[IO Islamic 238] محمود واياز

• Maḥmûd-wa-Ayâz.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1497 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 238 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1497

Maḥmûd wa Ayâz (محمود واياز).

Another copy of Zulâlî’s most renowned mathnawî, much fuller than all the preceding ones and moreover containing Mullâ Ṭughrâ’s preface to the poet’s works, which begins, on fol. 1^b: اين خطبه را چو خامۀ طغرا تمام كرد – آشوب نامه اش زره شور نام كرد’ شكر ناظمى كه ابيات بروج سپهر از معنئ ابداعش صورت وجود بسته الخ.

On Mullâ Ṭughrâ of Mashhad, who died somewhat before A.H. 1078 (A.D. 1667), see Bodleian Cat., No. 1389, and the various collections of his poetical and prose works further below in this Cat., Nos. 1586-1591.

Beginning of the mathnawî itself, on fol. 13^b:

بنام آنكه محمودش ايازست الخ.

This copy is dated the 27th of Rabî’-althânî, A.H. 1092 (A.D. 1681, May 16), at Ibrâhîmâbâd, usually called Sodharah (سودهره ), in the district of Lâhûr.

Collated. It belonged formerly to Mr. Richard Johnson, A.H. 1194 (A.D. 1780).

No. 238, ff. 223, 2 coll., each ll. 17; Nasta’lîḳ; two illuminated frontispieces on ff. 1^b and 13^b; the first two pages richly adorned; size, 8^1/8 in. by 4^1/4 in.