Poetry and Elegant Prose [IO Islamic 2959]

Poetry and Elegant Prose.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 2959 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 806 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

806.

2959. Size 10 in. by 6 in.; foll. 212. Twenty-three lines in a page.

ديوان ابى تمام الطائى

The Dîwân of ABU TAMMÂM Ḥabîb b. Aus Ṭâ’î (d. A.H. 231), as arranged by Abu Bakr Ṣûlî (d. A.H. 335 or 336). Cf. Cat. Bodl. i. 259; Cat. Mus. Brit. 276 sq.; Cat. Lugd. ii. 45 sq.

It is divided into eight chapters, as follows: I. (foll. 1-133) المديح , the first poem in praise of Ibn Yûsuf Ta’izzî ; II. (foll. 133-151) المراثى ; III. (foll. 151-171) الغزل ; IV. (foll. 171-180) المعاتبات ; V. (foll. 180-185v.) الاوصاف ; VI. (foll. 185v. – 190v.) الفخر ; VII. (fol. 191) الزهد , only two poems : VIII . (foll. 191-211v.) الهجاء . Conclusion: تم الهجاء من شعرابى تمام و به كل الديوان الخ . The poems in each chapter are arranged alphabetically.

Explanatory and critical notes by Ṣûlî are added, especially in the latter portion.

Well written, but almost without diacritical points.

The copy was made for Saiyid Muḥammad b. Manṣûr, of the house of ‘Aḳîl (b. Abu Ṭâlib) آل عقيل , by Ṣaḳr b. Faḍl Allah Ḥimyarî. Date , Friday , 19th Rabî ‘ I., 1088. Injured by insects, especially at the beginning and at the end.

Seal and signature of Chas. Boddam, Calcutta, 1787.