[IO Islamic 863] ديوان رسا

Dîwân-i-Rasâ

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1658 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 863 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1658

Dîwân-i-Rasâ (ديوان رسا).

The lyrical poems of Mirzâ Îzadbakhs Rasâ, who flourished under ‘Âlamgîr and died, according to the chronogram quoted both in the Hamîsha Bahâr (A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 123) and the Makhzan-algharâ’ib, No. 893 (col. 334 in the Bodleian Cat.): رسا رفته از جهان بجنان , A.H. 1119 (A.D. 1707, 1708); the رياض الشّعرا, however, say, that he died in ‘Alamgîr’s reign, see Rieu iii. pp. 985b and 986a, where another work of Rasâ, the رياض الوداد, a collection of letters and refined prose-writing, is described. He was a descendant of Jahângîr’s wazîr, Âṣafkhân Ja’far Kazwînî, and lived under ‘Âlamgîr in Akbarâbâd. The dîwân begins, on fol. 40b, with ḳaṣîdas, the initial bait of which runs thus: اى كرده دل دوست تو ايجاد كرم را الخ. The ḳaṣîdas conclude on fol. 48a, and are followed on ff. 49b-100b by a series of ghazals, rubâ’is, and fards, in alphabetical order, with a short mathnawî at the end; this series begins: نبود شعر شعارى بخدا پيشۀ ما الخ.

On ff. 4b-38a an anonymous mystical mathnawî is written by another hand in Shikasta, beginning: الهى ذرّۀ آگاهيم بخش الخ, and dated A.H. 1147 (A.D. 1734, 1735). All the remainder of the MS., ff. 1-4a, 38b-40a, 48b, 49a, 101a-104, and the margin throughout are filled by a third hand which is much smaller than the other two, with a poetical anthology; ff. 39b and 40a also contain some prose-extracts. Many leaves are greatly damaged by worms.

No. 863, ff. 104, ll. 15; three different handwritings; Shikasta on ff. 4b-38a; larger and smaller Nasta’lîḳ in the remaining parts of the copy; size, 8¾ in. by 5¼ in.