[IO Islamic 578] مثنويات ملاّ شاه

Mathnawiyyât-i-Mullâ Shâh

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1580 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 265 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1580

Mathnawiyyât-i-Mullâ Shâh (مثنويات ملاّ شاه).

A large number of religious or Ṣûfic mathnawîs, composed by Mullâ Shâh Muḥammad bin ‘Abd Muḥammad (called in Rieu ii. pp. 690, 691, Mullâ Shâh, originally Muḥammadshâh, with the epithet Lisân-allâh, son of Mullâ ‘Îdî), a great Indian Ṣûfî and spiritual guide of prince Dârâ Shukûh, born in Arksâ (اركسا, in Rieu, loc. cit., Ark), near Rustâḳ (رستاق ) in Badakhshân, comp. the prose-preface of the last poem in this copy, on fol. 334b, where the author enumerates all his works, and states the exact number of baits and the metre of each of them. He went to India A.H. 1023 (A.D. 1614), and took as his spiritual guide the great saint of Lâhûr, Mîr Muḥammad miyân Mîr, Miyânjîv, who died A.H. 1045, 7th of Rabî’-alawwal (A.D. 1635, Aug. 21), see Safînat-alauliyâ, No. 65 (col. 282 in this Cat.). He afterwards settled in a monastery in Kashmîr, and died there, or in Lâhûr, A.H. 1072 (A.D. 1661, 1662). He initiated Dârâ Shukûh to the Ḳâdirî order in A.H. 1049 (A.D. 1639, 1640), and the former has given a full account of his Pir’s life in the special work سكينة الاوليا (not Safînat-alauliyâ, as is by mistake printed in Rieu ii. p. 691a), see ib. i. pp. 357 and 358. This copy is of unique value, as it contains a complete collection of Mullâ Shâh’a mathnawîs, not found anywhere else; on the other hand, the ḳaṣîdas, ghazals, rubâ’iyyât, and sharḥ-i-rubâ’iyyât, referred to in the above-mentioned preface, on fol. 335a,are entirely wanting here.

Copies of theses lyrical poems are found in the British Museum (Rieu ii.p. 690 sq.) and in the Berlin Library (W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., pp. 921 and 922); comp. besides on the author Mirât-alkhayâl, No. 77 (col. 209 in the Bodleian Cat.), and Makhzan-algharâ’ib, No. 1248 (ib., col. 342). Some of these mathnawîs were composed A.H. 1055 (A.D. 1645); they are arranged here in the following order:

1.Risâla-i-walwalah (رسالۀ ولوله), the treatise on lamentation, on fol. 1b, in the metre of Khâḳânî’s Tuḥfat-al’irâḳain (see above, Nos. 950-960), containing 1506 baits, and beginning:

از ولولۀ وصال يارم – بنگر دل آفتاب زارم

2.Risâla-i-hûsh (رسالۀ هوش), the treatise on reason, on fol. 22b, beginning:

طرز خاموشى و طرح گفتن

همه كس ميداند غير از من

3.Risâla-i-ta’rîfât-i-khânahâ u bâghât u manâzil-i-Kashmîr (رسالۀ تعريفات خانها و باغات و منازل كشمير), description of the houses, gardens, and caravansaries of Kashmîr, on fol. 51b, with a few lines in prose as introduction. Beginning of the poem:

بكنم خانۀ خود وصفى چند

چكنم خانه زوصف است بلند

Both Nos. 2 and 3 are in the metre of Jâmî’s Subḥatalabrâr (see above, No. 1300, 5 sq.), and contain together 2,862 baits.

4.Risâla-i-Nisbat (رسالۀ نسبت), the treatise on relationship, on fol. 62b, in the metre of Sanâ’î’s Ḥadîḳah (see above, No. 914 sq.), containing, together with No. 8 below, which is in the same metre, 10,374 baits, and beginning:

حمد را نسبتى است با توست دُرُست

بر در هر كه رفت بر در تُست

5.Risâla-i-Murshid (رسالۀ مرشد), the treatise on the spiritual guide, on fol. 139b , in different metres, containing 678 baits, and beginning:

حمد ذاتى را كه اصل ذات ماست

ذات او در اصل اصل ذاتهاست

6.Yûsuf u Zalîkhâ (يوسف و زليخا), on fol. 151b, beginning:

الهى حسن يوسف ده بيانرا

بده عشق زليخا اين زبانرا

7.Risâla-i-dîwâna ( رسالۀ ديوانه, treatise on the ecstatic, on fol. 216b, beginning:

مرا ديوانه دارد هوشيارى

تو هم ديوانۀ گر هوشيارى

Both Nos. 6 and 7 are in the metre of Niżâmî’s Khusrau u Shîrîn (see above, No. 972, 2 sq.), and have together 5,727 baits.

8.Risâla-i-shâhiyyah (رسالۀ شاهيّه), the royal treatise, on fol. 226b, beginning:

اى تو شاه جهان و تو دارا

وى تو دارا و تو جهان آرا

Comp. No. 4; this mahnawî was composed A.H. 1055.

9.Risâla-i-ḥamd u-na’t u manḳabat (رسالۀ حمد و نعت و منقبت ), treatise on the praise of God, the encomium of the prophet, and the eulogium of the Imâms, on fol. 284b, in the metre of Firdausî’s Shâhnâma (see above, No. 860 sq.), containing 3,654 baits, and beginning :

بيائيد ياران محمود من

كه حمد يكى هست مقصود من

It was likewise composed A.H. 1055, and is preceded by a short preface in prose, beginning: حمداً لله ربّ العَالَمِين و العَالِمِين و نعتاً للأنبياء المرسَلين و المرسِلين الخ.

10.Risâla-i-bismillâh (رسالۀ بسم الله), treatise on the initial formula, ‘In the name of God,’ on fol. 335a, in the metre of Niżâmî’s Makhzan-alasrâr (see above, No. 972, 1 sq.), containing 3,012 baits, and beginning:

بسم الله الرّحمن الرّحيم

خال و خطّ و زلف وقدّ مستقيم

It is preceded, on fol. 334b, by a preface in prose, which begins: احمد لمن قال بسم الله الرّحمن الرّحيم و علّم احمده لدفع الشّيطان الخ.

The mathnawî itself is divided into five different parts, viz.: (a) در تعريف مجموع بسم اللّه الرّحمن الرّحيم بطريق اجمال, on fol. 335a (100 baits); (b)در تعريف هر يك حرف بتفصيل , on fol. 336a (2,200 baits) ; (c)در تعريف خلوت, on fol. 364a (300 baits); (d) در تعريف صحبت , on fol. 367b , last line (312 baits); (e) خاتمه, on fol. 372a (100 baits). This poem was completed A.H. 1057, or rather, in the first seven days of A.H. 1058 (A.D. 1647-1648, beginning of Febr.). This copy seems to be the great Shaikh’s autograph. Mullâ Shâh also wrote prose-works, viz. a تذكرۀ شعراى معاصرين, see Ḥ. Khalfa ii. p. 263, No. 2820; Bland in Journal of Royal Asiat. Soc. ix. p. 167; W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 922, l. 3, and an unfinished commentary on the Ḳurân, see Makhzan-algharâ’ib, loc. cit.

No. 578, ff. 373, 4 coll., each ll. 20; clear and distinct Nasta’lîḳ; a little worm-eaten throughout; as title-page a very good full-size picture, representing Mullâ Shâh and his Pîr Miyân Mîr, done by Miskîn Muḥammad; illuminated frontispieces on ff. 1b, 22b, 62b, 139b, 151b, 226b, 284b, and 334b; size, 107/8 in. by 67/8 in.