[IO Islamic 2652] محبوب القلوب

• Maḥbûb-alḳulûb.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 800 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 2652 here with notations and hyperlinks].

800

Maḥbûb-alḳulûb (محبوب القلوب).

A collection of moral tales by Barkhwurdâr bin Maḥmûd Turkmân of Farâh, with the takhalluṣ Mumtâz, see fol. 1^b, l. 2, and fol. 72^a, l. 3. The title appears on fol. 72^a, l. 6. It is in substance the same work as noticed in Rieu ii. p. 767 sq., but differs in so far as it is considerably smaller in extent and lacks the preface quoted there. The beginning (which differs from that in Rieu’s copy) is exactly the same as that of the Berlin copy (noticed by W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 317, No. 289), viz.: چهره پرداز عرائس حريم عجز و نياز و مصوّر نگار خانۀ فرنگ آب الخ.

The short introduction on ff. 1^b-2^b, in which there is only mention of the author’s stay in Harât (fol. 2^a, l. 12), refers exclusively to the first story of our collection, which begins on fol. 2^b, and bears as title (see fol. 2^a, l. 8): حكايت فيروزشاه مصرى و گنجور عابد (given as general title to the whole collection on the fly-leaf).

The subdivisions consist of حكايت and باب, the latter nine in number (on ff. 22^b, 38^a, 40^b, 50^b, 61^a, 66^a, 69^a, 71^b, and 165^a); the last bâb contains, as in Rieu’s copy, the story of Ra’nâ and Zîbâ ( باب از كتاب رعنا و زيبا). The author flourished under Minûćihrkhân’s governorship of Mashhad (A.H. 1034-1074=A.D. 1625-1664), see Rieu iii. p. 1093^b.

No date. The Maḥbûb-alḳulûb has been printed in Bombay, A.H. 1268. Bibliotheca Leydeniana.

No. 2652, ff. 197, ll. 18; Nasta’lîḳ, by different hands, mixed with Shikasta; size, 12^1/8 in. by 7^1/4 in.