[IO Islamic 3167] قصّۀ محمّد حنيف

Ḳiṣṣa-i-Muḥammad-Ḥanîf

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1592 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 3167 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1592

Ḳiṣṣa-i-Muḥammad Ḥanîf (قصّۀ محمّد حنيف).

A Persian romance on the warlike exploits of Muḥammad Ḥanîf (or as he is invariably called here, to suit the metre, Muḥammad Ḥanfiyah, see for instance, fol. 3a, l. 7; fol. 5a, l. 1; fol. 10b, l. 3; fol. 16b, l. 1, etc.), the third son of ‘Alî (comp. fol. 5a, l. 1: محمّد حنفيه فرزند حيدر), by Muḥammad ‘Âshiḳ (see the poet’s name on fol.137b,l. 5), who is probably identical with Shaikh Nûr-aldîn Muḥammad ‘Âshiḳ, the author of the mathnawî عيش و طرب , composed A.H. 1079 (A.D. 1668, 1669), see A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 339 and comp. W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 923. At the end of this poem the great Shaikh Zain-al’âbidîn, properly called Shaikh Ṣadr-aldîn, is praised (see fol. 137b, l. 9 sq.), and we may perhaps identify this Shaikh with the well-known Mullâ Ṣadr-aldîn Muḥammad bin Ibrâhîm Shîrâzî, commonly called Mullâ Ṣadrâ, who died A.H. 1050 (A.D. 1640, 1641), see Rieu ii. p. 829a. This Persian romance, which is undoubtedly the original and prototype of a mathnawî in Dakhnî verses styled ظفرنامه or جنگنامه or جنگنامۀ محمّد حنيف, composed A.H. 1095 (A.D. 1684), by a poet with the takhalluṣ Laṭîf and the epithet Miftâḥ-al’âshiḳîn, who, in a note on fol. 1a of No. 3036 of the India Office Collection, has been identified with Ghulâm ‘Alî, and dedicated his poem to Abû-alḥasan Ḳuṭbshâh who, succeeding ‘Abdallâh Ḳuṭbshâh ascended the throne of Gulkundah in Ḥaidarâbâd, A.H. 1083 (A.D. 1672), and was taken prisoner by Âlamgîr, A.H. 1098 (A.D. 1687). A shorter redaction of the same Dakhnî version is preserved in No. 2721 of the India Office Collection.

Beginning of ‘Âshiḳ’s mathnawî, on fol. 1b:

سر نامه كنم نام خدائى

كه نتوان گفتنش چون و چرائى

It is slightly defective, owing to a lacuna on fol. 134b (fol. 135 is entirely left blank) and a few missing verses at the end.

Modern transcript of the present century, without any date.

No. 3167, ff. 139, 2 coll., each ll. 13; Nasta’lîḳ; size, 85/8 in. by 6¼ in.