[IO Islamic 890] ديوان احسن

Dîwân-i-Aḥsan

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1601 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 890 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1601

Dîwân-i-Aḥsan (ديوان احسن).

The lyrical poems of Żafarkhân Mirzâ Aḥsan-allâh, with the takhalluṣ Aḥsan, the father of the poet Âshnâ (see above, Nos. 1584 and 1585), and one of the great Amîrs of Jahângîr and Shâhjahân; concerning his life comp. Rieu ii. pp. 687b and 688a. According to the date given there, he died before his son Âshnâ in A.H. 1073 (A.D. 1662, 1663), but according to Sirâj his death took place after that of his son in A.H. 1081 or 1083 (A.D. 1670-1672), see A. Sprenger, Catal., pp. 109, 149, and 325; and Muntakhab-alash’âr, No. 49 (Bodleian Cat., col. 241). He began his poetical career in A.H. 1032 (A.D. 1623), and the present diwân, which is dated the 21st Sha’bân, A.H. 1039 (A.D. 1630, April 5), must therefore contain his earliest poems.

Contents:

A detailed preface, in prose, beginning, on fol. 1b:

بلبل خوش الحان قلم در بستان سراى دستانسراى بصفير دلپذير حمد چمن الخ .

Ghazals, in alphabetical order, on fol. 9b, beginning:

چو گردد شرمسارى در قيامت عذر خواه ما

بسوزد خرمن عصيان خلق از برق آه ما

Rubâ’îs, likewise in alphabetical order, on fol. 116b, beginning:

با ما شب و روز آشنا بود خدا

از ما نفسى جدا كجا بود خدا

No. 890, ff. 122, 2 coll., each ll. 17; Nasta’lîḳ; size, 95/8 in. by 43/4 in.