[IO Islamic 690] ليلى و مجنون

Lailâ-u-Majnûn

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1540 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 690 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1540

Lailâ u Majnûn (ليلى و مجنون).

Another mathnawî by the same Rûḥ-alamîn, the loves of Lailâ and Majnûn, likewise an imitation of one of Niżâmî’s masterpieces, and dedicated to the same Muḥammad Ḳulî Ḳuṭbshâh; it forms the third poem of the author’s Khamsah (the second being styled مطمح, see Rieu, loc. cit.); the poet’s name appears here on fol. 4a, l. 8; fol. 28a, l. 5; fol. 35a, l. 7, and fol. 189a in the colophon. It is preceded by a preface in prose and verse, beginning, on fol. 1b:

اى قدم پلّۀ زپایۀ تو – كفّ دستى فلك زسايۀ تو

Beginning of the mathnawî, on fol. 6b:

اى حسن طراز عشق پرداز – انجام نماى كار از آغاز

The fourth poem of the Khamsah, the آسمان هشتم or فلك البروج, is described in Rieu, loc. cit., it was composed A.H. 1021 (A.D. 1612); the fifth is not mentioned anywhere; but the dîwân, styled گلستان ناز, is noticed in Rieu.

No date.

No. 690, ff. 189, 2 coll., each ll. 14; clear and distinct Nasta’lîḳ; illuminated frontispieces on ff. 1b and 6b; size, 73/4 in. by 41/4 in.