[IO Islamic 1029] خلاصة البحر فى التقاط الدرر

Khulâṣat-albaḥr fi iltiḳâṭ-aldurar.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1271 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 1029 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1271

Khulâṣat-albaḥr fi iltiḳâṭ-aldurar ( خلاصة البحر فى التقاط الدرر).

Part of a third detailed commentary on Ḥâfiż’ dîwân composed by ‘Abdallâh, known as ‘Ubaid-allâh, with the epithet Khalîfa Ḥayy bin ‘Abd-alḥaḳḳ (known as ‘Abd-alḳâdîr alkhwîshî alćishtî). The author states in the preface, that he had already compiled, before this work, another commentary on the difficult passages of Ḥâfiż’ dîwân, styled بحر الفراسة, that he was for a time attached to the Shaikh Maulânâ ‘Abd-alrashîd (known as Muḥammad Rashîd) Yuwânjî, and afterwards in the service of Shaikh Pîr Muḥammad of Lakhnau, and that he then resolved upon writing a larger and fuller exegetical work on Ḥâfiż. But this copy contains only a small portion of the poet’s dîwân; it comprises only the ghazals as far as the rhyme-letter ث , all the rest is missing, perhaps never completed by the author.

Beginning: سپاس و ستایش خداوندیرا که اولیاء خود را بكلامى مخصوص ساخت الخ.

The ghazals of Ḥâfiż are not only, as is usual in dîwâns, arranged according to the last rhyme-letter, but there are also subdivisions according to the first letter of the first bait of each ghazal, which are called bâbs. The larger divisions according to the rhyme-letter are styled kitâb.

The right order of ff. 79-113 is: 79, 87, 88, 81-86, 80, 89-104, 112, 106-111, 105, 113.

No. 1029, ff. 256, ll. 19; careless Nasta’lîḳ; size, 95/8 in. by 53/4 in.