Poetry and Elegant Prose [IO Bijapur 133]

Poetry and Elegant Prose.

This manuscript is now IO Bijapur 133 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 814 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

814.

B 133. Size 81/2 in. by 6 in.; foll. 386. Twenty-one lines in a page.

A large Commentary on ‘Omar Ibn al-Fâriḍ’s (d. A.H. 632) renowned mystic Ḳaṣîdah التائيّة . This commentary is chiefly grammatical. It is ascribed to FARGHÂNÎ (Muḥammad b. Aḥmad, d. about A.H. 700), the earliest interpreter of the Tâ’îyah. Cf. Ḥ. Kh. ii. 86.

Plainly written, of the tenth century. Red lines round the pages.

This MS. is imperfect both at the beginning and the end, and has other defects besides. The leaves are misplaced in binding ; they should stand in the following order : 1-38 (beginning at verse 2 of the Ḳaṣîdah), 286, 164-285 (here some leaves missing ), 49-55 (here a slight defect), 377-386 (here a larger defect, extending over 19 verses), 56-163, 316-376, 287-296, 39-48, 297-315, ending at verse 758. The rest is wanting. Much injured by insects.

The book has been wrongly inscribed as a commentary on a Ḳaṣîdah of Sa’dî (see fol. 1); cf. Catal. 224, xix.