Poetry and Elegant Prose [IO Islamic 894]

Poetry and Elegant Prose.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 894 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 834 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

834.

894. Size 93/4 in. by 61/4 in.; foll. 93. Twenty-one lines in a page.

The first part of an elegant copy of BAHÂ AL-DÎN MUḤAMMAD ‘ÂMULÎ’S (d. A.H. 1031) Collectanea, called الكشكول , or the Beggar’s Bowl. See, regarding this work, Flügel, Hdss. Wien, i. 409. 1 It was printed at Teheran, A.H. 1266, 2 and recently at Bûlâḳ (s.a.). It contains both Arabic and Persian extracts.

Neatly written in Nasta’liḳ. A splendid ornament on the first page, and gold and blue lines round the others. Explanations of words and various notes are added on the margin.

Ends: هذا آخر ما وجد من المجلد الاول من الكشكول و يتلوه المجلد الثانى و الحمد لله ... فى سنة ست و اربعين و الف من الهجرة.

This, however, appears to be the colophon of the copy from which this MS. was taken. 1

The title-page has been covered by another leaf, but the seal and signature of Muḥammad ‘Askarî, a servant of Shâh ‘Âlam (I.), may still be seen through the latter.

[Johnson.]

1 Cat. Bodl. ii. 304, no. CCIV. is a different work.

2 See Cat. Bibl. Sprenger. 1201.

1 See below, no. 838.