CALCUTTA, INDIA, DATED 12 SHAWWAL AH 1282/28 FEBUARY 1866 AD

In an introduction to this work, the author writes that in the year AH 1256/1840-41 AD, aged 11, he went to study medicine in Azimabad (Patna) and then went on the Hajj with his father. Following their return he studied Bengali, Sanskrit, Gujarati and other languages and after a period of residence in the Hijaz, decided to write a compilation of all his studies, calling it the Kunz al-Hadi. He states that in AH 1280/1863-64 AD, he was in Najaf on pilgrimage at the time of Noruz, when a certain Aga Mirza Muhammad Sahib requested a copy of his work. This is presumably that copy.

The majority of the work is concerned with occult sciences including prognostication, spells, astrology and all manner of Indian and Islamic talismans. It also covers astronomy, naval navigation, tables of latitutes and longitudes, and numerous alphabets and hieroglyphs, including Arabic, Nabatean, Chaldean, Greek and Ancient Egyptian.