IO Islamic 4627 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

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India Office Library

A commonplace book

Contents

A valuable collection of miscellanea, of which the chief items are as follows:

1. ff. 3-47v
Author: Various authors
Title: Selections from the poetical works of different authors

Poems by Khwājū Kirmānī, d. 753/1352, خواجو كرمانى , foll. 3-16b (3) [with margins foll. 3-9, followed by (I) the Munājāt of Qāz̤ī Jamāl al-Dīn Abū ʼl-Faz̤l Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Ṣanʻānī, قاضی ابو الفضل احمد بن محمد الصنعانی , foll. 10-14; (II) selections from Qirān al-saʻdain by Amīr Khusraw, أمير خسرو , foll. 15-27 ], and by Khāqānī, d. 595/1199 خاقانى , foll. 16b(4)-18b(11) (II) Selections from the Mirʼāt al-ṣafāt by Amīr Khusraw, أمير خسرو in foil. 18b(12)-27b(11), and his Daryā-ʼi abrār, foil. 27b(12)-31a(4) [margins, selections from the poems of Ẓahīr Fāryābī, d. 598/1201, ظهير فاريابى in foll. 28-32]. (III) Selections from the poems of Jāmī, جامی , foll. 31a(5)-33b [with margins, foll. 33a-b ]. (iv) The " ornate qaṣīdah " of Salmān Sāvajī, d. 779/1377, سلمان ساوجى , with marginal glosses, foll. 34-44a [margins, the Sāqā-nāmah of Nargisī, d. 921/1515 نرگسی . (v) The " ornate qaṣīdah " of Sharaf al-Dīn Qazvīnī, شرف الدين قزوينى , foll. 44b-47b [margins, selections from Amīr Khusraw, أمير خسرو ]

Language(s): Persian

References

For a more detailed description see Arberry 1939, pages 390-1.
2. ff. 48r-68v
Author: Various authors
Title: Selections from the poetical works of different authors

Poems by Saʿdī, سعدى , Anvarī, أانورى , Amīr Khusraw, أمير خسرو , et. al.

Language(s): Persian

References

For a more detailed description see Arberry 1939, page 391.
3. ff. 73v-77
Author: Various authors
Title: Different works
Language(s): Persian
f. 73v
Title: A letter from Aḥmad Jāmī (Zindah-Pīl) to Sulṭān Sanjar, d. 551/1156
f. 74
Title: An extract from the Nigāristān of Juvaynī, d. 735/1335
f.75r
Title: An extract from the Bahāristān of Jāmī and from the Rawz̤at al-shuhadāʼ of Ḥusayn Vāʻiẓ Kāshifī
f. 75v
Title: The Vaṣāyā of ‘Abd al-Khāliq Ghijluvānī, d. 575/1179, and an account of his death
ff. 75v -76
Title: An extract from an unespecified ethical work

References

For a more detailed description see Arberry 1939, page 391.
4. ff. 77-98r
Author: Various authors
Title: Different works
Language(s): Persian
ff. 77-79r
Title: Sayings of ʻAbd Allāh Anṣārī, 1006-1089 and ʻAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Caliph, ca. 600-661
f. 79r-81v
Title: Extracts from the Taz̲kirat al-mubtadī of Ṣadr al-Dīn Qūnawī, d. 1273 or 4 and an account on Jāmī's pilgrimage
ff. 82-5
Title: Poems of Ibn Yamīn
ff. 87r-89v
Title: Poems of Amīr Khusraw and Salmān
ff. 90v-92r
Title: The spiritual pedigree of Yaḥyá, b. Abi 'l-Faz̤l al-Jāmī, written in Arabic by himself in 705/1305, various anecdotes and verses
ff. 92v-98r
Title: Extracts from the Mihr va Mushtarī of Muḥammad ʻAṣṣār Tabrīzī (d. 784/1383; the Makhzan al-asrār of Niẓāmī; the Lailā va Majnūn of Amīr Khusraw; and poems of Ahlī and Kātibī

References

For a more detailed description see Arberry 1939, page 391.
5. ff. 98-104
Author: Unknown
Title: A series of mystical meditations and anecdotes

Each one called bāriqah, which may therefore be identical with the anonymous Bawāriq

The margins contain 1) an account of the Qarmaṭī heresy, entitled Manshaʻ-i maz̲hab-i mulhidīn ( ملحدين مذهب منشاء ) , by " Zain al-Dīn", presumably an extract from one of Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ghazzālī's anti-Qarmaṭī works, ff. 98-101; 2) Najm al-Dīn Nasafī's Persian Risālah on erring Ṣūfī sects, ff.102-3

Language(s): Persian

References

For a more detailed description see Arberry 1939, page 392.
6. ff. 1-195
Author: Kāshifī, Ḥusayn Vāʻiẓ, d. 1504 or 5 کاشفى، حسين واعظ
Title: Laṭāʼif al-ṭavāʼif
Title: لطائف الطوائف

Extracts from this work

The margins contain 1) A Tarjīʻ-i band ( ترجيع بند ) , by Jāmī, 1414-1492, ff.105v-109r; 2) A Tarjīʻ-i band ( ترجيع بند ) , by ʻIrāqī, Fakhr al-Dīn Ibrāhīm, d. 1289?, ff.109v-112r; 3) Poems of Kamāl al-Dīn Ismāʻīl Iṣfahānī, ca. 1172-1237; 4) Various poems in a later hand dated 1191, ff.132v-135vr

Language(s): Persian

References

For a more detailed description see Arberry 1939, page 389.
7. ff. 124v-173v
Author: Unknown
Title: Untitled

An anonymous and untitled epitome of geography, in which a succinct account is given of the various towns occurring in each clime

The margins contain 1) Poems by Ibn-Yamīn, ff.157r-159r; 2) The Muqaṭṭaʻāt ( مقطعات ) of Ibn-Yamīn, ff.157r-159r

Language(s): Persian

References

For a more detailed description see Arberry 1939, page 392.
8. ff. 173v-226
Author: Various authors
Title: Different works
Language(s): Persian
ff. 173v-174v
Title: Extracts from a work entitled Basātīn al-uns
f. 79r-81v
Title: Extracts from the Taz̲kirat al-mubtadī of Ṣadr al-Dīn Qūnawī, d. 1273 or 4 and an account on Jāmī's pilgrimage
176r
Title: Scraps of poetry
ff. 176r
Title: A letter of Jāmī
ff. 177-178
Title: A nishān of Shāh Isma’il II (reigned 984/1576-985/1578), dated 27 Shauwal 984/17 January 1577
ff. 179-180
Title: Scraps of poetry
ff. 181-226
Title: Unimportant scraps and extracts

References

For a more detailed description see Arberry 1939, page 391.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: 226 ff
Dimensions (leaf): 9.2 × 6.3 in.
Dimensions (written): 6.3 × 3.7 in.

Layout

Many folios written diagonally in columns

Hand(s)

The first hand, a scholarly Persian taʻlīq, dated 986

The second hand, a modern Persian nastaʻlīq, dated (fol. 212b) 1233

Other hands elsewhere

History

Origin: Hijri-qamari AH

Record Sources

Manuscript description based on A. J. Arberry: Hand-List of Islamic Manuscripts acquired by the India Office Library, 1936–8. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (New Series) (1939), 71: pp 353-396

Availability

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Funding of Cataloguing

BL

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