| Work / author / dates | al-Wāridāt wa-l-taqdīsāt (الواردات والتقديسات, "Inrushes and Sanctifications") · Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā b. Ḥabash al-Suhrawardī, al-Maqtūl (549–587 AH / 1154–1191 CE) |
| Part added | Part I: Wārid taqdīs al-Shams li-yawm al-aḥad, the Sunday invocation of the Sun as Hūrakhsh (AY f. 20b l. 12 – f. 21b l. 8; Piątak §2.3.9, ¶¶114–117). Part II: Wārid taqdīs al-aʿlā li-kull yawm, the supreme sanctification for every day (AY f. 19b l. 7 – f. 20b l. 11; Piątak §2.3.8, ¶¶107–113). It is short, about 390 words, and it immediately precedes the Sun in the MS, so it is included. In total 12 passages, 651 words. |
| Library id / files | taqdis-shams · data/sources/taqdis-shams-base.json (established text) · -meta.json · taqdis-shams.json (AI-vowelled, masked) · -analysis.json (CAMeL, ids q1:<n>:<k>) · app/src/content/ai/taqdis-shams.json (AI translation) |
| Status | working edition from one manuscript, compared with the critical edition · 28 Sept 2026 · reviewed by: — |
Structure. Part I opens with a greeting to the Sun (the living, speaking, most luminous one; the greatest luminary, obedient to its Originator and moving in love for Him; free from rupture, generation and corruption). It then names Hūrakhsh with a string of epithets: vanquisher of darkness, king of the stars, maker of day, vicegerent of the Light of Lights in the world of bodies. There follow a praise of its light and dominance as derived from God's, and a prayer. The prayer is a chain of intercession: the Sun is asked to ask its father (its governing intellect, of which it is the "shadow and talisman"); the victorial lights are asked to ask their father, the Nearest Light; and the Nearest Light is asked to ask the Necessary Existent. What is asked for is that the speaker's soul be illumined, made to long for Him and protected, and that "the people of light and illumination" be helped. Part II is a doxology of God as Necessary Existent. It gives a long run of superlatives, then names Him as creator of the intellects, souls and spheres, affirms the failure of all description, and closes with the talbiya, a petition and a blessing on "the people of light and illumination".
1. Witnesses
| Siglum | Witness | Kind | Vowelled? | Licence | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AY (Piątak's أ) | MS Istanbul, Süleymaniye, AyaSofya 2144, ff. 1a–27b, the whole Wāridāt. Copied by Sulaymān b. Masʿūd b. al-Ḥasan, Ramaḍān 652/Oct.–Nov. 1254 (colophon f. 27a). Naskh, 17 lines, nearly fully pointed, partly vowelled. The oldest and complete witness; base of Piątak's edition. | MS | partly | MS public domain. The reproduction is © (Azal 2025; Süleymaniye scan terms unknown): private | Images: Azal 2025, PDF pp. 316–318 (sha256 of the PDF 9bfc539f…0736). Rendered crops are in the private layer. |
| P | Łukasz Piątak, Between philosophy, mysticism and magic. A critical edition of occult writings of and attributed to Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī, PhD, University of Warsaw, 2019. §2.3.8 = printed pp. 146–150 (PDF 147–151); §2.3.9 = pp. 150–154 (PDF 151–155). Apparatus sigla: ل Ahmet III 3271 (Kāshān 708/1308, ff. 199a–201b); م Ahmet III 3217 (AY tradition); ر Ragıp Paşa 1480 and مم, ن (Ahmet III 3232) for §2.3.8. Printed sources: S = al-Ṣafadī, al-Wāfī (§2.3.8); for §2.3.9, H = Muʿīn (from the lost Mishkāt MS), M = Malikī, Sitāyish va niyāyish, T = Quṭb al-Dīn, Sharḥ Ḥikmat al-ishrāq with Mullā Ṣadrā's glosses (ed. Mūsawī 1391 sh.). | critical ed. | Quran and hard words only | Open download (UW repository, rights field "FairUse"); thesis ©. Poland may give a neighbouring right in critical editions (Art. 99³ of the Polish copyright act, as I understand it; not verified): private, comparison only | the private layer (sha256 6b930dc9…489c) from https://repozytorium.uw.edu.pl/handle/item/3265. The text layer has font-mapping errors (هللا, ابلنور, احلمك…), so the pages were read as rendered images. |
| AZ | Wahid Azal, The Prayers to the Orient of Light (Library of the Greatest Name 10, Brisbane 2025). English translation, a "forensic reconstruction" of the Arabic, and the AY images. | translation + reconstructed text | yes | © 2025: private | a private copy. Used here only for its reproduction of AY. Its typeset Arabic was not used (its text layer is empty and it was not needed); its translation was not consulted. |
| — | Ahmet III 3271 and 3217: not read directly (Azal reproduces only selections; this passage was not checked there). Known only through P's apparatus. | MS | open item |
2. Base and why
The base is our own transcription of AY. It is the oldest and complete witness and the base of the critical edition. Its text is public domain; the reading is ours. The survey (docs/research/prayers-sources.md §4 no. 4) recommends this and it was followed. Order of weight for adjudication: P (critical text and apparatus), then AY, then everything else. But the public text is AY. P's readings are adopted only where AY cannot be construed, and then as a listed change with P's note cited. P's constituted text is not copied.
