[IO Islamic 741] شاهنامه

Shâhnâma.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 867 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 741 here with notations and hyperlinks].

867

The same.

An extremely splendid and magnificent copy of the Shâhnâma, in two volumes, with a beautiful eastern binding; written by Hidâyat-allâh of Shirâz, but not dated.

The Bâisungharî preface begins here, on fol. 2b, thus:

اى در صف اهل نظم استاد سخن

شد تازه و محكم از تو بنياد سُخن

فردوس مقام بادت اى فردوسى

انصاف كه نيك دادۀ داد سخن׳

افتتاح سخن آن به كه كند اهل كمال الخ

The full text of the satire against Sulṭân Maḥmûd is found here on fol. 9b sq.

Beginning of the first volume, on fol. 13b; of the second volume, on fol. 344b, with Luhrâsp’s accession:

چو لهراسپ بنشست بر تخت عاج الخ

Nos. 741 and 742, ff. 668, 4 coll., each ll. 25; excellent Nasta’lîḳ; illuminated frontispieces on ff. 2b, 13b, and 344b; the whole copy luxuriously embellished throughout: full-size pictures on ff. 1b, 2a, 40a, 94b, 140b, 185b, 215a, 232a, 252b, 326a, 355b, 385b, 412b, and 529b; size, 16 in. by 10 in.