Delhi Persian 903D (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Miscellaneous works on Sufism and poetry, 5 items (a-e)

Summary of Contents: Miscellaneous collection of works on Sufism, literary criticism and poetry by various authors. Volume not dated; item b dated 17 Jumādá al-Avval 1242 (17 December 1826). Nastaʿlīq and shikastah āmīz. Occasional annotations in margins. Stamped foliation. Lacking original binding. Paper dust wrapper (index pages from BEIC legal publication on the Regulations of 1793); no apparent watermarks; labels, torn and stained. Folios unbound; cropped, creased, stains, smudging in parts, wormholes, later repairs. Condition very fragile.

Language(s): Persian, Arabic, Urdu

1. f. i verso

Language(s): Urdu

Delhi Persian 903(a), f. i verso

Untitled Urdu ghazal by a poet identified in the last verse as Nawshah, informally scrawled into two columns.

Not dated at end.

Author: Nawshah

2. ff. 1v-93v

Delhi Persian 903(b), ff. 1v-93v.

Sufi treatise comprising ethically instructive anecdotes and tales in refined prose and poetry and arranged in forty chapters, dedicated to the Timurid Prince Abū al-Muḥsinduring the reign of his father Abū al-Ghāzī Sulṭān Ḥusayn known as Mīrzā Bāyqarā, written by one of the leading scholars at court, Kamāl al-Dīn Ḥusayn Vāʿiẓ Kāshifī Bayhaqī(d. 910/1505).

Dated colophon (f. 93v): completed by Najaf ʿAlī Riz̤avī Shāhjahānābādīat qaṣbah Manipuri(?), 17 Jumādá al-Avval 1242 (17 December 1826).

Added at the beginning (f. 1r) is an Urdu verse or shiʿr ascribed to Chandū Laʿl, Prime Minister of the Āṣaf Jāhī Niẓām al-Mulk and renowned poet of Dakhinī Urdu writing under the takhalluṣ Shādān(d. 1259/1843).

Language(s): Persian, Arabic, Urdu

Author: Ḥusayn al-Kāshifī حسين الكاشفى

Title: Akhlāq-i Muḥsinī

Title: اخلاق محسنى

3. ff. 94r-102v

Delhi Persian 903(c), ff. 94r-102v.

Untitled commentary on the prose works of Ẓuhūrī Turshīzī(d. 1025/1616) by an unnamed commentator.

The text ends abruptly at the end.

Not dated at end.

Language(s): Persian

4. ff. 106r-140r

Delhi Persian 903(d), ff. 106r-140r.

Mystical romance set in the Panjāb, inspired by accounts of Laylá and Majnūn, composed in mas̲navī form by Muḥammad Akram Panjābī “Ghanīmat”(d. 1100/1698).

Not dated at end.

Shikastah āmīz and nastaʿlīq variously arranged in three to four columns.

Language(s): Persian

Author: Ghanīmat غنيمت

Title: Nayrang-i ʿishq

Title: نيرنگ عشق

5. ff. 140v-142r

Delhi Persian 903(e), ff. 140v-142r.

Untitled collection of miscellaneous Urdu and Persian poems in ghazal form by unidentified poets.

Not dated at end.

Language(s): Urdu and Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex

Extent: 142 ff.

Dimensions (leaf): 280 × 208 mm.

Hand(s)

History

Origin: 17 Jumādá al-Avval 1242 AH (17 December 1826 CE); ; India, Manipuri(?)

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

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card for admissions procedures contact British Library, Registering for a Reader Pass. Contact apac-enquiries@bl.uk for further information on the availability of this manuscript. For information on catalogues and ordering manuscripts see Finding and ordering Persian manuscripts in the British Library.

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