[IO Islamic 2058] جواهر الاسرار و زواهر الانوار

Jawâhir-alasrâr wa Zawâhir-alanwâr.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1098 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 2058 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1098

Jawâhir-alasrâr wa Zawâhir-alanwâr (جواهر الاسرار و زواهر الانوار).

The first half of one of the oldest commentaries, perhaps the oldest of all, on the mathnawî in form of a detailed analysis of the poem, by Maulânâ Kamâl-aldîn Ḥusain bin Ḥasan of Khwârizm, who died A.H. 840 (A.D. 1436, 1437) or 845 (A.D. 1441, 1442); the first date is given in Ḥ. Khalfa v. p. 375, the second ib., vi. p. 90; comp. on this work, Bodleian Cat., Nos. 666 and 667; Rieu ii. p. 588; W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., pp. 793 and 794, and A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 493. The author had previously compiled a collection of discourses on the mathnawî, entitled كنوز الحقائق فى رموز الدقائق. The present copy, which, like all the copies extant, comprises the first three daftars only, contains neither author’s name nor date; it only gives the title on fol. 6a, ll. 7 and 8, and the name of the prince, to whom the commentary was dedicated, Nâṣir-aldîn Abû-almanâḳib Ibrâhîm Sulṭân, the ruler of Khwârizm, on fol. 5b, l. 13. From other copies we learn that the second daftar was commenced A.H. 834 (A.D. 1430, 1431); the author’s spiritual guide was Khwâjah Abû-alwafâ, who died A.H. 835 (A.D. 1431, 1432), see Rieu, loc. cit. There is also wanting in this copy the preliminary discourse in ten maḳâlas, the headings of which in Persian are given in the Bodleian Cat., loc. cit., and the contents in English by Rieu.

Beginning, on fol. 1b: حمد بيحدّ و غايت و ثناى بيعدّ و نهايت حضرت پادشاهى الخ.

Introduction ( فاتحة الابواب فى سبب تأليف الكتاب), on fol.4b; containing besides a chapter on the division of men according to their more or less advanced Ṣûfic stage.

Daftar I, on fol. 8a; II, on fol. 180a; III, on fol. 319b. No date.

No. 2058, ff. 481, ll. 19; irregular Nasta’lîḳ; size, 83/8 in. by 47/8 in.