Historical study of Iran and Afghanistan during the reign of Nādir Shāh, 1688-1747. Waqiat-i Nadiri (literally "Events of Nadir") is a historical manuscript that chronicles the political and military career of Nādir Shāh, who was born in 1688 and rose to power in Iran during the 1720s; he became shah in 1736. He is known as a military warrior famous for his campaigns in Iran, Afghanistan, northern India, and Central Asia. He was assassinated by his officers in June 1747. The name of the author of this work, Muḥammad Mahdī Munshi' ibn Muḥammad Naṣīr (also seen as Mahdī Khān Astarābādī), appears on page four. Mahdi Khan was a court secretary, historian, and close confidante of Nādir Shāh, whom he accompanied on many of his campaigns, so the work is an important historical source. The manuscript is organized chronologically and recounts about 100 military and political events. The preliminary pages contain a preface outlining the political events in Iran and Qandahar (or Kandahar) that led to the Afghan invasion of Isfahan in 1722 and the emergence of Nādir Shāh as a ruler who would confront and eventually defeat the Afghans and other enemies. The preface is followed by a biography of Mahmud Hotaki, an Afghan commander who defeated the Safavids and briefly ruled in Isfahan. The last part of the manuscript covers the reigns of Ali Shah and Ebrahim Shah, nephews of Nādir Shāh, each of whom claimed the throne in Isfahan for brief times in the aftermath of Nādir Shāh's assassination. In the manner typical of Persian court historiography, the author emphasizes throughout the restoration of order, the introduction of justice, and the defeat of the enemies of the state. The margins contain notes, probably by anonymous readers. Various poems and verses from the Qur'an appear throughout the text. The manuscript is written in different styles of broken nastaliq, the calligraphic Persian script. All of the events recounted have a rubricated title and are organized and described in terms of their outcomes or final causes, usually in a page or a half page. The manuscript is numbered in pencil in the Indo-Arabic numeral style, probably by an anonymous reader. World Digital Library.
Masnavi-e Manawi (Spiritual rhyming couplets) is the famous poetic collection of the medieval ecstatic mystic scholar and Sufi, Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (1207-73), known in Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Iran as Mowlana or Mawlānā Jalaluddin Balkhi and in the West as Rumi. This Persian manuscript in nastaliq script is a complete 15th century copy of Masnavi, with all six volumes. Narratives, homilies, and commentaries appear throughout. Many stories have stock characters, such as beggars, prophets, kings, and animals. Ethical concerns, traditional wisdom, and stories filled with jokes, including ones about sexuality and ethnic and gender stereotypes, appear throughout Masnavi. Prose pieces are arranged extemporaneously, sometimes breaking off mid-narrative and resuming later. Masnavi begins with Rumi's famous "Song of the Reed," which is the 18-verse prologue. This song, scholars have argued, contains the essence of the work. A mystic who has become separated from God is searching for his origin, and longs to find it again; Rumi suggests in this song that love of God is the only way to return to that state. The first story of Masnavi expands on "Song of the Reed," and is about a king whose love for a sick slave cures her illness. All six books have their own introductions. The introduction to book one, written in Arabic, defines Masnavi as "the roots of religion" and "uncovering the secrets of knowledge and union." Masnavi's contents are specified as a creed, holy law, proof of God, cure for man's ills, and mysticism. Rumi also praises the supremacy of God: "He is the most protective and most merciful of all." The other introductions are mostly in Persian (the one to book three is partly in Arabic) and some are part prose and part verse. In each one, Rumi praises his leading disciple and successor, Ḥosām-al-Din Chalabi (died 1284), and his contribution to Masnavi. The work has a mixed verse-and-prose conclusion in Persian and Arabic entitled "The seventh book of the books of Masnavi," which is not part of the known original of Masnavi; however, there are claims for a seventh book. If true, then this manuscript is a rare copy. Rumi's full name and the year of publication, 1435, appear on the last page of book six. The place of publication is not given; it was probably somewhere in Khorasan. Each narrative has a rubricated heading. Pages are not numbered. World Digital Library.
This treatise discusses different aspects of the art of versification, including meters, verses, letters, syllables, patterns of rhythm, and other topics relating to the poetic arts in early modern Persian poetry. The author, who is identified on folio 2, Mahmud ibn ʻUmar al-Najati al-Nisaburi (died 1328), is also known as Hamid al-Din Mahmud bin ʻUmar Nijati Nishapuri. No information exists about his place and date of birth or about his death. He is known to have produced a translation of and commentary on Tārīkh-i Utubi, also known as Tārīkh-i Yamīnī (History of Yamini), an early 11th-century courtly chronicle recounting the political and military events of the early Ghaznavid sultans, especially of Sultan Mahmud (died 1030). Where and when this manuscript was made are unclear, but its calligraphic style and clear prose nastaʻliq script suggest that it could have been written in the 15th-16th centuries somewhere in the Persianate world, e.g., India, Afghanistan, Iran, or somewhere in Islamic Central Asia. The manuscript is organized around a five-line eulogistic note (folio 1) praising and thanking God, an eight-page preface (folios 1-8), and the main contents. In the preface, the author discusses Persian poetry and the usefulness of a treatise on Persian prosody, briefly touching upon the names and works of earlier prosodists, such as the 12th century al-Ustad al-Mutarzi al-Ganji (folios 4-5). He also mentions the relationship between holidays and festivities, such as Nawruz (Persian New Year) and the Islamic festival of Eid, and the composition of poetry. The main contents start on folio 9. The first two poetic verses discussed (folios 9-15 and 16-17) are from a famous longer qasidah (poem) of al-Ustad al-Murtarzi al-Ganji (also known as Qavami Ganjavai), said to exemplify the composition of a studious, elegant, and meaningful qasidah and the technical and conceptual contents of the first two lines of a long poem (referred to in Arabic and Persian poetic sciences as Husn-i Mutala-e and Nik Aghazi, (literally, "elegant beginning")). In addition to Husn-i Mutala-e, other technical aspects of prosody, such as meter and repetition, are discussed throughout the treatise. Although the work is written in Persian, the language is filled with dense Arabic grammar and vocabulary. All the poems discussed in the text have subheadings that appear in bold red font, indicating the author or the theme being discussed; the headings are always written in Arabic, while the discussion is in Persian. The paper is thin and light-cream colored. Chain lines run vertically and horizontally in a random manner throughout the text. The manuscript is written in black ink with rubrication; folio 1 is elaborately decorated in blue and gold. The writing is enclosed in thin gold borders edged in black. Two lines of an Ottoman Turkish poem appear at the end of the manuscript, although there is no evidence to suggest that these two lines are original; they might be a later addition, as might the title of the manuscript that appears on the flyleaf. There is no pagination. World Digital Library. Unnamed work on prosody by Maḥmūd ibn ʻUmar al-Najātī al-Nīsābūrī.