Or 16616 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

A treatise in prose, with abundant illustrative verse quotations, on the significance of the love imagery of Sufi writers. The author, Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad Ḥusaynī Shīrāzī called Balā’ī, describes in the preface how while he was in a garden in Cairo, friends’ criticism of Sharaf al-Dīn Rāmī’s Anis al-‘ushshāq led him to undertake the composition of a work on the same subject.

Manuscripts of Anīs al-‘ushshāq are common: see FNKhF V, pp. 3527-30, where 65 copies are recorded (cf. BL Add. 7721, f. 163-192). Jalīs al-mushtāq, on the other hand, is very rare, and no copies have been traced in the main bibliographical sources. The verse quotations are preceded by the heading shi‘r, masnavī, or – more often – maṭla‘. The author cites verses by numerous poets, such as Dīvāna-’i Nayshābūrī, Ghulāmī, Mihrī, Muflisī, Nargisī, Ṭālibī, Vālihī, and (though famous names are less often met with in Jalīs al-mushtāq) Jāmī, Khusraw, Kātibī, and Niẓāmī; he also quotes a large number of verses without naming the poet.

Jalīs al-mushtāq nominally comprises 20 sections, as does Anīs al-‘ushshāq; but in Balā’ī’s work they are called ‘ishva. There are also, however, two introductory and two concluding sections.

The contents of the work are as follows. ff. 1v-5v: [Dībācha], Preface; 5v-6r: Kirishma, dar ta‘rīf-i sukhan va bayān-i faẓīlat-i ū (sic). On literary discourse and its merits; 6r-8r: ‘Ishva 1: Dar ṣifat-i gīsū. Describing tresses; 8r-11v: ‘Ishva 2: Dar ṣifat-i zulf-i khūbān. Curling locks of hair; 11v-14r: ‘Ishva 3: Dar ṣifat-i abrū. Eyebrows; 14r-15v: ‘Ishva 4: Dar ṣifat-i jibīn-i khūbān-i nāzinīn. The foreheads of coquettish beauties; 15v-17v: ‘Ishva 5: Dar ṣifat-i muzhagān-i māh-rūyān. The eyelashes of the moon-faced ones; 17v-19v: ‘Ishva 6: Dar ṣifat-i chashm va dīda murādif-i ūst. Eyes; 19v-21v: ‘Ishva 7 (numbered hashtum (eighth), a scribal error): Dar ṣifat-i rūy. The face; 21v-22r: ‘Ishva 8: Dar ṣifat-i bīnī-i khūbān. Noses; 22r-24v: ‘Ishva 9: Dar ṣifat-i lab-i khūbān. Lips; 24v-26v: ‘Ishva 10: Dar ṣifat-i dahān. Mouth; 26v-27v: ‘Ishva 11: Dar ṣifat-i dandān va zabān-i ṣāḥib-ḥusnān. The teeth and tongues of the fair; 27v-28v: ‘Ishva 12: Dar ṣifat-i zanakhdān. Chin; 28v-31r: ‘Ishva 13: Dar ṣifat-i khāl. Beauty-spot or mole; 31r-32v: ‘Ishva 14: Dar ṣifat-i khaṭṭ-i khūbān. Line of light facial hair; 32v-33v: ‘Ishva 15: Dar ṣifat-i gūsh va gardan-i butān. Ears and neck; 33v-36r: ‘Ishva 16: Dar ṣifat-i qadd va bālā-yi maḥbūb. The beloved’s figure; 36r-38r: ‘Ishva 17: Dar ṣifat-i dast va bāzū-yi khūban, va ṣā‘id nīz murādif-i ūst. Hands and forearms; 38r-39r: ‘Ishva 18: Dar ṣifat-i bar va sīna-’i maḥbūb. Bosom; 39r-40r: ‘Ishva 19 (nānzdahum): Dar ṣifat-i miyān-i khūbān. Waist; 40r-41v: ‘Ishva 20: Dar ṣifat-i sāq-i nāzinīnān. Shanks; 41v-43r: Vaṣl, dar ta‘rīf-i ḥusn-i khūbān-i dilrubā va martaba-’i shi‘r va shu‘arā. In praise of physical beauty, poetry, and poets; 43r-44v: Khātima. Conclusion.

Begins: Basmala Ḥamd va sipās Mālik al-Mulkī-rā jall jalāluh ki ādamī ża‘īf ba-mā‘ūnat-i ‘aql va maziyyat-i fażl masjūd-i malāyik-i arāyik va afżal-i jamī‘-i khalāyiq gardānīd ... Ammā ba‘d chunīn gūyad muḥarrir-i īn risāla va muqarrir-i maqāla al-faqīr ilà Llāh al-Ghanī

Ends: Qizil Arslān murd va khāk shud va Shaykh Niẓāmī ū-rā zinda-’i jāvīd sākhta Va zakhm-i lisān az hazār zakhm-i sinān sakht-tar ast chunānchi dar zabān-i ‘Arabī īn ma‘nī ẓāhir shuda chunānchi shā‘ir gūyad: Jarāḥat al-sinān lahā [i]ltiyām * va la yultam mā jarāḥ al-lisān Tamām shud īn risāla

Other contents: front flyleaf, a bayt of verse; f. 1r, title inscription, three bayts in two different hands. There are a few additions by the copyist throughout the volume.

Colophon, f. 44v. Dated Sha‘bān 957/June-July 1522. Copied by Maḥmūd al-Abīvardī.

Nasta‘līq script. 17 lines. Red headings and text dividers. Medium cream laid paper. 44 folios. 183 x 111 mm.; text lines 133 x 72 mm. Relatively modern blue quarter leather binding with gilt ornamentation in a European style on the spine.

Purchased from Christie's South Kensington (6 October 2008, Lot 287).