[IO Islamic 267] Shifâ'î Mathnawîs

Shifâ’î-Mathnawîs

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1532 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 267 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1532

Extracts from three mathnawîs of Shifâ’î.

This copy contains:

a.Extracts from the نمكدان حقيقت (styled here: منتخب كتاب نمكدان الحقيقة), beginning, on fol. 1b:

اى بشهد سخن ملاحت ساى – بنمكدان طرز راهنماى

See No. 2 in the preceding copy.

b.Extracts from another mathnawî (without a heading), which, to judge both from the metre and the contents, must be identical with the مهر و محبّت, or love and affection (see W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 914, No.2, and A. Sprenger, Catal., loc. cit.). Beginning, on fol. 16a:

بر گزيدست (read دلرا) بنام انكه دل

محبّت را بدعوى آفريدست

The usual initial bait of the poem is not found here; it was composed A.H. 1021 (A.D. 1612, 1613).

c.Extracts from the mathnawî ديدۀ بيدار, the watchful eye, or, as Sprenger calls it ديدۀ بيديدار, the sightless eye (likewise without a heading); beginning, on fol. 56a, l. 4 ab infra, the same as in the Bodleian, Berlin, and Oudh copies:

بسم الله الرّحمن الرّحيم – تيغ الهيست بدست حكيم

It was composed A.H. 990 (A.D. 1582).

At the end, on fol. 87b, all the three different extracts are (wilfully or by ignorance) represented as parts of the same نمكدان حقيقت, in spite of the various metres employed; the copy was transcribed at Tattah by Muḥammad Fayyâḍ Bakrî; as date appears the 11th of Ṣafar only, see the Persian text of the colophon:

بتأريخ يازدهم صفر نمكدان شفائى در بلدۀ تته بيد فقير الحقير محمّد فيّاض بكرى صورت اتمام يافت و الله اعلم بالصّواب’ .

No. 267, ff. 1-87b, 2 coll., each ll. 15; distinct Nasta’lîḳ; a little worm-eaten; size, 83/8 in. by 4¾ in.