[IO Islamic 3515] ديوان انورى

Dîwân-i-Anwarî.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 939 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 3515 here with notations and hyperlinks].

939

A slightly defective copy of the same.

This copy is the oldest in the India Office Collection, dated Rabî’-alawwal, A.H. 987 (A.D. 1579, May), by Niżâm Faḍl-allâh, but unfortunately somewhat defective in the middle.

It contains:

A short laudatory introduction in pros, on fol. 1b, beginning: اين جريدۀ نامى و نسخۀ كرامى كه از مشاهدۀ صفحاتش ارباب بينش را منظور ديده در نظرست الخ.

A first collection of ḳaṣîdas, ghazals, ḳiṭ’as, tarjî’bands, etc., all mixed without any alphabetical order, beginning, on fol. 2a: مقدّرى نه الخ.

A second collection, equally mixed and unalphabetical, beginning abruptly with the last four baits of a poem with the radîf انداخته, which cannot be traced in the other copies, on fol. 69a (the lacuna after fol. 68 comprises, according to the Arabic paging, one leaf only).

Rubâ’îs, beginning, on fol. 211a: اى تيغ ترا نهاده سرها گردن الخ.

Worm-eaten; occasional notes on the margin.

No. 3515, ff. 233, 2 coll., each ll. 15; large, excellent Nasta’lîḳ; splendid binding in red and gold; size, 97/8 in. by 61/8 in.