[IO Islamic 1852] Sarw-i-Âzâd

Sarw-i-Âzâd.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 683 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 1852 here with notations and hyperlinks].

683

Sarw-i-Âzâd ( سرو آزاد ).

The second volume of Mîr Ghulâm ‘Alî Âzâd’s great biographical work on the famous men of Balgrâm and other parts of India, with the special title of Sarw-i-Âzâd, likewise composed A.H. 1166, according to the following three chronograms: نشاند ، ختم او احسن آزاد سرو سبز تازه , and تحرير عالى كرد آزاد , see the last page in this copy, and ff. 3a, ll. 6 and 7, and 158b, last two lines, in the following copy; compare on this work, A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 143, and Bland, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, ix. p. 151. It is divided, like the first volume, into two faṣls; the first comprising 143 biographies of Persian poets; the second (on fol. 155b), eight biographies of Rekhta poets. At the end of the work, on fol. 165 sq., an extract is given from Mir Ghulâm Nabî’s (see A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 230, first line sq.) Hindûstânî treatise, انك درپن , on the forms of poetry and music, composed A.H. 1154 (A.D. 1741, 1742) .

A complete index of all biographies on ff. 1b-4a.

Beginning, on fol. 5b: سرمايۀ حمد نياز مبدعى كه ارواح معانى را با قوالب الفاظ آميخت و سبعۀ متعلّقۀ افلاك را از در قدرت آويخت الخ.

In the preface of this (second) volume the author gives a detailed statement about the composition of the whole work; he says, that after having completed A.H. 1148 (A.D. 1735, 1736) his general tadhkirah of Persian Poets, styled يد بيضا ( see A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 142), he resolved upon writing a work on the literary men of his native town, which he divided into two volumes, the first to be styled مآثر الكرام الخ , and the second سرو آزاد (see fol. 6b , line 14 sq.).

No date.

No. 1852, ff. 172, ll. 21; Nasta’lîḳ; size, 91/2 in. by 51/2 in.