[IO Islamic 2194] تحفۀ نصائح

Tuḥfa-i-Naṣâ’iḥ.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1276 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 2194 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1276

Tuḥfa-i-Naṣâ’iḥ ( تحفۀ نصائح).

A didactic poem, in form of a ḳaṣîdah, on all the various topics of ethics and practical philosophy, some-what on the lines of Nâṣir bin Khusrau’s Rûshanâ’inâma (see No. 904 in this Cat.), by Yûsuf Gadâ (Yûsuf the dervish) or according to the colophon of the following copy, Muḥammad Yûsuf, who intended these admonitions for his son Abû-alfatḥ. The poet’s spiritual teacher was Shaikh Maḥmûd (or, with his fuller designation according to the following copy, Shaikh Naṣîr-aldîn Maḥmûd), whom he celebrates, on fol. 2a:شيخ معظّم پيرمان محمود الصاحب قران The poem is divided into forty-five bâbs, and comprises in this copy 786 baits (هفصد هفتاد و شش), in the following one 781 (هفصىد هفتاد ويك). As date of composition, there appears both here and in the following copy, A.H. 795 (هفصد نود و پنج), the 10th of Rabî’ II=A.D. 1393, February 23, whereas the St. Petersburg MS. (see Cat. des MSS. Et Xylographes, p. 440, compare also Rehatsek, Catalogue raisonné, p. 129, No. 11) contains as date, A.H. 752 (A.D. 1351); it is hard to say which of the two is the correct one; if the Shaikh Naṣîr-aldîn Maḥmûd is really identical with the great Shaikh of the Ćishtî order, Naṣîr-aldîn Maḥmûd Ćirâgh of Dihlî (who died A.H. 757 = A.D. 1356, see Safînat-alauliyâ, No. 116, col. 287 in this Cat., and Sawâṭi’-alanwâr, No. 22, col. col. 331 above), A.H. 752 has decidedly the better chance. An incomplete copy of this poem is also noticed in W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., pp. 124, 125; it is mentioned besides in Ḥ. Khalfa ii. p. 242, No. 2684. A lithographed edition of it has appeared in Bombay, A.H. 1283. Beginning:

حمدي بگويم بيعدد مر خالق جنّ و بشر

كرده معلّق آسمان هم اختران شمس و قمر

On the margin a great number of Ḳurân verses and traditions are quoted as references for the text.

Dated Jumâdâ-alawwal, A.H. 1173 (A.D. 1759, Dec., to 1760, Jab.), by Nûr-aldîn ‘Alî alḥusainî.

College of Fort William, 1825.

No. 2194, ff. 29, 2 coll., each ll. 15; careless Nasta’lîḳ; size, 83/8 in. by 43/4 in.