[IO Islamic 2929] Âtashkada

•  Âtashkada.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 693 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 2929 here with notations and hyperlinks].

693

Âtashkada (آتشكده ) .

The comparatively oldest copy of Ḥâjî Luṭf ‘Alibeg Iṣfahânî’s famous collection of biographies of Persian poets , styled Âtashkada or the Fire-temple, and compiled during the years A.H. 1174-1193 (A.D. 1760-1779), comp. Bodleian Cat., Nos. 384-386, where a complete list of all the biographies is given; Bland, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vii. p. 345 sq.; Rieu i.p. 375; W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 624; A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 161, etc. The chapter on the ‘royal and princely poets ‘has been edited by N .Bland. London, 1844; the whole work has been lithographed at Calcutta, A.H. 1249, and at Bombay, A.H. 1277. This copy, by far older than those in the Bodleian Library, the British Museum, and in Berlin, was made by Muḥammad Ḥasan almûsawî, at Shirâz, for Mirzâ Muḥammad, and finished in the month Jumâdâ-alawwal, A.H. 1196 (A.D. 1782, April-May), only three years after the completion of the original work itself.

Beginning: فروغ آتشكدۀ دل و زبانۀ اخگر زبان سپاس بيقياس قديمى است الخ .

Complete index of poets on ff. 3^b-5^b.

First Censer (مجمرۀ اولى ), the older poets, subdivided into –

A flame (شعله ), containing royal and princely poets, on fol. 5^b.

A first firebrand ( اخگر ) : the poets of Îrân, in five sparks (شراره ): (a) Poets of Âdharbaijân and its dependencies, on fol. 14^b; (b) Poets of Khurâsân, on fol. 29^a; (c) Poets of Ṭabaristân, Jurjân, Lâhîjân, Rasht, and Mâzandarân, on fol. 80^a; (d) Poets of ‘Irâḳ-i-Arab and ‘Irâḳ-i-‘Ajam, on fol. 88^b; (e) Poets of Fârs, on fol. 137^a.

A second firebrand: the poets of Tûrân, in three sparks: (a) Poets of Balkh and its dependencies, on fol. 156^b; (b) Poets of Khwârizm, on fol. 162^b; (c) Poets of Transoxania, on fol. 166^a.

A third firebrand: poets of India, in three sparks: (a) Poets of the Dakhan, on fol. 181^b; (b) Poets of Dihlî, ib; (c) Poets of Kashmîr, on fol. 184^a, and a lustre (فروغ ) , containing poetesses, on fol. 184^a.

Second Censer (مجمرۀ ثانيه ), modern and contemporary poets, subdivided into two rays (پَرْتَوْ ), viz. : (a) The modern poets, on fol. 185^b; (b) Khâtimah and autobiography of the author himself, with extracts from his own works, on fol. 221^b.

This copy was brought from Persia, 1801.

No. 2929, ff. 244, 4 coll., ll. 25; excellent, but small Nasta’lîḳ, the first two pages splendidly embellished; illuminated frontispiece; magnificent eastern binding; size, 11^3/4 in. by 7^3/8 in.