3. Method
- The PDF pages were rendered at 200 dpi (
pdftoppm -r 200 -f 316 -l 318; the embedded images are 2069×1497, so 200 dpi is an upscale). Each folio was cropped into 5-line strips, and every strip was transcribed from the image. - Second, independent proofreading pass: new offset crops in 3-line bands, read again against the draft. Doubtful words were zoomed separately (the Sun rubric; مطهى; حايل; the line with بباسط; أنت الله).
- Only then was the draft compared with P's rendered pages, word by word, including every apparatus note that concerns أ. Where our image reading and P's report of AY differ, we kept our reading and listed it (see §4; an example is أنت الله).
- Normalisation, recorded as two rules in
changes:- hamza is written in modern orthography (the MS writes bare alif, ي for ئ, and no final hamza);
- missing dots and undotted tāʾ marbūṭa are supplied where the word is unambiguous. Everything else that changes a letter is listed individually with folio and reason.
- Vowels: AY is partly vowelled, but only a few marks were carried over (the tanwīn of أهلاً; the accusatives أينًا … وصفًا in passage 11). A full diplomatic record of AY's vowels was not made. The AI step (
prepare.py) then vowelled the text, with a per-character mask. - Segmentation: 12 passages of 39–68 words at natural breaks. The Sun comes first (1–5) as the principal text; the daily sanctification follows (6–12), although in AY it comes first. Each passage carries its folio and lines. MS rubrics are kept at the head of passages 1 and 6.
- Quran: there are no verbatim Quran quotations. A skeleton finder with the same thresholds as
quran_refs.py(≥4 words, or 3 words with ≥12 letters) found none. Two allusions were recorded, checked against the Tanzil Uthmani text: يا حي يا قيوم (2:255, 3:2, 20:111) and الملإ الأنور الأعلى (37:8, 38:69, «ٱلْمَلَإِ ٱلْأَعْلَىٰ» with الأنور inserted). Three hadith echoes were recorded: سبوح قدوس; منك السلام; the talbiya لبيك اللهم لبيك. Their wording was given from memory of Muslim and al-Bukhārī and is not verified against a hadith text.
4. Decisions and comparison with Piątak
- Changes: 7. Two are rules (hamza; dotting). One is a proofreading correction: صو→ضوء. Three are emendations adopted with P: مطهر→مظهر, بسابطها→بسائطها, and ليعبدك→لعبيدك (provisional). One is word division: ملا تناهى→ما لا تناهى.
- Uncertain: 14. They are listed in
uncertain. The main ones are the Sun rubric أوراد (every other rubric in AY reads وارد); والحره (unresolved, as it is in P); حائل المكان (P prints حلول); الأبوين (P الأيون); and the missing «أسألك أن تفيض…» in passage 12. - Differences from P's constituted text: 32 units (listed in
comparison.itemswith P's apparatus note):- 21 substantive readings where AY differs from P's text and P's apparatus reports it (for جميع/بجميع his note implies AY has بجميع, which our image does not show). Examples: الأطهر/الأظهر; السيد/السيار; الأكبر/أكبر; بباسط/باسط; المجرد/المجرّدة; الأول/أوّل; مع/والواحد من; الأبرى/الأبهى; الأجرام/للأجرام; نورك/بنورك; الأبوين/الأيون; فلا ضد; أرقاب; تناهى/يتناهى. Also the omissions in AY: ومعشوقهم, أنت, [و]هم, لا, ولا يتصل بك شيء, and أسألك أن تفيض عليّ أنوارك المشرقة.
