[IO Islamic 56] نگارستان

• Nigâristân.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 755 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 56 here with notations and hyperlinks].

755

Nigâristân (نگارستان).

A collection of moral anecdotes in imitation of Sa’dî’s Gulistân, treating of matters of practical philosophy and ethics, interspersed with verses and short tales, by Mu’în-aldîn alasfarâ’inî aljuwainî, who composed it A.H. 735=A.D. 1334, 1335 (see fol. 13^a, line 1) and dedicated it to Sulṭân Abû Sa’îd Bahâdurkhân (who reigned A.H. 716-736=A.D. 1316-1335), comp.fol.6^a; Ḥ. Khalfa vi. 381, No. 13981; Bodleian Cat., Nos. 1447-1449; Rieu ii. p. 754; Mélanges Asiatiques, iii. p. 732.

It is divided into seven bâbs (a fihrist is found on fol. 19^a, last line sq.), viz.:

باب اوّل در مكارم اخلاق, on fol. 19^b.

باب دويم در صيانت و پرهيزگارى, on fol. 59^a.

باب سيم در حسن معاشرت, on fol. 92^b.

باب چهارم در عشق و محبّت, on fol. 125^a.

باب پنجم در وعظ و نصيحت, on fol. 159^b.

باب ششم در فضل و رحمت, on fol. 198^a.

باب هفتم در فوائد متفرّقه, on fol. 237^a.

Beginning: شكر و ستايش خداى را كه ازليّتش از سمت بدايت الخ.

The first half collated and annotated. Copied A.H. 977 (A.D. 1569, 1570) at Samarḳand by Khwâjah Khwâwand bin Khwâwand Mîrak. The Nigâristân concludes on fol. 277^b. Fol. 278 is filled by another hand with a satire of Khwâjah Abû-albarakah on the Ḳâḍî of Nîshâpûr.

Beginning:چو دور شد زرخ دهر جعد طرّۀ جور الخ.

No. 56, ff. 278, ll. 17; small but distinct Nasta’lîḳ; the first two pages splendidly illuminated; size, 9^1/4 in. by 6 in.