book, which has not been published yet, is of great importance due to the fact that it contains historical information about Sufism, especially first-hand information about some of the author’s Sufi contemporaries, the author's viewpoint and approach in the classification of Sufism, linguistic considerations, and other aspects. Accordingly, it is necessary to present a critical edition along with tables and annotations concerning the content of the book. In this study, in addition to introducing the existing manuscripts of the book Safinat-ul-Auliya, a number of linguistic, literary, content-related, and calligraphic features of the work, as well as the reasons for the necessity of editing the book have been discussed.

Keywords

• mystical texts
• hagiography
• critical editing of the text
• manuscript
• dara shikoh
• safinat-ul-auliya