[IO Islamic 2108] نظم الدرر

Nażm-Aldurar.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1421 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 2108 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1421

Nażm-aldurar (نظم الدرر).

A didactic mathnawî, illustrating, like Sanâ’î’s Ḥadîḳah, Sa’dî’s Bûstân, and similar poems, various moral and religious maxims, interspersed with short tales, by a poet with the name of Muwâlî (see, for instance, fol. 47b, l. 10, fol. 48a, lin. penult., fol. 122a, l. 6, etc.).

According to the ta’rîkh at the end, on fol. 123a, گشت فيض الهيش تأريخ, it was composed A.H. 936 (A.D. 1529, 1530); it is dedicated to Shâh Ṭahmâsp, see fol. 48b, l. 8, and fol. 122b, l. 2. The author is probably identical with Muwâlî Tûnî, who died, according to Taḳî Kâshi (A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 45, No. 649), A.H. 949 or 959 (A.D. 1542, 1543, or 1552); the same poet is mentioned in Haft Iḳlîm, No. 817 (col. 437 in this Cat.). Another Muwâlî, viz. Muwâlî Lârî, a great admirer of Ḥâfiż, is quoted Haft Iḳlîm, No. 269 (col. 398 in this Cat.); Safînah, No. 31 (col. 213 in the Bodleian Cat.), and Âtashkada, No. 693 (ib. col. 285, where he is said to have been called Khurâsânkhân); a third Muwâlî or rather Muwwâlî, a Turkmân under Shâh ‘Abbâs II, is quoted in W. Pertsch, Turkish Cat., No. 168, and Berlin Cat., p. 701 (No. 41).

This copy, the only one hitherto known, is unfortunately defective both in the beginning and in the middle. It opens abruptly with this bait:

اين نگارندۀ سپید و سیاه – هر دو عالم بهستئ تو گواه

(there seems to be one page missing).

A lacuna of two leaves, besides, after fol. 90.

The title of the work appears on fol. 47b, l. 11:

خواستم نام اين كتاب از غيب

گشت نظم الدرر خطاب ازغيب

Dated by Ćand Muḥammad bin Jamâl Muḥammad Nausârî, the 22nd of Jumâdâ-alawwal, A.H. 1030 (?) (A.D. 1621, April 14), comp. No, 1297 in this Cat.

No. 2108, ff. 46-123, 2 coll., each ll. 13; Nasta’lîḳ; size,7¼ in. by 4¾ in.