[IO Islamic 2360] مثنوئ اهلى

Mathnawî-i-Ahlî.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1434 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 2360 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1434

Mathnawî-i-Ahlî ( مثنوئ اهلى).

A didactic mathnawî on good morals and a life of humility and devotion to God, by a poet with the name of Ahlî (see this takhalluṣ twice. on fol. 48b, l. 4, and fol. 58a, l. 2); but whether Ahlî Shîrâzi, Ahlî Khurâsânî, Ahlî Tûrâni, or Ahlî Îrânî is the author, it is impossible to decide, since no date is given in the poem nor any allusions made to contemporary personages, comp. A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 323.

Beginning:

بنام خداوند لوح و قلم – كه بر نيستى زد بهستى رقم

Dated A.H. 1000 (A.D. 1591, 1592).

No. 2360, ff. 43-58, 2 coll., each ll. 12-13; Nasta’lîḳ; illuminated frontispiece, some pages a little injured; size, 7 in. by 4 in.