[IO Islamic 1664] ترجمة الفرج بعد الشدّة

Tarjumat-alfaraj ba’d-alshiddah.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 733 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 1664 here with notations and hyperlinks].

X. ROMANCES AND TALES.

733

Tarjumat-alfaraj ba’d-alshiddah (ترجمة الفرج بعد الشدّة).

A large collection of stories, relating cases of wonderful deliverance from danger, translated by Ḥusain bin As’ad bin alḥusain aldihistânî (see fol. 5a) from the Arabic work الفرج بعد الشدّة و الضيقة, which is here (on fol. 5b) and in all the other copies wrongly ascribed to Abû-alḥasan ‘Alî bin Muḥammad almadâ’inî (who died in Baghdâd, A.H. 224 or 225=A.D. 839 or 840).

The real author of the Arabic original, often mentioned in this translation, is Abû ‘Alî al-Muḥassin, called Ḳâḍi al-Tanûkhî, who died A.H. 384 (A.D. 994), comp. Rieu ii. p. 752a; W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 982; J. Aumer, p. 56; Cat. des MSS. et Xylographes, p. 408; G. Flügel iii. p. 451, etc. Some of the stories are printed in the appendix of Chodzko’s Persian Grammar, new ed., Paris 1883. The present translation was made at the request of ‘Izz-aldîn Ṭâhir bin Zangî, probably about the middle or in the second half of the sixth century of the Hijrah, at any rate before ‘Aufi, who quotes this work in his جوامع الحكايات (see No. 600 sq. in this Cat.). A corroboration of Abû ‘Alî al-Muḥassin’s authorship of the original is found in the list of authorities, given in the preface of the زينة المجالس, where it is styled كتاب فرج بعد الشدّة ابو مُحَسِّن, see W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 979.

Beginning:حمد و ثناى قيّومى كه عجز عقول ذريّات آدم از ادراك الخ.

Index, on ff. 6a-18b; the thirteen bâbs into which the work is commonly divided are found here: Bâb I, on fol. 19a; II, on fol. 31b; III, on fol. 47a; IV, on fol. 76b; V, on fol. 101a; VI, on fol. 154b; VII, on fol. 185a; VIII, on fol. 293a; IX, on fol. 322a; X, on fol. 339b; XI, on fol. 350b; XII, on fol. 371b; XIII, on fol. 407b.

Dated by Shaikh Muḥammad Fâḍil at Lâhûr, the 29th of Rajab, A.H. 1027 (A.D. 1618, July 22).

No. 1664, ff. 472, ll. 15; large and distinct Nasta’lîḳ; size, 115/8. By 7 in.