[IO Islamic 2710] انورنامه

Anwarnâma

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1716 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 2710 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1716

Anwarnâma (انورنامه).

A mathnawî, celebrating the exploits of Nawwâb Anwarkhân (or Anwar-aldînkhân), the ruler of the Carnatic, who died A.H. 1162 (A.D. 1749), by Mîr Muḥammad Isma’îlkhân, with the takhalluṣ Abjadî, who had been tutor of Anwarkhân’s son and successor, Nawwâb Muḥammad ‘Alî ‘Umdat-almulk (A.H. 1163-1210=A.D. 1750-1795), and who dedicated this work to him, for which he received 6,700 rupees, and was, A.H. 1189 (A.D. 1775, 1776), appointed king of poets; comp. No. 501 above, where the توزك والاجاهى is described, a special history of the Carnatic, based on this Anwarnâma, with a eulogium of Abjadî, by Munshî Burhân (or Burhânkhân) bin Ḥasan, who completed the muḳaddimah and the first daftar A.H. 1200 (A.D. 1786). This mathnawî was composed in A.H. 1174 (A.D. 1760, 1761), see fol. 276a, last verse; other copies of the same are noticed in W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., pp. 944 and 945, and A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 308.

Abjadî wrote besides a Persian dîwân, containing ghazals and rubâ’îs (see A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 307), and a Rekhta dîwân, likewise containing ghazals and rubâ’îs, with a few ḳiṭ’as at the end (preserved in No. 2512 of the India Office Collection, dated A.H. 1192, 15th of Muḥarram=A.D. 1778, Febr. 13).

This mathnawî begins:

خدایا توئی شاه فرمانروا-توئی آفرینندۀ ما سوا

The story itself begins, on fol. 10b, with this heading:

در بيان آغاز داستان انور نامه و ذكر رياست و محاربات نوّاب انور الدّينخان الخ .

Various readings and occasional glosses of particular interest on the margin.

No date. Bibliotheca Leydeniana.

No. 2710, ff. 276, 2 coll. 15; Nasta’lîḳ; size, 91/8 in. by 57/8 in.