Delhi Persian 1233 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)
India Office Library
Sab‘ sayyarah of Zulali, defective, 4 items (a-d)
Contents
Language(s): Persian, Arabic
Delhi Persian 1233(a), f. 1v.
Fragment of the prose preface to the Qadḥ'nāmah, mystical mas̲navī on the legendary Persian King Jamshīd’s discovery of wine, alternatively known as the May'khānah, one of seven poems collectively entitled Sabʿ sayyārahby Zulālī Khvānsārī (d. 1024/1615), the poet frequently eulogising the Safavid ruler, Shāh ʿAbbās I (d. 1038/1629), and his associate and possibly patron, the theologian, Mīr Bāqir Dāmād Astarābādī (d. 1041/1631).
Defective, having lost the end of the preface and the main mas̲navī consists of forty brief sections termed qadḥ.
Not dated at end.
Delhi Persian 1233(b), ff. 2r-7v.
Mystical mas̲navī themed on interpretations of the basmalah, one of seven poems collectively entitled Sabʿ sayyārahby Zulālī Khvānsārī (d. 1024/1615), the poet frequently eulogising the Safavid ruler, Shāh ʿAbbās I (d. 1038/1629), and his associate and possibly patron, the theologian, Mīr Bāqir Dāmād Astarābādī (d. 1041/1631).
The composition is prefixed by a brief prose preface.
Not dated at end.
Delhi Persian 1233(c), ff. 7v-11v.
Mystical mas̲navī on the trials of love through the allegory of the salamander and fire, one of seven poems collectively entitled Sabʿ sayyārahby Zulālī Khvānsārī (d. 1024/1615), the poet frequently eulogising the Safavid ruler, Shāh ʿAbbās I (d. 1038/1629), and his associate and possibly patron, the theologian, Mīr Bāqir Dāmād Astarābādī (d. 1041/1631).
The composition is prefixed by a brief prose preface.
Not dated at end.
Delhi Persian 1233(d), ff. 11v-14r.
Mystical mas̲navī on the romance of the Prophet Sulaymān (Solomon) and Bilqīs (Queen of Sheba) in the heroic mutaqārib metre, one of seven poems collectively entitled Sabʿ sayyārahby Zulālī Khvānsārī (d. 1024/1615), the poet frequently eulogising the Safavid ruler, Shāh ʿAbbās I (d. 1038/1629), and his associate and possibly patron, the theologian, Mīr Bāqir Dāmād Astarābādī (d. 1041/1631).
The composition is prefixed by a brief prose preface.
Dated colophon (f. 14r): completed 22 Muḥarram 1054/31 March 1644.
Followed by miscellaneous annotations and Urdu verses ascribed to the poet Iḥsān.
Physical Description
Hand(s)
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Purchased by the Government of India at sale organised by Delhi Prize Agents, 1859; administrative deposit India Office Library, 1876
1876
Government of India
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