Poetry and Elegant Prose [IO Islamic 2700]

• Poetry and Elegant Prose.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 2700 in the India Office collections.
• [metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 804 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

804.

2700. Size 10^3/4 in. by 6 in.; foll. 40. Nineteen lines in a page.

The Poems of MAJNÛN ‘AMIRÎ (Ḳais b. al-Mulawwaḥ), accompanied by the history of the loves of Majnûm and Laila.

This collection is probably identical with the ديوان قيس بن عامر المجنون , mentioned in Ḥ. Kh. iii. 302.¹

It is chiefly founded on the authority of Abu Bakr Wâlibî, who is mentioned at the beginning as follows: قال ابوبكر الوالبى كان من حديث مجنون العامرى وليلى العامرية الخ. As appears from fol. 33v., Wâlibî got his information from the famous Isḥâḳ b. Ibrâhîm Mauṣilî (d. A.H. 235).

Conclusion : هذا ما تناهى الينا من اخبار المجنون و اشعاره و ما كان خارجاً عمّا لم نكتبه فانّها منحولةٌ عليه من قصيدة او خبر.

Quite a modern copy, clearly written, but very incorrect. It was apparently taken from a mutilated MS. On foll. 15v., 19v., and 20 are lacunas.

[Bibl. Leydeniana.]

¹ It is, however, entirely different from the article on Majnûn in the كتاب الاغانى (Bûlâḳ edition, i. ۱۶۷۰).