Or 16282 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

A didactic tract on ethics and government. The text comprises forty brief sections (bāb), each containing four maxims. It is also known by the title Tuḥfat al-vuzarā. The author is unknown, and there is some variation in wording between different copies.

For manuscripts of this work, see FNKhF II/1, pp. 1562-3. For an historically and artistically significant copy in the British Library (Or. 15598), see M. I. Waley, ‘The Shah of Iran's copy of “A Gift to Kings”’, in A Cabinet of Oriental Curiosities, London 2007, no. 35.

Begins: Basmala / al-Ḥamd li-Llāh... va l-ṣalāt va l-salām... Ammā ba‘d Īn kitāb mushtamilast bar ānchi ḥukamā az kutub-i qudamā ikhtiyār karda and va favā’id-i bisyār dar żimn-i har ḥarfī marqūm mīshavad

Ends: Bāb-i chihilum Dar ānki chahār chīz dalīl-i sa‘ādat-i dū-jahānī va murādat-i jāvidānīst: Farmān burdan-i Khudā va Rasūl, khushnūd kardan-i pidar va mādar, khidmat-i ‘ulamā va ḥukamā, shafaqat bar khalq-i Khudā. Ḥaqq subḥānah va ta‘ālà tawfīq kunad bi-l-Nabī va Ālih al-amjad

Other contents: f. 6r-v, verses in Persian and Arabic; 7r, a religious rubā‘ī (quatrain) in Arabic, calligraphed by Vayzavī and finely illuminated; 7v-10v, a qaṣīda in praise of the Prophet, in Ottoman but with some lines in Persian; 11r-v and 12r-v, two formal letters in Ottoman Turkish; 12v, a couplet of Persian verse attributed to Ibn Sīnā.

Ottoman Empire. 1145/1731-2 and [1]146/1732-3. Copied by Darvīsh Muṣṭafà al-Vayzavī.

Calligraphic nasta‘līq. 17 lines. Two illuminated headpieces, on f. 1v and 7v. Good off-white paper, the text area being gold-sprinkled. 12 folios. 189 x 110 mm.; text area 148 x 74 mm. Good modern covers in light brown with gilt and blind ornamentation.

Purchased at Bonhams sale, 12 October 2006, Lot 44.