Delhi Persian 1283* (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Substantial fragment from an apparently untitled commentary by Muḥammad ibn Dāʾūd ʿAlavī Shādiyābādī on the poetic compositions of a contemporary of Niẓāmī and poet at the court of the rulers of Shīrvān, Afz̤al al-Dīn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī Najjār Shīrvānī, with the takhalluṣ Khāqānī (d. 595/1199).

The same author also wrote 1) a commentary on the qaṣāʾid or eulogies of the poet Anvarī, and 2) ʿAjāʾib al-ṣanāʾiʿ, a translation of the Kitāb fī maʿrifat al-ḥiyal al-handasiyyah of Ismāʿīl al-Jazarī, under the patronage of the Khiljī ruler of Mālvah, Sulṭān Nāṣir al-Dīn ibn Ghiyās̲ al-Dīn (d. 916/1510).

Defective at beginning, lacking preface or introduction.

The work is endorsed as Sharḥ-i qaṣāʾid-i Khāqānī, however, this is probably not the formal title.

Not dated at end.

Collation marks in margins.

Pencil foliation.

Rough nastaʿlīq by multiple hands.

Lacking original binding.

Miscellaneous boards: 1) cracked and delaminating board covered with combed marbled paper edged with brown leather; 2) delaminating tooled leather (internal textual and documentary matter exposed).

Paper dust wrapper (BEIC Home Department legal publication for the regulation of Registered Joint Stock Companies, March-June 1850); watermark (Britannia or Minerva in crowned oval frame, J Whatman Turkey Mill 1848); torn, creased, stains; labels.

Folios bound; cropped.

Condition fragile.