[IO Islamic 897] قصّۀ شاه مردان على

Ḳiṣṣ-i-Shâh-i-mardân ‘Alî.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 786 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 897 here with notations and hyperlinks].

786

Ḳiṣṣ-i-Shâh-i-mardân ‘Alî (قصّۀ شاه مردان على).

Another very large, but likewise incomplete, Persian romance of similar character and similar contents as the preceding one, and therefore styled, in a note, on fol. 1a, قصّۀ حمزه ; but whether it is merely another enlarged version of the Ḥamzanâma or rather an independent romance, dealing with heroic deeds of the same period, is difficult to say; at any rate, the chief hero here is ‘Alî bin Abî Ṭâlib, Muḥammad’s son-in-law and fourth Khalîf, not Ḥamzah, the prophet’s uncle; every paragraph begins with the words امّا در محلّ و زمانى كه , and closes with the phrase يا على مدد. On the other hand, several characters appearing in the preceding copy of the Ḥamzanâma, are found here too, for instance, زمرّدشاه. In spite of its excessive length, this copy is by no means complete; it begins abruptly thus: امّا در محلّ و زمانى كه نقاب وار گوهرپوش طهماسپ را گرفت زمرّدشارا گرفت نقاب وار از عقب عمر الخ, and a great number of leaves are missing at the end; there is also a blank between the middle of fol. 6a and that of fol. 7a, and portions of ff. 8, 650, and 651 are torn away. Neither date nor author’s name appears anywhere. The same note on fol. 1a which gives to this romance the title of قصّۀ حمزه also states that it was copied A.H. 1083 (A.D. 1672, 1673).

No. 897, ff. 664, ll. 17; distinct Nasta’lîḳ; size, 10 in. by 51/4 in.