[IO Islamic 211] ديوان محمّد شريف

Dîwân-i-Muḥammad Sharîf.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1515 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 211 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1515

Dîwân-i-Muḥammad Sharîf (ديوان محمّد شريف).

The lyrical poems of Muḥammad Sharîf Kâshî, with the takhalluṣ Sharîf, born according to the Safînah, No. 579 (col. 230 in the Bodleian Cat.), in Bâdḳân in Kâshân, went to India A.H. 994 (A.H. 1586), after staying some time in Sîstân and Harât during the siege by ‘Abdallâhkhân Uzbeg, joined the Khânkhânân’s service in Sind, or as the Âtashkada, No. 579 (col. 282 in the Bodleian Cat.), asserts, that of the Ḳuṭbshâhs, and settled afterwards in Gulkundah, where he died in Jahângîr’s reign, see besides the Safînah, A. Sprenger, Catal., pp. 26, 124, and 567. He was still alive in A.H. 1026 (A.D. 1617), as the date of this copy, which is the poet’s autograph, proves. Whether he be identical with the author of the كتاب سراج المنير (the book of the shining lamp, a collection of moral anecdotes in imitation of Sa’dî’s Gulistân), styled Ibn Shams-aldîn Muḥammad Sharîf, see Bodleian Cat., No. 1241, 9, and Rieu ii. 861b, is impossible to say; in case he should be, he could not have died before the middle of A.H. 1030, as the date of composition of the سراج المنير seems to be the end of Rabî’-alawwal of the year (A.D. 1621, Feb.).

Contents:

Ghazals, in alphabetical order, on fol. 1b, beginning (as in Sprenger’s copy):

بسم الله اى شريف رقم بخش نامه را

از حمد كردگار علم ساز خامه را

Rubâ’îs, on fol. 215b, beginning:

گر هیچکسی را بکسی داشتمی

بر هم نفس دست رسى داشتمى

Ḳaṣîdas, with a few ḳiṭ’as at the end, on fol. 234b, beginning:

چرخ بر آورد خنجرش دهر آتشين حصار شد از خنجر زرش(Sprenger ميان) صبح از فسان

A short mathnawî, on fol. 329a, beginning:

شريف از در آشنائى در آى

چو مهر از ره آشنائى در آى

Tarji’bands, on fol. 332b, beginning:

كى ياد كند خم كمندى -صيدى كه رها نشد زبندى

Another short mathnawî, on fol. 367a, beginning:

گر ز دل بيرون كنم اندوهها – كاردانها بنگری از كوهها

This copy is the poet’s autograph, finished the 26th of Ṣafar, A.H. 1026 (A.D. 1617, March 5), according to a note on fol. 1a.

A. Sprenger’s copy, by a strange coincidence, is dated the same year. The mathnawî of خسرو و شيرين noticed in the latter, is not found in the present copy.

No. 211, ff. 373, 2 coll., each ll. 15; Nasta’lîḳ; illuminated frontispeices on ff. 1b and 234b; size, 9½ in. by 5½ in.