Persian Manuscripts : Mas̲navī-i Ma‘navī

Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmīجلال الدین رومی

Persian Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'> A complete copy of Book Four of the <i>Mas̲navī-i Ma‘navī</i> (Spiritual Couplets) by Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (1207–1273), the fourth of a six-volume set together with <a target='_blank' class='externalLink uom-purple' href='https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/MS-PERSIAN-00250/'>Persian MS 250</a>, <a target='_blank' class='externalLink uom-purple' href='https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/MS-PERSIAN-00251/'> 251</a>, <a target='_blank' class='externalLink uom-purple' href='https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/MS-PERSIAN-00252/'>252</a>, <a target='_blank' class='externalLink uom-purple' href='https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/MS-PERSIAN-00254/'>254</a>, and <a target='_blank' class='externalLink uom-purple' href='https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/MS-PERSIAN-00255/'>255</a>. While the scribe neither signed nor dated this volume, the hand more closely compares with that of ‘Abd al-Karīm ibn Muḥammad Ḥasan, who completed <a target='_blank' class='externalLink uom-purple' href='https://www.fihrist.org.uk/catalog/manuscript_6737'>Persian MS 251</a>, than that of Sirāj al-Dīn ibn Bāyāzīd Kūrahvī Rūdawlī, who copied other volumes. Since the set bears dedications to Prince Muḥammad Mu‘aẓẓam Bahādur Shāh, son of the Mughal Emperor ‘Ālamgīr I, who later succeeded his father as Shāh ‘Ālam Bahādur I (r. 1707–1712), he likely commissioned it. </p>