Or 16787 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

A manuscript containing the remnants of the Dīvān and other works of Sa‘dī. This fragmentary manuscript must once have been an elegant calligraphic and illuminated copy. For other copies of Sa‘dī’s Kulliyyāt, see FNKhF; for the Dīvān, see FNKhF. There are lacunae after f. 39, 48, 52, 60, 134, 167, and 168. After f. 132 and 133 the text appears discontinuous but the catchwords contain the missing words. In some other places there are no catchwords but the text appears to be uninterrupted and marks and stains on the verso page and the following recto appear to match.

There is a contents list, dating from around the 13th/19th century, pasted inside the front cover. According to this the contents are as follows. 1. Dīvān-i Shaykh Sa‘dī (sic) 2. Risāla-’i Lama‘āt al-qudsiyya (Sa‘dī) 3. Dīvān-i Jalāl, the author being a contemporary of Sa‘dī 4. Qaṣā’id-i Shaykh Sa‘dī 5. Dīvān-i Shaykh Sa‘dī (sic) 6. Ghazaliyyāt-i Shaykh Sa‘dī 7. Dībācha bar Gulistān-i Sa‘dī 8. Risāla az naṣīḥat-i Shaykh Sa‘dī 9. Panj majālis az Sa‘dī 10. Risāla fī l-‘aql va l-‘ishq az Sa‘dī-i Aṣghar

The contents as found in the volume today appear to be as follows: 1v-39v, ghazals; 49r (lacking the beginning of Majlis 1); 49r (post-lacuna)-50v, Risāla 1; 50v-52r, Risāla-’i duvvum dar majālis-i panjgāna; 52r-53v, Majlis-i duvvum; 54r-55r, Majlis-i sivvum; -60v, Majālis (5); 60r-v, Risāla-’i sivvum, Dar su’āl-i Ṣāḥib-Dīvān; 61r-62r, Risāla-’i chahārum, Dar ‘aql va ‘ishq; 62r-67r, Risāla-’i panjum, Dar naṣīḥat-i mulūk; 67r-70r, tarjī‘-band; 70v-72r, Arabic qaṣīdas; 72r-80v, Persian dū-baytīs; 95v-119r, Badāyi‘; 119v-132r, Ghazaliyyāt; [Dībācha (preface) to the Kulliyyāt, by ‘Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr called Bīsutūn, 132v- 133v; 163v, what appears to be the last folio of poems (Dīvān?) of Jalāl (see below for colophon).

Begins: Māh furū mānd az jamāl-i Muḥammad * sarv nabāshad ba-i‘tidāl-i Muḥammad, qadr-i falak-rā kamāl u manzilatī nīst * dar naẓar-i qadr-i kamāl-i Muḥammad

Colophon, f. 169r: completion of the Dīvān of Jalāl, described as házih al-dīvān al-Murtażà al-sa‘īd al-mabrūr Jalāl al-Milla va l-Dīn ibn al-Murtażà al-a‘ẓam al-sa‘īd ‘Ażud al-Ḥaqq va l-Dīn. Dated 21 Ṣafar 829/2 January 1426.

Nasta‘līq. 19 lines. There are three surviving illuminated headings: 1v, Allāh..[?]…al-iḥsān…[?]; 95v al-Shukr va l-‘aṭā li-Llāh ta‘ālà; 119v, Kitāb al-ghazaliyyāt nuvvira marqaduh. Figurative decoration and drawings in gold, 1r, and 2r margins. Outlines of two figures an a prayer-niche, perhaps a sketch for an eventual miniature painting, 62r. 169 folios. 26 x 17 cm. Unbound in worn half leather covers, ca. 19th century; spine lost.

Purchased from Christie’s (9 October 2009, Lot 280).