[IO Islamic 791] ديوان هجرى

Dîwân-i-Hijrî.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1441 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 791 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1441

Dîwân-i-Hijrî (ديوان هجرى).

The lyrical poems of another poet, with the same takhalluṣ, Hijrî, who was, as the contents of this dîwân prove, one of the court-poets of the emperor Akbar, and is probably identical with the Khwâjah Hijrî, mentioned by Badâ’ûnî (A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 65, ll. 5 and 4 ab infra) as a descendant of Shaikh Aḥmad-i-Jâm Nâmaḳî (see the Safînat-alauliyâ, No. 308, col. 305 in this Cat.), comp. also Makhzan-algharâ’ib, No. 3047 (col. 394 in the Bodleian Cat.), and Safînah, No. 189 (ib. col. 217), where he is called Hijrî of Farghâna, and stated to have been in Akbar’s service.

This dîwân contains:

Ḳaṣîdas and tarkîbbands, mostly in honour of the emperor Akbar, beginning, on fol. 1b:

ملك هندوستان كه پر خوبان زنگی پیکر است

اصل آن خاك و زمين گویا زمشك و عنبر است

This first poem is introduced by a rubâ’î, beginning:

اين نسخه كه وصف ملك هندوستانست

نورس چمن پر از گل و ريحانست

Similar headings in form of rubâ’îs and even of ḳiṭ’as are given to most of the poems. At the end of this part is a ta’rîkh for the death of the emperor Humâyûn: حيف زان پادشه عارف دانای حکیم = A.H. 963 (A.D. 1556).

Ghazals, without any order, beginning, on fol. 29b:

رسيد آن تازه ايّامى كه گل در بوستان آيد

زشاخ سنبل تر بوى زلف دلستان آيد

Muḳaṭṭa’ât and rubâ’is, beginning, on fol. 34a (not on fol. 34b, where the heading is placed by mistake):

شها و شهريارا بر تو يا رب – مبارك مقدم فرزند بادا

No date; among the many entries and notes on fol. 1a, the oldest appears to be A.H. 1015, 19th of Jumâdâ-alawwal= A.D. 1606, Sept. 22. This copy belonged formerly to Mr. Richard Johnson.

No. 791, ff. 40, 2 coll., each ll. 17; clear and distinct Nasta’lîḳ; illuminated frontispiece; size, 9½ in. by 6 in.