[IO Islamic 2677] ديوان انورى

• Dîwân-i-Anwarî.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 935 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 2677 here with notations and hyperlinks].

Anwarî (Nos. 935-949).

935

Dîwân-i-Anwarî (ديوان انورى).

The complete lyrical poems of Auḥad-aldîn ‘Alî Anwarî, commonly called the greatest ḳaṣîdah-writer of Persia, who was the panegyrist of Sulṭân Sanjar, and died probably A.H. 585 or 587 (A.D. 1189 or 1191); the Haft Iḳlîm (see above, col. 416, No. 528) fix his death in A.H. 580 (A.D. 1184); all the earlier dates given in tadhkiras, as for instance 540 or 547, are absolutely impossible; comp. on this question and on Anwari’s life and poetical achievements in general, Rieu ii. p. 554 sq.; Bodleian Cat., Nos. 543-558, and 1980; W. Pertsch, p. 83, and Berlin Cat., p. 743 sq.; A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 331 sq.; G. Flügel i. p. 502; Cat. des MSS. et Xylographes, p. 319; J. Aumer, p. 10; Krafft, p. 62; Rosen, Persian MSS., p. 170; and the Russian monograph of V. Joukowski or Shukovski, St. Petersburg, 1883 (see also W. Pertsch in the ‘Literaturblatt für orientalische Philologie,’ ii. pp. 10-18).

The poet was born in Mahnah, in the Dasht-i-Khâwarân, near Abîward, and therefore used as first takhalluṣ Khâwarî. His dîwân has been printed, resp. lithographed in Tabrîz, A.H. 1260 and 1266; in Lucknow, 1880.

Contents:

A short preface, in prose, on fol. 1^b, beginning:

مهتر شغلى كه اصحاب نطق و دراست بدان نازند و ارباب فهم و فراست آنرا دستور سازند الخ.

Ḳaṣîdas and tarjî’bands in alphabetical order, except the first, on fol. 2^b.

Beginning of the initial poem:

مقدّرى نه بآلت بقدرت مطلق

كند بشكل بخارى چو گنبذ ازرق

Beginning of the first alphabetical poem, on fol. 3^b:

باز اين چه جوانى و جمال است جهانرا

وين حال كه نو گشت زمين را و زمانرا

Ḳiṭ’as arranged alphabetically, on fol. 188^b, beginning:

ايا صدرى كه از روى بزرگى – فلك را نيست با قدر تو بالا

Ghazals, also in alphabetical order, on fol. 271^a, beginning:

از دور بديدم آن پرى را – آن رشك بتان آزرى را

Short satirical mathnawîs (sometimes called هزليّات or, as in the following copy, مثنويّات در هجو), on fol. 323^a, beginning:

حبّذا گیر قاضئ گیرنگ – آنکه دارد زسنگ خارا ننگ

Rubâ’îs, in alphabetical order, on fol. 327^a, beginning:

اى هجر مگر نهايتى نيست ترا

وى وعدۀ وصل غايتى نيست ترا

Anwarî’s dîwân ends on fol. 352^b, and is dated by Mu’izz-aldîn Ḥasanî, the 7th of Muḥarram, A.H. 1061 (A.D. 1650, Dec. 31). On f. 353-359 there is written by another hand a series of anonymous mathnawî-baits, beginning abruptly:

بشنو نكته گر اهل هوشی

خویش را به که سگ بفروشى

Some of the last pages are damaged; large water-spots throughout the whole copy.

No. 2677, ff. 359, 2 coll., each ll. 19; Nasta’lîḳ; ff. 216 and 353-359 supplied by other hands; size, 11½ in. by 7 in.