- 3 where our emendation agrees with P's text: مظهر, بسائطها, لعبيدك.
- 1 apparatus disagreement. P n. 1167 says «أنت الله» is omitted in أ, but AY f. 20b l. 6 clearly reads «أنت الله لا هو إلا هو».
- 7 readings of AY that P's apparatus does not record (they may be silent normalisations or misreadings on either side). Six are substantive: the rubric أوراد … يوم الأحد (P: وارد … ليوم الأحد); البريئة without و; حائل (P حلول); لا يقدر without و; أو يمدحوا (P ويمدحوا); and فكيف (P وكيف). One is orthographic: الزاكيات (P الزكيات).
- Ahmet III 3271 (ل) agrees with AY in الأطهر and الأكبر, and at n. 1220 (بباسط). It differs at n. 1153 (لكعبيدك) and n. 1121 (ل = P's text). Its readings are known only via P.
5. Pipeline run (28 Sept 2026)
python3 scripts/recitals/prepare.py taqdis-shams: 12/12 passages vowelled, letters verified unchanged, 0 mechanical changes. The AI listed 45 ambiguities, all kept intaqdis-shams.json. One visible AI slip: passage 2 has بِحَوْلِ اللّٰهِ الْمُطَاعُ, where the genitive الْمُطَاعِ ("by the might of God, the obeyed") is needed, and the AI translation followed the error ("You are the one obeyed"). Needs a person's correction.analyze.py taqdis-shams.json taqdis-shams-analysis.json q1: 651 words analysed, 470 with a root, 193 distinct roots, 19 vowel conflicts. The unresolved weak roots are mostly the usual #-radicals (نور/أنوار, إله, وجب…).translate.py taqdis-shams opus: 12/12 passages translated and glossed (AI, marked).
6. Rights and private layers
- Public: our transcription of AY (a public-domain MS), our apparatus, and short lemmata of P's readings in
comparison.items. P's text is not reproduced; the counts and single-word readings are cited to his notes. - Private (the private layer, not published): the P PDF, the AY page renders and the crops. Nothing from Azal's typeset text or translation was used or stored.
- On Azal's framing. Azal 2025 is an Azalī-Bābī publication and its apparatus is partisan: for example, abjad arguments tie Suhrawardī to the Bāb. It also misdates AY to 625 (the colophon, visible in his own reproduction, says «سنة اثني وخمسين وستمائة» = 652). Cite it for its reproduction of the MS; do not adopt its framing, its dating or its "reconstructed" Arabic.
7. Open questions / to review
- The Sun rubric أوراد against وارد: confirm on a better image of AY (Süleymaniye scan), and check whether P silently normalised it.
- والحره (passage 6): what is it? P leaves it unresolved; other witnesses have الخير or المجد.
- حائل المكان (passage 8): AY shows حايل clearly, yet P prints حلول with no AY variant. Did P misreport, or is our image misleading?
- جميع / بجميع (passage 10), and «أنت الله» (P n. 1167 against our clear reading): verify on another reproduction.
- Should the Ragıp/Ahmet III readings be adopted where AY cannot be construed (لا بالاتصال, the missing «أسألك أن تفيض عليّ أنوارك المشرقة», الأبهى)? At present only three emendations are made; the rest are flagged.
- Record AY's own vowels fully (a diplomatic vowel layer). Compare the AI vowelling with them and with P's partial vowelling.
- Read Ahmet III 3271 and 3217 directly (Azal reproduces selections; this passage was not checked there). Also find the Mullā Ṣadrā lithograph (Tehran 1315/1897, margin p. 357; P's "T" is a modern edition of it).
- Confirm the Polish neighbouring right before any public use of P beyond cited lemmata.
- Verify the hadith references against a hadith text in the repo.
- Review by a person: every change and uncertain item, and the AI vowelling of passage 2.
8. Change log
- 2026-09-28: AY ff. 19b–21b transcribed (two passes), compared with Piątak 2019 §§2.3.8–9, 12 passages established; pipeline run (vowelling, analysis, AI translation).
Review note (2026-09-28)
- ¶2 «بحول الله الْمُطَاعُ الْجِرْمُ الْمُنِيرُ»: the establishing pass proposed the genitive «الْمُطَاعِ» (as an epithet of God). Kept as nominative: «الجرم المنير» can only describe the Sun, so «المطاع» most naturally opens the run of epithets addressed to the Sun ("[you are] the Obeyed, the shining body …"). Disputed; to be checked against Piątak's punctuation and the other manuscripts.