[IO Islamic 3299] Sa'dî's Works

Kulliyyây-i-Sa’dî.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1133 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 3299 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1133

Three works of Sa’dî.

This splendid copy, illuminated throughout in the most gorgeous style, contains:-

a.In the centre-column of ff. 1b-144b, Sa’dî’s Gulistân, slightly imperfect at the end (a few lines of the conclusion being missing in consequence of a lacuna after fol. 144). Bâb I, on fol. 12a; II, on fol. 44b; III, on fol. 69a; IV, on fol. 97a; V, on fol. 101a; VI, on fol. 117a; VII, on fol. 122a; VIII, on fol. 129b.

b. In the margin-column of ff.1b-144b, Sa’dî’s Bûstân (at the end fifteen verses missing according to Graf’s edition, in consequence of the same lacuna). Bâb I, on fol. 8a; II, on fol. 41a; III, on fol. 58b; IV, on fol. 71b; fol. 89b, last line; VI, on fol. 97a; VII, on fol. 103b; VIII, on fol. 119b; IX, on fol. 129b; X, on fol. 141a.

c.In the centre-column of ff. 145a-155a, Sa’dî’s Pandnâma, defective at the beginning (owing to the before-mentioned lacuna). There are five baits wanting; the first that appears here corresponds to the last on fol. 1b in the following copy.

On the margin of ff. 145a-155a there is found the well-known religious mathnawî on the duties of a Muslim, styled نام حق or رسالۀ نام حق (as it is called here), likewise defective at the beginning; the first bait, which is the eighth in the usual copies (for instance, No. 1345 of the India Office Collection, fol. 56b), runs thus:

روز و شب طالب قبول ويم – پيروى امّت رسول ويم

Comp. on this poem, which is usually styled مقدّمة الصّلوة, Bodleian Cat., Nos. 1767 and 1768. The date of composition, viz. 693 of the Riḥlat, or A.H. 703 (A.D. 1303) is contained in the last verse.

The whole MS., written throughout by the same hand, was transcribed at the request of Nawwâb ‘Abd-almuḥsinkhân, son of Nawwâb ‘Abd-alnabîkhân, by Mihr ‘Alî, Son of Muḥammad Ibrâhîm, and finished the 12th of Rabî-alawwal, A.H. 1165 (A.D. 1752, Jan. 29).

On fol. 1a is a seal of John Henry Peile, جان هنرى پيل, with the date A.H. 1220 (A.D. 1805), And a statement in English, ‘that this MS. was the gift of Mr. Sanders, 1811, that it was presented by J. H. Peile, Esq. (of the Madras Civil Service), and received 19th September, 1818, transferred to Civil College (i.e. Haileybury), 9 Aug., 1819.’

No. 3299, ff. 155, ll. 11, and an additional margin-col., ll. 30; large and distinct Nasta’lîḳ; splendid frontispiece on fol. 1b, every page, from first to last, adorned with gold borders round each line of the centre-column, and three corner-vignettes in various colours and designs; size, 103/8 in. by 61/2 in.