Or 15962 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

A masnavi poem concerning the life and merits of the Caliph and Imam ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib. Although this work was formerly attributed toFarīd al-Dīn ‘Aṭṭār, it has been established that it is in fact by ‘Aṭṭār-i Tuni, a Shī‘ī author of the 9th/15th century. On this subject see e.g. Rypka, HIL, p. 238. Detailed rebuttal of the attribution to Farīd al-Dīn ‘Aṭṭār of various other poems is to be found in Sa‘īd Nafīsī, Justūjū dar aḥvāl va āsār-i Farīd al-Dīn-i ‘Aṭṭār-i Nayshābūrī (Tehran, 1320/1941).

For details of 17 other manuscripts of Maẓhar al-‘ajā’ib see FNKhF IV, pp. 3317-8 (33 copies of his Dīvān are listed in FNKhF III, pp. 2445-7. The reading given below for the text of the second miṣrā‘ is surely preferable to that quoted by Munzavī, which is zānki Ū hast āshkār va Ū nihān. Munzavī also appears sceptical to be about the now-accepted view of the poem’s authorship. A lithograph edition was published at Tehran in 1323/1944-5.

Other contents: f. 163v-165v, part of a masnavī poem praising ‘Alī, perhaps by the same author, lacking the beginning; 165v-166v, another short mas̲navī, also perhaps by ‘Aṭṭār Tūnī, entitled Dar guftan-i nay-i Najm al-Dīn-i Kubrà… ḥāl-i khwud'rā farmāyad; the reference is to the founder of the Kubravī Sufi Order (d. 617/1220: see EI2 V, pp. 300-1), who is also mentioned in Maẓhar al-‘ajā’ib itself.

Front and back covers: old handwritten library labels reading ‘Masnavī-i ‘Aṭṭār’ (front) and ‘No. 2’ (back).