[IO Islamic 2118] شاهنامه

Shâhnâma.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 860 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 2118 here with notations and hyperlinks].

B. POETRY.

I.EPIC, LYRIC, AND DIDACTIC POETRY.

Poets who died between A.H. 400 and 500.

1.Firdausî and Imitators (Nos. 860-901).

a.Copies of the Shâhnâma with the older preface.

860

Shâhnâma (شاهنامه).

Firdausî’s great epic poem, ‘the book of kings,’ in four books, preceded by the older preface, anterior to the so-called Bâisungharî recension, and designated by Mohl (i. p. xv) as prėface No. II;’ see Rieu ii. p. 534a; W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 732 sq.; Bodleian Cat., No. 497; Rosen, Persian MSS., p. 169; J. Aumer, p. 6 (where it is wrongly ascribed to Bâisunghar), etc. This preface has been translated by M. de Wallenbourg in his ‘Notice sur le Shahnamė,’ Vienna, 1810, and begins here, on fol. 1b: سپاس و آفرين مر خدايرا كه آن جهان و اين جهان الخ.

First book (جلد اوّل) of the poem, on fol. 6b, beginning:

بنام خداوند جان و خرد – كزين برتر انديشه بر نگذرد

And going down to Bahrâm’s death.

Second book (جلد دويم), on fol. 151b, beginning:

بنام خداوند خورشيد و ماه – كه دلرا بنامش خرد داد راه

And concluding with Isfandiyâr’s message of victory to his father Gushtâsp.

Third book (جلد سوم), on fol. 290b, beginning:

خداوند پيروزى و فرّهى – خداوند ديهم و شاهنشهى

And ending with accession of Nûshirwân.

Fourth book (جلد چهارم), on fol. 407b, beginning exactly as the second book and comprising the rest of the poem.

Firdausî (Abû-alḳâsim Ḥasan or Manṣûr) was born about A.H. 321 or 322 (A.D. 933 or 934) in Shâdâb, near Ṭûs, completed the Shâhnâma, according to the usual statement, A.H. 400 (A.D. 1009, 1010), according to a rare epilogue, found only in one copy of the British Museum (Rieu. ii. p. 535a) and in No. 878 below, already A.H. 389 (A.D. 999), and according to some verses in the same copy of the British Museum, even as early as A.H. 384 (A.D. 994), and died A.H. 411 (A.D. 1020; other dates of his death are A.H. 416 =A.D. 1025, and A.H. 421=A.D. 1030); comp. on the poet’s biography and special incidents of his life, besides the Catalogues mentioned above, W. Pertsch, p. 68; G. Flügel i. p. 492 sq.; A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 405 sq.; Ouseley, Biogr. Notices, pp. 54-99; Ethé, Firdûsî als Lyriker, in Sitzungsberichte der bayr. Academic, philos-philol. Classe, 1872, pp. 275-304, and 1873, pp. 623-653; ‘A Sketch of the Life and Writings of Ferdusi,’ London, 1876; and Ethé, Die höfische und romantische Poesie der Perser, Hamburg, 1887, p. 25 sq. Best text editions by Turner Macan, in 4 vols., Calcutta, 1829 (of the earlier Calcutta edition of 1811, by Lumsden , only one volume has appeared), reproduced in the lithographed eastern texts of Bombay, 1849 and 1856, Cawnpore, 1874, Ṭahrân, A.H. 1245 and 1267, etc.; J. Mohl (with a complete prose translation in French), Paris, 1838-1878; and J.A. Vullers, Leyden, 1877-1884. Parts of the poem have been published in J. Atkinson’s Soohrab, a poem (Persian and English), Calcutta, 1814; Vullers, Chrestomathia Shahnamiana. Bonn, 1833; H.S. Jarrett, Selections from the Shah Namah, Calcutta, 1880; I. Pizzi, Antologia Firdusiana, second edition, Leipzig, 1891; in various Persian Chrestomathies, for instance, Spiegel (Leipzig, 1846), Pizzi (Manuale della lingua Persiana, Leipzig, 1883, and Chrestomathie Persane, Turin, 1889), and others, and in Salemann und Shukovski, Persische Grammatik, Berlin, 1889; compare also Zenker, No. 526 sq., and ii. 489 sq. Chief translations by Champion (the first eight books), 1788; St. Weston, Episodes from the Shah Nameh, 1815; J. Görres, Das Heldenbuch von Iran, 2 vols., Berlin, 1820; Starkenfels, Key-Kawns in Masenderan, Vienna, 1841; Fr. V. Schack, Heldensagen, third edition, 3 vols., Stuttgart, 1877; J. Mohl, Le livre des rois, traduit et commenté, publié par Mme. Mohl, Paris, 1876-1878; H. Zimmern, The Epic of Kings, London, 1882; S. Robinson, Persian Poetry for English Readers, 1883 (pp. 5-102); I. Pizzi, ll libro dei re, poema epico, in 8 vols., Turin, 1886-1888 (the only complete translation in verse that exists of Firdausî’s epopee in any European language, except the Turkish version of Sharîf, see Rieu, p. 152 sq.); Fr. Rϋckert, Firdosi’s Königshûch, aus dem Nachlass herausgegeben von E. A. Bayer, Sage i-xiii, Berlin, 1890; and ‘Rostam und Suhrab’ im Nibelungenmass, ein Fragment mitgeteilt von E. Bayer in ‘Zeitschrift fϋr vergl. Litteraturgeschichte, etc.,’

Berlin, 1891, pp. 322-342. On the question of the origin of certain parts of the poem, see Nöldeke’s ‘Persische Studien II,’ Sitzungsberichte der kais. Acad. Der Wissenschaften in Wien, 1892, vol. 126.

The present copy was transcribed by Muḥammad Ḥâfiż Ćishtî. Book I is dated A.H. 1007, first of Ramaḍân (A.D. 1599, March 28); Book II, A.H. 1007, the 18th of Shawwâl (A.D. 1599, May 14); Book III has no date; book IV is dated A.H. 1008, the 16th of Rajab (A.D. 1600, Febr. 1). Fol. 421 (٤٢٤ according to the Arabic paging) is left blank. Many small blanks besides.

No. 2118, ff. 522, 4 coll., each ll. 25; small, but very neat and clear Nasta’lîḳ; splendid illuminations on the first two pages of each book ; size, 153/8 in. by 101/4 in.