[IO Islamic 110] گلشن راز

Gulshan-i-râz

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1814 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 110 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1814

Gulshan-i-râz (گلشن راز).

Another complete copy of the Gulshan-i-râz, or the rose-garden of mystery, the famous Ṣûfic mathnawî, composed in answer to a number of theosophical and metaphysical questions of Mîr Fakhr-alsâdât Ḥusainî (see No. 1764, 4 above, and No. 1821 sq. below), A.H. 717 (A.D. 1317), by Shaikh Maḥmûd Shabistarî or Ćabistarî (of Shabistar or Ćabistar, a village near Tabriz), who died A.H. 720 (A.D. 1320), compare Nos. 1761, 2, and 1765, 14 above. Other copies of the same are noticed in Rieu ii. p. 608; Bodleian Cat., No. 1260; W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., pp. 827-829 and 873 (No. 2); A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 477; G. Flügel iii. pp. 425 and 426, etc.; see also Ḥ. Khalfa v. p. 233, No. 10839. Edited, with German translation, by Hammer-Purgstall, ‘Rosenflor des Geheimnisses,’ Pesth, 1838 (rather incorrect); with English translation, valuable notes, and an interesting comparison between Oriental and European mysticism, by E.H. Whinfield, ‘The Mystic Rose-Garden,’ London, 1880.

Lithographed Bombay, A.H. 1280. Extracts in German translation are found in Tholuck’s ‘Blüthensammlung,’ 1825, p. 192 sq.; an anonymous English translation of the most important parts of the poem, entitled ‘The Dialogue of the Gulshan-i-Rāz.’ appeared in London (Trübner), 1887. A large portion of a Turkish adaptation of the poem is noticed in No. 1761, 1 above.

Besides this versified handbook of Ṣûfism Maḥmûd Shabistarî wrote three prose-treatises on the same subject, viz. حقّ اليقين فى معرفة ربّ العالمين (W. Pertsch, No. 6, ff. 1-27; Bodleian Cat., No. 1298, 6; Rieu ii. p. 828b; Mélanges Asiat. v. p. 229; Ḥ. Khalfa iii. p. 79, No. 4565); سعادت نامه (Rieu ii. p. 871b; Ḥ. Khalfa iii. p. 598), and رسالۀ شاهد .

Beginning:

بنام آنكه جانرا فكرت آموخت

چراغ دل زنور جان بر افروخت

No date.

No. 110, ff. 252-298, 2 coll., each ll. 11; clear and distinct Nasta’lîḳ; illuminated heading on fol. 252b; size, 6½ in. by 3½ in.