[IO Islamic 1991] Mathnawîs

Mathnawîs.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 915 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 1991 here with notations and hyperlinks].

915

Another defective copy of three mathnawîs by Sanâ’î.

Contents:

1.Ḥadîḳah, with the preface of the poet himself.

Beginning of this preface (in which the poet’s name appears on fol. 2b, ll. 17 and 18: روزى من كه مجدود آدم سنائی ام), on fol.1b: سپاس و ستایش مبدعى است كه بسخن پاك كلمۀ كن سخندان و سخنگوى را ابداع كرد الخ.

It is styled in the colophon خطبۀ حديقۀ حكيم سنائى.

Beginning of Book I of the mathnawî itself, on fol. 11b: اى درون پرور الخ ; Book II, on fol. 67b; III, on fol. 122b; IV, on fol. 132a; V, on fol. 136b (between ff. 141b and 142a one single bait is missing, indicated by the catchword: خويشتن بين الخ, corresponding to No. 2481 (918 in this Cat.), fol. 146b, l.7); VI, on ff. 147-151 and 296-311b (the leaves are misplaced and there is a considerable lacuna between ff. 151 and 296, corresponding to No.2481, fol. 177a, l. 6-fol. 188b, l. 1); VII, on ff. 311b-315 and 152-155b (likewise incomplete, the lacuna between ff. 315 and 152 comprising fol. 214a, l. 11-fol. 215b, l. 2 in No. 2481); VIII, on fol. 155b; IX, on fol. 159b; X, on fol. 187a. On fol. 294a there is added (by another hand in Shikasta) the famous fatwâ of the Khalîf’s court at Baghdâd, vindicating Sanâ’i’s orthodoxy (see Bodleian Cat., No. 528, col. 464), and beginning: الحمد لله ربّ العالمين و الصلوة على خير خلقة محمّد و آله اجمعين در بعضى آثار است كه دو چيز در عمر الخ. Marginal glosses on the first seventy-seven leaves; on fol. 1a the author’s name is misspelt as ثنائى.

2.’Ishḳnâma, beginning, on fol. 332b: عشق مرغ الخ.

3.’Aḳlnâma, beginning, on fol. 348b: ابتدا ميكنم الخ.

This part was transcribed at the end of Muḥarram, A.H. 1061 (A.D. 1651, Jan. 23); in the colophon of the preface of the Ḥadîḳah appears as date the 2nd of Muḥarram, A.H. 1054 (which seems, however, a mere alteration of the original 1061). Ff. 316-331 do not belong to any of these three mathnawîs of Sanâ’î, but contain a portion of the Bâgh-i-Iram (باغ ارم), also called Bahrâm and Bihrûz (بهرام و بهروز), by Maulânâ Kamâl-aldin Bannâ’î, with the takhalluṣ Ḥâlî, who died A.H. 918 (A.D. 1512, 1513), see Bodleian Cat., No. 987; A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 372; Rieu i. p. 351b.

No. 1991, ff. 362, 2 coll., each ll. 19; Nasta’lîḳ; small illuminated frontispieces on fol. 1b and 11b; size, 91/8 in. by 45/8 in.