[IO Islamic 1318] قصّۀ هير و رانجها

Ḳiṣṣa-i-Hîr-u-Rânjhâ

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1724 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 1318 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1724

Ḳiṣṣa-i-Hîr u Rânjhâ (قصّۀ هير و رانجها).

The story of two Panjabî lovers, Hîr and Rânjhâ (or Rânjahn), a romantic mathnawî by the same Minnat, composed A.H. 1195 (A.D. 1781), see the chronogram: قصّۀ عشق هير و رانجهن, and dedicated to Mr. R. Johnson.

Beginning:

خداوندا طلسم راز بگشاى – بمن سرّ نياز و ناز بنماى

The oldest poetical version of this tale (the original of which was composed in Hindî by Damodar) in Persian is by Âfarîn (who died at Lâhûr A.H. 1154=A.D. 1741), written about A.H. 1143 (A.D. 1730, 1731), and sometimes styled ناز و نياز, see Rieu ii. p. 710; A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 317. A Hindûstânî adaptation of the same by Maḳbûl has been translated by Garcin de Tassy, Revue de l׳Orient, 1857. Another Persian version, in prose and verse, was made A.H. 1157 (A.D. 1744), by Mansârâm Munshî, see Rieu ii. p. 770b.

No. 1318, ff. 27-65, ll. 15; large and clear Nasta’lîḳ; size 95/8 in. by 55/8 in.