[IO Islamic 112] Mathnawîs

Mathnawîs

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1657 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 477 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1657

Two anonymous mathnawîs.

1.The first, on ff. 1b-53a, is styled, on fol. 1a, ليلى و مجنون, but its real title appears to be Mihr u Wafâ (مهر و وفا) ; it is dedicated to the emperor ‘Âlamgîr, see fol. 3a; and in the preface, on fol. 7a sq., the anonymous author mentions all the former great poets from Rûdagî down to his own time, and bestows a special praise upon each of them. Beginning:

خداوندا دلى ده داغ پرورد – سراپا داغ و داغش سربسر درد

بمهر خود مرا گرم آشنا كن – دلم را نسخۀ مهر و وفا کن

2.The second, on ff. 54b-112, is styled, on ff. 1a and 54a, شيرين و خسرو, but this seems to be incorrect too; on fol. 59a, l. 2, the real title appears, شمع انجمن, in the following bait:

گفت ناگه هاتفى در گوش من

نام اين مجموعه شمع انجمن

Beginning, on fol.54b:

اى وجودت واجب و ممكن همه

بر وجودت مؤمن و موقن همه

The author of both mathnawîs is probably the same; the only poet of ‘Âlamgîr’s time, to whom a mathnawî, مهر و وفا, is ascribed, is ‘Ârif of Lâhûr, see Makhzan-algharâ’ib, No. 1672 (col. 354 in the Bodleian Cat.).

No. 112, ff. 150, 2 coll., each ll. 14-17; written by different hands in different kinds of careful and careless Nasta’lîḳ; size. 81/8 in. by 43/4 in.