[IO Islamic 253] سبع سيّاره

Sab’-Sayyârah.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1496 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Hermann Ethé, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, 2 vols. (Oxford: India Office, 1903): volume 1, number 253 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1496

The same, without the Maikhâna.

Contents:

The general preface or ديباچه by the author, beginning, on fol. 1a, as in No. 1494, fol. 20b sq.: تقدير قدرت و تصوير صنعت صانعى و قادرى را الخ ; the special preface to Maḥmûd wa Ayâz begins on fol. 1b middle.

The six mathnawîs, with their prefaces, contained in this copy, are in the following order (all of them in a somewhat short and abridged form):

1.Maḥmûd wa Ayâz, on fol. 2a.

2.Shu’la-i-Dîdâr, on fol. 37b (headed نسخۀ دوم).

3.Ḥusn-i-Gulûsûz, on fol. 40b (headed رسالۀ سيم), beginning here as in No. 1081 of the Bodleian Cat., see above, No. 1494, 5. The usual beginning is here the thirteenth bait, with this modification, however, in the second hemistich: نصّ صحيحست و كلام كِلِيم .

4.Âdhar u Samandar, on fol. 44b (headed رسالۀ چهارم).

5.Dharra u Khuwurshîd, on fol. 47b (headed رسالۀ پنجم), beginning, as in No. 1081 of the Bodleian Cat.:

نام او كرد مرا شعله فروز الخ, comp. above, No. 1494, 7, where this bait is the twelfth of the mathnawî.

6.Sulaimânnâma, on fol. 49a (headed رسالۀ ششم), beginning as usual, but with this slight modification in the second hemistich : كه آمد سليمانى يك مورلنگ.

Instead of the seventh mathnawî of Zulâlî, the Maikhâna, this copy contains Waḥshî Bâfiḳî’s فرهاد و شيرين , beginning, on fol. 50b, as in Nos. 1444 and 1445 above, viz.: الهى سينۀ ده آتش افروز الخ ; but this work of Waḥshî’s is nevertheless designated here as رسالۀ هفتم.

No date. The right order of ff. 2-10 is: 2, 6, 4, 5, 8, 9, 7, 3, and 10.

No. 253, ff. 59, 5-7 coll., with a great variety in the number of lines from 16 to 22; they are partly written in diagonal lines; bad Shikasta; size, 85/8 in. by 61/8 in.