MS. Pococke 94 (Bodleian Library, Oxford University)

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The excellence of man, or the contest of man with the animals, an ethical work after the Arabic model of the twenty-first treatise of the اخوان الصفا or 'brethren of purity,' of which it is a free translation or adaptation. It was composed by the poet Lāmiʿī (see Nos. 2103-2105, 2165 and 2166 above), AH 933=AD 1527, and completed in the first month of AH 934=AD 1527, September-October, comp. W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 440 sq.; Rieu, p. 226; G. Flügel i. p. 421; J. Aumer, p. 56; Paris Cat., Nos. 156 and 157; Asiatisches Museum, p. 208; C. J. Tornberg, No. 480, etc.; see also H. Khalfa iv. p. 43, No. 7549; Hammer, Geschichte der Osman. Dichtkunst, ii. p. 20 sq., Fundgruben des Orients, v. p. 85 sq., and Zeitschrift der D. M. G. xiii. p. 3, foot-note. On the Arabic original comp. besides the printed edition, Calcutta, 1812, and Dieterici's Thier und Mensch vor dem König der Genien,' Leipzig, 1879 and 1881. It is written in a highly refined prose, intermixed with numerous verses, and dedicated to Sulṭān Süleymān I (AH 926-974=AD 1520-1566). Beginning of the preface (slightly different from that in other copies): اجناس سپاس خورشید اقتباس و گردون اساس و انجم قیاس که مقیاس عقول و حواس الخ. Beginning of the story itself, on fol. 20b: آغاز کتاب شرف الانسان بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم نامه فتح است زشاه عظيم الخ. Numerous emendations and additions on the margin. The work ends with a ḳaṣīde by Lāmiʿī himself. An index on the fly-leaves. Copied AH 1024=AD 1615.

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