[IO Islamic 184] يوسف و زليخا

Yûsuf-u-Zalîkhâ

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1593 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 184 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1593

Yûsuf u Zalîkhâ (يوسف و زليخا).

Yûsuf and Zalîkhâ, a mathnawî by Mullâ Nâżim of Harât, who was a court-poet and favourite of ‘Abbâs Ḳulîkhân Shâmlû, the Beglerbeg of Harât, at whose request he composed this mathnawî, which is to a great extent based on Firdausî’s name on fol. 19a, l. 7. He commenced the poem in A.H. 1058 (A.D. 1648), and completed it A.H. 1072 (A.D. 1661, 1662); he died A.H. 1081 (A.D. 1670, 1671), see Bodleian Cat., No. 1130; Rieu ii. p. 692; W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., pp. 29, 721, and 927; A. Sprenger, Catal., pp. 151 and 515; Âtashkada, No. 305 (Bodleian Cat., col. 273), and Khulâṣat-alkalâm, No. 71 (ib., col. 301). It has been printed at Lucknow, A.H. 1286.

Beginning:

خدايا چون سپهرم سينه بگشا

دلم طوطى كن و آئينه بنما

No date. Many pages worm-eaten and severely damaged at the corners.

No. 184, ff. 165, 2 coll., each ll. 15; Nasta’lîḳ; size, 9½ in. by 4¼ in.