[IO Islamic 573] ديوان سيف اسفرنگ

• Dîwân-i-Saif-i-Isfarang.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1059 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 573 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1059

Dîwân-i-Saif-i-Isfarang (ديوان سيف اسفرنگ).

The lyrical poems of Saif-aldîn A’raj of Isfara or Isfarang, nine farsangs south of Marghînân in Transoxania, see Haft Iḳlîm, No. 1524, col. 494 above in this Cat. But the dates given there about his lifetime fall about a hundred years short of the correct ones; the same remark applies to the short preface in this copy, where his death is fixed in A.H. 558 or even 552 (!), and the Khulâṣat-alafkâr, No. 126 (Bodleian Cat., coll. 306 and 307), where he is stated to have died A.H. 583 (!); according to the most trustworthy sources he was born A.H. 581 (A.D. 1185, 1186) and died A.H. 666 (A.D. 1267, 1268); see Âtashkada, No. 711 (Bodleian Cat., col. 286), and Taḳî Kâshî, No. 37 (A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 17). The Butkhâna , No. 43 (Bodleian Cat., col. 200), also fixes his death at a similar period, viz. in A.H. 652 or 660 (A.D. 1254 or 1262); other copies of this dîwân are described in Bodleian Cat., Nos. 644 and 645; Rieu ii. p. 581; A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 561; W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 782; Cat. des MSS. et Xylographes, p. 330; J. Aumer, p. 9.

This dîwân contains:

Ḳaṣîdas, in alphabetical order, except the first; beginning of the initial poem, on fol. 1^b: شب چو بر دارد حجاب از هودج اسرار من الخ.

Tarji’bands, on fol. 151^b, beginning:

سدّ فلك چو صبح بیکدم گشاده ایم

وز قوت روح روزۀ مریم گشاده ایم

Muḳaṭṭa’ât, on fol. 174^a, beginning: رضى الملك اى ديدار شومت الخ.

Ghazals, in alphabetical order, on fol. 212^a, beginning: با تو حكايتى كنم صورت حال خويش را الخ.

Rubâ’îs, on fol. 240^a, beginning:

اى خطّ تو دستور قلم گیران را

رايت رهبر صواب تدبيران را

This copy, which is dated in the preface A.H. 1026 (A.D. 1617), is in a very bad state; many pages are severely injured, especially ff. 1-40 and 210-254. A short preface in prose on fol. 1^a.

No. 573, ff. 254, 2 coll., each ll. 19; clear and distinct Nasta’lîḳ; illuminated frontispiece on fol. 1^b; size, 11^1/4 in. by 6^1/8 in.