[IO Islamic 1911] Ṣâ'ib Miscellanies

Ṣâ’ib-Miscellanies

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1623 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 1911 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1623

Miscellanies in prose and verse.

The main portion of the MS. (ff. 21-36) is filled with extracts from the dîwân of Ṣâ’ib, made by Muḥammad Ṭâhir Naṣrâbâdi, the author of the famous tadhkirah (see No. 669 above), and entitled انتخاب ديوان صائب.

These extracts were made by the compiler after the completion of his extracts from the Shâhhnâma, styled انتخاب شاهنامه, and begin: بر راى ارباب هوش روشن باشد كه اين درد نوش بزم نامرادى محمّد طاهر نصرابادى الخ.

Ff.22-27 are turned upside down and must be read from fol. 27b backward.

The remainder of the MS. contains:

1.Scattered pieces of poetry from the dîwâns of Nâṣir ‘Alî, Rafî’, Faiḍî, and Shaikh Tâj-aldîn, on ff. 4b-6a, 12b-14b, and 15b-16a. An Arabic ḳaṣîdah by Farazdaḳ (died A.H. 110=A.D. 728), in praise of the legitimate successor to the prophetic office (قصيدۀ فرزدق در مدح وارث نبوّت ), is found on fol. 11b.

2.Small prose-pieces, chiefly traditions of the prophet, ‘Alî, and other saints, some theological tracts in Arabic, on fol. 6b; another tract, styled الضابطة الفريديّة, on fol. 7b; one in Hindûstânî, on fol. 10a; the story of Solomon and the birds, in Persian, on fol. 10b; again an Arabic treatise, فى الروع وقت السّحر, dated Rajab, A.H. 1103 (A.D. 1692, March-April), on fol. 17b, and a letter by Ṣâ’ib (رقعۀ مرزا صائب), on fol. 20b.

The extracts from Ṣâ’ib’s diwân are dated, on fol. 36a, the 19th of Rabî’-alawwal, A.H. 1095 (A.D. 1684, March 6), at Sûrat, by Abû Muḥammad bin Muḥammad Ṭâhir alḳuṭbî.

No. 1911, ff. 36, 3 coll., each ll. 22, on ff. 21-36; Nasta’lîḳ, by different hands; size, 95/8 in. by 53/8 in.