[IO Islamic 3506] عيار دانش

‘Iyâr-i-dânish.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 767 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 3506 here with notations and hyperlinks].

767

‘Iyâr-i-dânish (عيار دانش).

A later modernized Persian version of Kalîlah and Dimnah, in which the flowery style of the Anwâr-i-Suhailî has been toned down to a more sober and plain language, and the two introductory chapters, omitted by Ḥusain Wâ’iż, have been restored, on the basis of the older version of Naṣr-allâh, by Abû-alfaḍl bin Mubârak, the great prime-minister of the emperor Akbar and author of the Akbarnâma (see Nos. 235-270 in this Cat.). He completed this work, which was written at the emperor’s request, the 15th of Sha’bân, A.H. 996 (A.D. 1588, July 10=19 Tîrmâh-i-ilâhî in the year 33=22 Tîrmâh-i-jalâlî in the year 51=14 Âdharmâh-i-ḳadimî in the year 967 or, according to other copies, 957 of the Yazdajird era=17 Mâh-i-Aspâr in the Hindû year 1645=Mâh-i-rûmî in the year 1899 of the Iskandarî era); comp. Bodleian Cat., Nos. 438-440 ; Rieu ii. p. 756b; W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., Nos. 438-440; Rieu ii. p. 756b; W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 974 sq.; J. Aumer, p. 47; G. Flügel iii. p. 286; Notices et Extraits, x. p. 197 sq. (where extracts in text and translation are given by De Sacy). The Hindûstânî translation of this version is the خرد افروز . The ‘Iyâr-i-dânish contains sixteen chapters and a khâtimah.

Beginning: سپاس ازل و ابد خداوندى را كه كران تا كران از آشكار و پنهان پرتو آفتاب عالمتاب جمال اوست الخ.

All the headings are unfortunately omitted in this copy, which is the oldest among the dated ones of the India Office Library, viz. completed the 9th of Rabî’-alawwal, A.H. 1090 (the twenty-second year of ‘Âlamgîr’s reign)=A.D. 1679, April 20. The right order of ff. 37-44 is: 37, 39-43, 38, 44.

No. 3506, olim 8. J. 2, ff. 271, ll. 16-19; large, unequal Nasta’lîḳ; size, 97/8 in. by 51/4 in.