[IO Islamic 888] خمسۀ قاسمی

Khamsa-i-Ḳâsimî.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1437 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 888 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1437

Khamsa-i-Ḳâsimî (خمسۀ قاسمی).

The five epic poems of Mirzâ Muḥammad Ḳâsim alḥusainî of Gûnâbâd (or Junâbid) in Khurâsân, with the takhalluṣ Ḳâsimi, who flourished under Shâh Ṭahmâsp (A.H. 930-984= A.D. 1524-1576); the date of his death is not absolutely fixed; as he is spoken of as still alive in the Nafâ’is-almaâthir (compiled between A.H. 973 and 979 = A.D. 1565 – 1571, 1572, see A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 52), he cannot have died before A.H. 979, comp. Bodleian Cat., Nos. 513-517; Rieu ii. pp. 660 and 661; G. Flügel i. pp. 602 and 603; A. Sprenger, Catal., pp. 44, 83, and 534-535; Cat. des MSS. et Xylographes, pp. 387 and 388; Dorn, Das Asiatische Museum, pp. 375; Mohl, Le Livre des Rois, vol. i. preface, p. lxxvii, note; Notices et Extraits iv. p. 297; Ḥ. Khalfa iv. p. 13, No. 7409; see also Haft Iḳlîm, No. 809 (coll. 436 and 437 in this Cat.); Safînah, No. 80 (col. 214 in the Bodleian Cat.); Âtashkada, No. 163 (ib. col. 268); Khulâṣat-alkalâm, No. 58 (ib. col. 300), and Khulâṣat-alafkâr, No. 216 (ib. col. 309).

This copy contains:

A short preface in prose, by the author himself, beginning, on fol. 1b: بعد از حمد و سپاس الهى و درود بى قياس بر حضرت رسالت پناهى صلّى الله عليه و آله نموده مى آيد الخ .

The five mathnawîs in the following order:

1.Shâhnâma or Shahnâma (شاهنامه or شهنامه), also styled اسمعيل نامه ; شاهنامۀ اسمعيل (so in No. 515 of the Bodleian Cat.); شاهنشاه نامه (so in Taḳî Kâshî, A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 44, No. 609, and in No. 514 of the Bodleian Cat.); شاهانشاه نامه (so in Ilâhî, ib. p. 83). It contains a poetical history of Shâh Isma’îl Ṣafawî, and was completed A.H. 940 (A.D. 1533, 1534), see Rieu ii. p. 661a.

Beginning, on fol. 3b:

خداوند بيچون خدائى تراست

بر اقليم جان پادشائى تراست

The continuation or second daftar of this epopee, containing the poetical history of the greater part of Shâh Ṭahmâsp’s reign, seems to be really extant only in one copy of the British Museum Collection (see Rieu ii. p. 661b). According to Ilâhî, loc. cit., both parts of this epopee, together with the شاهرخ نامه (No. 5 below), formed one great historical mathnawî in three كتاب .

2.Lailâ u Majnûn (ليلى و مجنون), beginning, on fol. 58b:

اى نامه بنام تو مسجّل – مجنون ره تو عقل اوّل

3.Gûi u Ćaugân (گوی و چوگان), or ‘the ball and the bat,’ also styled Kârnâma (كارنامه), beginning, on fol. 92b:

اين نامه كه هست حسب حالى

طغراش بنام ذو الجلالى

4.Khusrau u Shîrîn ( خسرو و شيرين), composed A.H. 950 (A.D. 1543, 1544), beginning, on fol. 106b:

الهى قاسمى را ديده ور ساز

بروى گلرخانش کن نظر باز

5.Shâhrukhnâma (شاهرخ نامه), a poetical history of Sulṭân Shâhrukh (A.H. 807-850 = A.D. 1405-1447), composed in the same year, A.H. 950, but after the preceding mathnawî, since both that and Lailâ and Majnûn are mentioned as previous poetical achievements by the author in the preface of this work.

Beginning, on fol. 146b:

الهى بحق پادشائى تراست

همه بنده ايم و خدائى تراست

No date.

No. 888, ff. 202, 4 coll., each ll. 21; Nasta’lîḳ; illuminated frontispiece at the beginning of the preface and of each mathnawî; miniature paintings on ff. 6b, 16a, 18b, 19a, 22b, 25a, 28a, 29b, 34a, 35b, 37a, 38b, 40b, 42a, 43b, 51b, 65b, 68a, 71a, 73b, 76b, 78b, 79b, 81a, 98a, 109b, 115b, 124b, 131b, 133b, 135b, 140b, 159b, 162a, 164b, 166a, 168a, 169b, 173a, 175a, 177a, 178b, 186a, 193a, 194b, and 197a; size, 9½ in. by 6¾ in.