[IO Islamic 1773] بوستان خيال

Bûstân-i-Khayâl.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 833 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 1773 here with notations and hyperlinks].

833

Bûstân-i-Khayâl (بوستان خيال).

The first Bahâr or the first two volumes (جلد) of one of the largest and most famous Persian romances, the Bûstân-i-Khayâl or ‘garden of imagination,’ by Mir Muḥammad Taḳî alja’farî alḥusainî of Aḥmadâbâd in Gujarât, with the takhalluṣ Khayâl, who wrote this vast collection of tales, in which historical legends are blended with the adventures of Jinns and Peris, at the request of his noble patron, Nawwâb Rashîdkhân Bahâdur, wherefore, as is stated in the Berlin copy (W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 993), the work is also sometimes styled فرمايش رشيدى, and died A.H. 1173 (A.D. 1759, 1760); see A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 193, and Rieu ii. p. 770 sq. It comprises altogether fifteen volumes (جلد), divided into three Bahâr (spring), the second and third of which have the additional title of a first and second Gulistân, comp. the detailed description of this bulky romance in the Bodleian Cat., No. 480 (Caps. Or. D. 9-23, the most complete copy of the work extant, in which only one of the fifteen volumes is missing). This first Bahâr, which bears besides the special title of Mahdînâma (مهدى نامه), was commenced A.H. 1155 (A.D. 1742, 1743), at Shâhjahânâbâd, and serves as a sort of muḳaddimah or introduction to the whole work, relating the life and adventures of Sulṭân Abû-alḳâsim Muḥammad Mahdî and the other ancestors and predecessors of Sulṭân Mu’izz-aldîn (i.e. the Khalîf Alḳâ’im biamrillâh, the hero of the second Bahâr or first Gulistân); the last or fifteenth volume of the whole work (the end of the third Bahâr or second Gulistân) was commenced A.H. 1169 and completed in the month Dhû-alḥijjah of the same year (A.D. 1756, September), at Murshidâbâd, see Bodleian Cat., loc. cit.

Beginning of the first volume (No. 1773), on fol. 1b:

تبارك الذى جعل فى السماء بروجا و فعل فيها سراجاً قمراً نيّراً الخ

Beginning of the second volume (No. 1774), on fol. 1b:

ذكر رفتن سلطان ابوالقاسم محمّد مهدى و پادشاهزادگان و بعضى امراء عرب بزيارت حرمين و عتبات عاليّات و بيان وقائع آن’ نقل ( نقلۀ Bodl.copy correctly) اين اخبار از شائبۀ (تشابه Bodl.copy correctly) تحقيق چنين آورده اند الخ.

Copied A.H. 1202 (A.D. 1787, 1788), as a comparison with No. 1770 (839 below), which is written by the same hand, proves.

No. 1773, ff. 295; No. 1774, ff. 183; large and distinct Nasta’lîḳ, by the same hand, ll. 19 in each page; size, 123/8 – 121/2 in. by 83/8 in.

[ed note: Quick link to other copies of this work].