Or 15876 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)
Oriental Manuscripts
Majmu'ah
Contents
Quatrains traditionally attributed to ‘Umar Khayyām (d. 517/1123).The verses are punctuated on f. 5v by an anecdote about the renowned Sufi Bayazīd Basṭāmī and a man who claimed to have the cure for every ill.
Confessional prayers in rhyming prose in Arabic, implausibly attributed to the first Caliph, Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (d. 13/634).
Four proverbial ‘wondrous exceptions’, attributed to one Ākhūnd Mullā Mu‘īn.
Poems, unattributed, mainly concerned with mystical love. Many of the poems have the heading chārbayt (poem in four hemistiches) or rubā‘ī (quatrain); on 8v is a longer poem in Arabic, replete with assonance and alliteration, headed Qaṣīda Ṭanzanī (?).
Title supplied.
A poem or series of poems concerning the Path of Sufism, here attributed to the great Sufi poet and biographer Farīd al-Dīn ‘Aṭṭār.
Physical Description
Condition
Layout
Hand(s)
Good nasta‘līq; Arabic passages in naskhī.
Decoration
Multiple text frames: black, gold, yellow, red, green and black. Gold and polychrome floral motifs and designs of Central Asian type on most folios. Illuminated text openings on f. 1v-2r and 11v-12r. Illuminated poetical dā’ira, f. 9v.
Binding
Original brown leather binding in Chinese style, with large roundels at the centre, both back and front, containing an ornate Basmalah in relief, in Ṣīnī script; other distinctive ornamental motifs in the corners and on the flap.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
2002-04-24
Purchased at Bomhams sale 24 April 2002, Lot 148.
Record Sources
Availability
Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card for admissions procedures contact British Library, Registering for a Reader Pass. Contact apac-enquiries@bl.uk for further information on the availability of this manuscript. For information on catalogues and ordering manuscripts see Finding and ordering Persian manuscripts in the British Library.
Funding of Cataloguing
BL
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