[IO Islamic 2093] ديوان مسيح

Dîwân-i-Masîḥ This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1572 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 2093 here with notations and hyperlinks]. 1572 Dîwân-i-Masîḥ (ديوان مسيح). Lyrical poems by Ḥakîm Rukn-aldîn Mas’ûd, commonly called Ḥakîm Ruknâ, with the takhalluṣ Masîḥ, a native of Kâshân, who was first in Shâh ‘Abbâs’ service, but feeling offended by him went to India and found great favour with Jahângîr as well as with Shâhjahân, whose court-poet he became; at the advanced age of 105 lunar years he returned to Îrân and died there, according to most tadhkiras, A.H. 1066 (A.D. 1656), see A. Sprenger, Catal., pp. 90 and 151; Khazâna-i-’âmirah, No.112 (col. 259 in the Bodleian Cat.); Khulâṣat-alafkâr, No. 259 (ib., col. 311); and Makhzan-algharâ’ib, No. 2426 (ib. col. 376); Comp. besides Âtashkada, No. 589 (ib., col. 282); Rieu ii. pp. 603a, 688, and 689; and Bodleian Cat., No. 1115. The Mirât-al’âlam fixes his death in A.H. 1057 (A.D. 1647); the Khulâṣat-alkalâm, No. 68 (col. 301 in the Bodleian Cat.), as late as A.H. 1070 (A.D. 1659, 1660); in Beale’s Oriental Biogr. Dictionary, p. 226a, A.H. 1056 (A.D. 1646) is given as an alternative for 1066. Besides his lyrical poems he composed a mathnawî قضا و قدر, see Bodleian Cat., loc. cit., Khulâṣat-alkalâm, loc. cit., and W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 34, No. 10, and four others, among them a رام و سيتا, see Rieu ii. p. 688b sq. Taḳî Kâshî (see A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 24, No. 254) mentions also from his pen an Arabic work on medicine, entitled ضابطة العلاج . The poet Ṣâ’ib (see below, Nos. 1606-1623) was his pupil. Contents: Ghazals, in alphabetical order, on fol. 1b with some ḳiṭ’as at the end (on ff. 142b-149b). Beginning of the initial ghazal: نيارم گفت ذكر بر دوام وبر مراد اورا بدين آلودگى شرم آيدم كارم بياد اورا Rubâ’îs, on fol. 149b, beginning: ديدم برون زراه و بيراه خدا گفتيم رموز عشق الله خدا Ḳaṣidas, on fol. 163a, beginning: اى حساب غم تو بر انگشت وى كليد غم تو هر انگشت According to a colophon at the end of the rubâ’îs this copy was finished at Shâhjahânâbâd, the 4th of Rajab, A.H. 1155 (here incorrectly styled the twenty-fifth year of Muḥammadshâh’s reign, instead of the twenty-fourth)=A.D. 1742, Sept. 4. Which of the ten dîwâns which Masîḥ is said to have composed the present represents, or whether it is a mere selection from several or all of them, cannot be stated. No. 2093, ff. 1-174, 2 coll., each ll. 14; Nasta’lîḳ; size, 8¾ in. by 5 in.