[IO Islamic 1444] Mathnawîs

• Mathnawîs.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 916 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 1444 here with notations and hyperlinks].

916

A very defective copy of three mathnawîs by Sanâ’î.

This very old copy of portions of three of Sanâ’î’s mathnawîs is unfortunately not only greatly injured, but also in hopeless confusion as to the proper order of leaves, most of the catchwords being missing.

Contents:

1.Ḥadiḳah, beginning, on fol. 77^b, with a fihrist of the ten bâbs ( فهرست الأبواب, comp. W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 748, where it is given in full), thus:

باب اوّل ثنا و تحميدست

محض تنزيه و صرف توحيدست

This fihrist consists of ten baits and is immediately followed by the usual initial bait of Book I of the poem: اى درون پرور الخ. This mathnawî breaks off on fol. 93^b, but a number of leaves in the other portions of the MS. seem also to belong to it.

2.Sair-al’ubbâd ilâ-alma’âd or Kunûz-alrumûz, on ff. 108^a-116^a, the only complete one, as it seems, of the three poems contained in this copy. Beginning: مرحبا اى بريد الخ.

3.Kârnâma, beginning, on fol. 116^b:ويحك اى نقشبند الخ. The conclusion of this mathnawî is found on fol. 76^a (تمام شد كارنامه الخ), but whether it is complete, and how many of the other leaves really belong to it, is absolutely impossible to say. Copied in the month Jumâdâ II, A.H. 637 (A.D. 1240, Jan.), by Faḍl-allâh bin Muḥammad bin ‘Umar bin ‘Uthmân alṣûfî.

No. 1444, ff. 33-76^b, 77^b-93^b, and 108^a-137^b, 4 coll., each ll. 25; good old Naskhî; size, 9¼ in. by 6 in.