[IO Islamic 328] ديوان ابو الفرج رونى

Dîwân-i-Abû-alfaraj Rûnî .

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 905 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 328 here with notations and hyperlinks].

905

Dîwân-i-Abû-alfaraj Rûnî (ديوان ابو الفرج رونى).

Lyrical poems by Abû-alfaraj bin Mas’ûd al-Rûnî, who was born in Lâhûr (see the Haft Iḳlîm, No. 358), and flourished in the reigns of Sulṭân Ibrâhîm of Ghazna (A.H. 451-492=A.D. 1059-1099) and his son and successor Sulṭân Mas’ûd III (A.H. 492-508=A.D. 1099-1114), to both of whom he addressed panegyrics.

He is not to be confounded with an older poet, Abû-alfaraj Sijzî, who was attached to the court of the Amir Abû ‘Alî Sîmjûr, the governor of Khurâsân under the Sâmânides (see Haft Iḳlim, No. 303), and whose pupil ‘Unṣurî was. The usual dates, assigned to Abû-alfaraj Rûnî’s death, viz. A.H. 482 or 489 (A.D. 1089 or 1096), cannot be authentic, as the poet styles Sulṭân Mas’ûd III, the reigning sovereign in various ḳaṣîdas; compare Bodleian Cat., Nos. 366 (Butkhâna, No. 1), 523, and 1333 (col. 823); Rieu ii. p. 547, and A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 308. This dîwân, which is incomplete at the end, contains chiefly ḳaṣîdas, with a few ghazals, ḳiṭ’as, and rubâ’îs.

Beginning:

سپهر دولت و دين پادشاه (آفتاب in other copies) هفت اقليم ابو المظفّر شاه مظفّر ابراهيم

The copy breaks off on fol. 429b; ff. 430b-432 contain a short extract from Sa’dî’s Bûstân, written by another hand. Dated by ‘Abd-alraḳîb the 24th of Shawwâl, A.H. 1069 (A.D. 1659, July 15).

No. 328, ff. 378-432, 2 coll., each ll. 18; clear Nasta’lîḳ; size, 101/2 in. by 51/2 in.