Poetry and Elegant Prose [IO Islamic 2873]

Poetry and Elegant Prose.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 2873 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 833 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

833.

2873. Size 121/2 in. by 71/2 in.; foll. 119. Twenty-one lines in a page.

The first part of MUḤAMMAD B. ḲÂNIṢAUH B. ṢÂDIḲ'S (flourished about the beginning of the tenth century, in Egypt) السحر الحلال من ابداع الجلال , that is, a selection from his Dîwân (which is entitled ابداع الجلال في السحر الحلال), preceded by five dissertations (مقدّمة) , which are inscribed as follows :

I.فى فضل العقل وما ورد فى شرفه من النقل ;

II. فى علوم الادب و ما ورد فيها من القول المنتخب ;

III. فيما روت فيه الصحابة من الحديث و مزجت منه القديم بالحديث

IV.فى نبذة ممّا انتخبته من بعض القصائد و المقاطيع الحسان التى هى فى جيد الزمان كفرائد الدرّ وقلائد العقيان ;

V.فى بعض قصائد مبدعة و معارضتى لها بقصائد بديعة مخترعة

Only these dissertations are contained in the present volume. The last two, as is indicated by their titles, consist merely of poetical extracts. IV. contains, among others, long selections from the Dîwâns of Kamâl al-dîn Ibn Nabîh, Ibn Nubâtah, Mutanabbi’, and Ṣafî al-dîn Ḥillî. V. gives, besides Ḳaṣîdahs of the authors just mentioned, some of (Sulṭân) Ḳâniṣauh Ghaurî, Maḥmud b. Âghâ, Shihâb Manṣûrî, Shihâb al-dîn Aḥmad b. Mas’ûd Nâbulusî, and the author himself.

The Dîwân of the author was divided into five chapters (باب) as follows : I. فى القصائد ; II. فى الموشّحات و المخمّسات ; III. فى الالغاز و المطارحات ; IV. فى المراثى ; V. فى المقاطيع .

The preface begins: قال الفقير الى رحمة ربّه المحبّ الصادق محمد بن قانْصَوه بن صادق غفر الله ذنوبه .... الحمد لله المانّ على البلغاء بصحاحِ بيانِ معانى بديعِ تخيّلِ اختراعِ المقال ‘

Cf. on the author and another work of his, Cat. Mus. Brit. 347.

Well written, with vowel-points. Quit modern.

[Bible. Leydeniana.]