[IO Islamic 954] ديوان وفا

Dîwân-i-Wafâ

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1718 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 954 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1718

Dîwân-i-Wafâ (ديوان وفا).

Lyrical poems of Mirzâ Sharaf-aldîn ‘Alî alḥusainî of Ḳumm, with the takhalluṣ Wafâ (see fol. 2b, last line, and fol. 3a, first line), who was, according to the Makhzan-algharâ’ib, No. 3011 (Bodleian Cat., col. 393), a descendant of Mirzâ Muḥammad Hâshim Ḥusainî Ḳummî from father’s side, and of Maulânâ ‘Abd-alrazzâḳ Fayyâḍ from mother’s side. According to Ḥairat’s مقالات الشّعرا (A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 160), he was originally in the service of Nâdirshâh, but went in A.H. 1162 (A.D. 1749) to India and lived at Dihlî in Wâlih’s house. The Makhzan-algharâ’ib, on the other hand, asserts that he reached Dihlî still in Muḥammadshâh’s reign, and the Âtashkada, No. 842 (Bodleian Cat., col. 292), says, he remained about thirty years in India and returned to Persia in A.H. 1183 (A.D. 1769, 1770); if the latter remark is correct, he must have gone to Dihlî about A.H. 1152, 1153 (A.D. 1739, 1740).

According to the same Âtashkada he made, after his return to Persia, the pilgrimage to Makkah, and died A.H. 1194 (A.D. 1780). Another copy of his dîwân is described in A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 584.

This copy contains:

A preface in prose, on fol. 1b, beginning: بهترين حمدى كه عندليبان شيرين زبان گلشن نظم در گلزار معانى الخ.

Ḳaṣîdas, in honour of the prophet, ‘Alî, and the Imâms, some also in praise of ‘Alî Ḳulîkhân Bahâdur, i.e. Wâlih, the poet (see above and No. 1708), beginning, on fol. 8b: مبادا همچو من بيجا كسى از خان و مان خيزد الخ.

Ghazals, in alphabetical order, on fol. 36a, beginning:

الهى خون بجوش آوردمى تيغ زبانم را

برنگين جلوه گى دست و گريبان كن بيانم را

Rubâ’îs, with some tarjî’ât at the end, on fol. 96b, beginning:

مائيم كه خون ديده آرايش ماست الخ

Incomplete at the end; the mathnawî لؤلؤ منظوم , found in Sprenger’s copy, is wanting here.

No. 954, ff. 114, 2 coll., each ll. 9; Nasta’lîḳ; size, 7½ in. by 51 in.