[IO Islamic 1887] ستّۀ داعى

Sitta-i-Dâ’î.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1298 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 1887 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1298

Sitta-i-Dâ’î (ستّۀ داعى).

Six mathnawis, by Niżâm-aldîn Maḥmûd bin al-Ḥasan al-Ḥusainî of Shîrâz, with the takhalluṣ Dâ’î, who was born A.H. 810 (A.D. 1407, 1408), and collected his complete poetical works for the first time in A.H. 865 (A.D. 1460, 1461), see above, No. 1099, where his commentary on the mathnawî is described and the different dates of his birth are duly weighed; comp. also No. 883 in the Bodleian Cat., where the contents of his Kulliyyât are given in full; Rieu ii. p. 791b, and A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 387. This copy contains only his mathanawîs, viz.:

1.Kitâb-i-Mashâhid (كتاب مشاهد), or ‘Book of Assemblies,’ on fol. 2b, beginning:

بلبل اگر ناله بر آرد رواست

خاصّه كه از طرف گلستان جداست

Composed A.H. 836 (A.D. 1432, 1433).

2.Kitâb-i-Ganj-i-rawân (كتاب گنج روان), or ‘Book of the Soul’s Treasure,’ in ten maḳâlas, on fol. 29b, beginning:

نخستين كه آيد قلم در زبان

بحمد خدا به كه گردد روان

Composed A.H. 841 (A.D. 1437, 1438).

3.Kitâb-i-Ćihil Ṣabâḥ (كتاب چهل صباح), or ‘Book of the Forty Mornings,’ on fol. 63b, beginning:

بنياد سخن بنام حق نِه – كز هر چه بهست نام حق بِه

Composed A.H. 843 (A.D. 1439, 1440).

4.Kitâb-i-Ćâr Ćaman (کتاب چار چمن), or ‘Book of the Four Meadows,’ on fol. 97b, beginning:

میوۀ باغ جان ما سخن است

چه سخن هر چه از خدا سخن است

Composed A.H. 842 (A.D. 1438, 1439).

5.Kitâb-i- Ćashma-i-Zindagâni (كتاب چشمۀ زندگانی), or ‘Book of the Fountain of Life,’ on fol. 139b, beginning:

ستايش را سزاروارى خدايا – كه بخشيدی مرا يارى خدايا

Composed A.H. 856 (A.D. 1452).

6.Kitâb-i-’Ishknâma (كتاب عشقنامه), or ‘Book of Love,’ on fol. 174b, beginning:

از ازل گرگوش داری تا ابد – بشنوی از هر زبان حمد احد

Composed A.H. 856 (A.D. 1452).

To these six mathnawîs there is added, on ff. 247b sq., a seventh mathnawî without any title, a kind of Sâḳînâma, dealing with the various topics of Ṣûfism, beginning, on fol. 247b:

الحمد لواهب الانابه – و الشّكر لمن له الاجابه

It ends on fol. 284b, and is followed by a series of Tarjî’ât, beginning:

عشقم از خويشتن ندامت داد -سرم اندر ره ملامت داد

A short preface in prose, on fol. 1b, opens the Sittah.

No date. An entry, dated A.H. 1059 (A.D. 1649), on the fly-leaf.

No. 1887, ff. 299, 2 coll., each ll. 12; Nasta’lîḳ; illuminated frontispiece at the beginning of each mathnawî; size, 81/8 in. by 41/8 in.