Poetry and Elegant Prose [IO Islamic 2330] ديوان المتنبى

Poetry and Elegant Prose.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 2330 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 807 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

807.

2330. Size 71/4 in. by 43/4 in.; foll. 155. Twenty-one lines in a page.

ديوان المتنبى

The Dîwân of Abu’l-Ṭaiyib Aḥmad b. al-Ḥusain MUTANABBI (d. A.H. 354), alphabetically arranged, with short notes on the subject, metre, and rhyme of each poem.

Begins:

(قال) ابو الطيّب احمد بن الحسين المتنبى رحمه الله و مولده بالكوفة فى كندة سنة ثلاث و ثلثمائة يمدح سيف الدولة و كان امره باجازة ابيات على هذا الوزن و هذا الروى

عذل العواذل حول قلبى التائه

و هوى الاحبّة منه فى سودائه

with which compare the beginning of the commentary of ‘Ukbarî (printed at Calcutta, A.H. 1261), Cat. Mus. Brit. 280, and Cat. Upsal. 76.

Well written. Dated A.H. 1017 [=1608-09 CE]. Diacritical points occasionally omitted. Vowel-points irregularly and not always carefully added. Fol. 112 mutilated.

A circumstantial account of the text of this MS. is given at the end (foll. 152-154). It was derived from two copies, one of which had been written by Rajâ b. al-Ḥasan b. al-Marzubân, and collated – among other اصول with a copy which had been read to Mutanabbi’, and again to Ibn Jinnî. The other copy had been verified by Mutanabbi’ himself. This text was subsequently collated with three copies, which were apparently arranged on the chronological principle.

‘‘Ex libris A[braham] Lockett, 1811.’’

[College of Fort William, 1825.]

[ed note: Quick link to other copies of the same work.]