Delhi Persian 1254 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)
India Office Library
Selected masnavis from Sab‘ sayyarah of Zulali, 4 items (a-d)
Contents
Language(s): Persian and Arabic
Item a.
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).
The composition consists of forty brief sections termed qadḥ.
Not dated at end.
Item b.
Mystical mas̲navī on the love of the dust particle for the sun, 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.
Item c.
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.
Item d.
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.
Not dated at end.
The work is followed (f. 36v) by an Urdu mukhammas in praise of an unspecified princely marriage.
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
Availability
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