[IO Islamic 284] ديوان آصف

• Dîwân-i-Âṣaf.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1487 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 284 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1487

Dîwân-i-Âṣaf (ديوان آصف).

A defective copy of the lyrical compositions of a poet, who, according to a number of chronograms on fol. 67^b, and the names of the distinguished persons mentioned there, must have flourished under Shâh ‘Abbâs the Great in the beginning of the eleventh century of the Hijrah. His ghazals, all consisting of a very short number of baits, contain no takhalluṣ; but from the frequent appearance of آصف and آصفا in the beginning of baits, on fol. 66^b, ll. 5, 9, and 12, and fol. 67^a, l. 10, we conclude, that he styled himself Âṣaf, but he is decidedly not identical with Âṣaf Ḳummî, or Niżâm-aldîn Âṣafjâh, with the takhalluṣ Âṣaf, both of whom belong to a much later period and lived at the court of the Moghul emperors in India (see the other Dîwân-i-Âṣaf, further down). The dates appearing on fol. 67^b are : A.H. 1008 ( ماواى خوشدلى), on the laying out of a garden by Âḳâ Khiḍr; A.H. 1012 (منزل خداى كريم), on the building of a mosque by the same; A.H. 1018 ( حيف از اعتماد الدوله ايران پناه), on the death of Shâh ‘Abbâs’ famous wazîr I’timâd-aldaulah Ḥâtimbeg (otherwise fixed in A.H. 1019, see Rieu i. p. 185^b); and A.H. 1019 ( جانشين پدر مدام شدی), on the appointment of Ḥâtimbeg’s son Ṭâlibkhân (otherwise called Abû Ṭâlibkhân, see Rieu i. p. 187^a), as his father’s successor; an earlier date, viz. A.H. 1005 (چشم من بینور شد), on the death of Amîr Nûr-aldin Muḥammad Ṭabâṭâbâ’î, appears, on fol. 68^a, l. 3.

This dîwân contains:

Ḳaṣîdas, ḳiṭ’as, and tarkîbbands, with the beforementioned chronograms at the end, on fol. 57^a, beginning abruptly in the middle of a poem.

Ghazals, in alphabetical order, intermixed with and followed by ruba’îs and fards, on fol. 68^b, beginning:

اى زتو بند بر زبان نطق سخن سراى را

فكر تو باعث جنون عقل گره گشای را

No date.

No. 284, ff. 57-95. 2 coll., each ll. 15; very careless Nasta’lîḳ; size, 7¾ in. by 4 in.