Manuscript. Persian and Arabic. Caption title. Scribe not identified. Gift of A.A. Kachif, Nov. 20, 1930. Written in Iran. Paper; thick, polished light cream color paper with no watermarks; elaborate floral unwan in gold, blue, red, and white with wide borders of a similar floral pattern and similar colors of fol. 1b and 2a; an outer border of two very thin lines accompanies all the text on facing pages; the text itself is enclosed in a border of black, white, gold, and red; floral section headings in gold, red and blue; lines of the text are separated by a cloud design in gold; text in black ink with small red overlining of some letters; catchwords. Nastaʻliq; in written area 13 x 7.5 cm. Fol. 1b-24a. Library of Congress. Persian manuscript, M100. Binding; dark brown half leather with lacquered papier-mâché floral design on a copper colored background surrounded by contrasting green, red and green borders also with floral designs; inner sides of cover also lacquered with a paintings of dark pink roses on a brown background. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
Collection of memorable sayings, witticisms, anecdotes, etc., in prose and poetry in 8 books; concerning (book 1) Sufis and saints, 2) sayings of the philosophers, 3) justice of kings, 4) generosity, 5) love, 6) jokes and witticisms, 7) poets, and 8) on animals; the text is incompete and breaks off shortly after the beginning of book 7.
In Persian. Preface signed: M. Youness. Label pasted on back cover: "Khayr Allāh Afandī kih az Masīḥīyat va baʻd az ʻAbd al-Bahāʼ murtadd shud". Probably written in Iran.
Manuscript. Persian. Title from colophon; each Gospel has separate caption title in red ink. Scribe not identified. Place of writing not determined; perhaps Iran. Paper; cream color, commercial laid paper with no visible chain lines or watermarks; black ink with rubrication; catchwords. Nastaʻliq; 17 lines in written area 25.5 x 16 cm. Fol. 1b-128a. Library of Congress. Persian manuscript, M103. Nineteenth century brown half leather binding with dark brown grain sides; commercial marbled pastedowns and marbled edging; binding separated from text block. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
Shiite prayer book; consists of prayers to be said on the visitation of Caliph ʻAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib's tomb. This manuscript of Durrat al-tāj (The crown jewel) is a Shiite prayer book, consisting of prayers to be said when making a visitation to the tomb of Caliph ʻAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (circa 601-61). 'Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib is one of the most revered religious and holy figures of Islam. In Iran, he is referred to by the honorary name Amir al-Muʼminin, which translates from Arabic as “Commander of the Faithful” and is used to refer to him in Persian. Written works by 'Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib and sayings attributed to him are sacred to the Shiite faithful, particularly among Persian speakers. The manuscript was probably written in Iran, possibly in the 17th century. The paper is of a thick, cream-colored polished Middle Eastern style, without distinctive chain or laid lines, and no watermark. The text is written in black ink in naskhī script, nine lines on each page, with gold decorations between lines. The borders of the written area are lined with black ink, with profuse decoration outside of the written area. The text is rubricated. The title was added by a later hand. There is no colophon. The binding is referred to as chahargusheh, meaning a frame binding made around a Kashmiri shawl dating from the first half of the 1700s (circa 1740s). World Digital Library.
Abū Ṭālib Kalīm Hamadānī (or Kāshānī, died 1651; 1061 A.H.) was one of the foremost Persian poets of the 17th century. He was born in Hamadan (present-day Iran) but appears to have lived in Kashan (also in Iran) for a sizeable portion of his life--hence the appellation Kāshānī. He received his education in Kashan and in Shiraz before moving to India to serve the Mughal ruler Jahangir (reigned 1605-27). Abū Ṭālib was thus among a large number of Persian poets and literati who left Persia in search of patronage in the Indian subcontinent beginning in the 16th century. Under Jahangir's successor, Shah Jahan (reigned 1628-58), Abū Ṭālib achieved the rank of poet laureate. Later in life he is said to have accompanied Shah Jahan to Kashmir, which became his home until his death. Abū Ṭālib's fame rests principally on his ghazalīyāt (a metrical form expressing the pain of loss and the beauty of love). Of the 10,000 verses that appear in his divan (or collected poems), about half were written in the ghazal form. He is especially renowned for the novelty of his themes, for which he came to be known as khallāq al-maʻānī (creator of meaning). Other characteristics of his poems are the originality of his khayāl bandī (rhetorical conceits) and the aptness of his mithālīya (illustrations). Abū Ṭālib was also the author of Shāh Jahān Nāma (The book of Shah Jahan), a work which, following the style of the epic Shāhnāma (The book of kings), praises Timur and the Timurid rulers up to Shah Jahan. In the present illuminated copy of Abū Ṭālib's divan, the maqtaʻ (final verse) of many of the poems, which generally includes the takhalluṣ (pen name of the poet), is set off in its own frame. The year 1103 A.H. (1691-92) is written in the colophon. World Digital Library. Collected poems of Abū Ṭālib Kalīm.
Collected poems of Amīr Shāhī Sabzavarī. Dīvān-i Shāhī (Collection of poems by Shāhī) is a divan (collection) of verse by Amīr Shāhī Sabzavārī (died 1453; 857 A.H.), a prominent Persian poet of the Timurid era who composed in many of the classical forms of Persian poetry. Amīr Shāhī's poetry belongs to the tradition of Persian mystical love poetry. The collection includes poems composed in the ghazal (a metrical form expressing the pain of loss and the beauty of love), qaṣīda (lyric poem), and rubā'ī (quatrain) forms. Amīr Shāhī was born in Sabzevar (present-day Iran), but received his education in Herat (present-day Afghanistan), where he joined the court of Timur's son Shāhrukh (1377-1447) and that of Shāhrukh's son Baysunqur Mīrzā (1397-1433). Biographers refer to Amīr Shāhī as a superb poet, but also as a painter, musician, and calligrapher. His poetry was greatly admired by his celebrated contemporary ʻAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (1414-92), as well as by later authors, such as Alīshīr Nawā'ī (1441-1501). In Tadhkirat al-Shuʻarā (Memorial of poets), Dawlatshāh Samarqandī (died circa 1494) describes the premature death of Baysunqur Mīrzā after a bout of drunken revelry, and singles out the elegy for him composed by Amīr Shāhī as having surpassed those of all his peers in its pathos. It is said that Amīr Shāhī wrote more than 12,000 verses, but his surviving anthology contains less than a tenth of that number. He himself is believed to have destroyed that portion of his verse he considered inferior. Amīr Shāhī died in Gorgan and is buried in Sabzevar in a khānaqāh (Sufi dervish lodge) founded by his ancestors. The present manuscript of Dīvān-i Shāhī is an illuminated, undated copy written in a flowing nastaʻlīq hand. An unusual feature of the work is the manner in which each poem is set off by the Arabic wa lahu ayḍan or ayḍan lahu (furthermore, he wrote). World Digital Library.