illustrated with 14 miniatures in the text.
North India, probably Lucknow, second half of 18th century.
Illustrated Urdu manuscript. Mir Hasan Dihlavi (1736-1786) is one of the most important figures in Urdu literary history. He was an influential eighteenth-century Urdu poet and biographer born in Delhi and raised and educated in Awadh. Dilhavi is best known for his mathnavis, poetic form of rhyming couplets, of which this Sihar ul-Bayan is his most famous. He emigrated from Delhi to Faizabad and then to Lucknow, where he died in 1786, following the Nawabs of Awadh and their patronage. This poem is a romantic epic, recounting the love of Prince Benazir and Princess Badr-i Munir and their trials and tribulations on their path to eventual happiness and marriage.
The paper used is very likely Indian paper produced in the eighteenth century, laid without chain lines and lightly polished, and the style of the miniatures indicates production in Lucknow, where the author died in 1786. Therefore it is very likely that this manuscript was either copied during the author's lifetime or shortly after his death in Lucknow in the late eighteenth century. Fihrist lists only two other copies of this text, and both of these are described as eighteenth-century and illustrated ('MS. S. Digby Or. 190' at the Bodleian and 'ms. 24931' at SOAS).
Single volume, illuminated manuscript on laid paper without chain lines, in Urdu, complete, 108 leaves plus two additional fly-leaves at the end, 225 x 155 mm.; text in double-column, 11 lines black nasta'liq with headings in red, 14 illuminated minaitures in the text executed in a Lucknow style, illuminated head-piece opening the text, text-block ruled in gilt, wider double-ruling in blue, lower margin trimmed with occasional loss to lower blue ruling, one folio torn along upper edge with loss to text (facing miniature with elephants), catch-words throughout, some light thumbing to outer margins, a few smudges to the text; near-contemporary green silk over pasteboards, spine hinges repaired, overall an attractive volume.
The paper used is very likely Indian paper produced in the eighteenth century, laid without chain lines and lightly polished, and the style of the miniatures indicates production in Lucknow, where the author died in 1786. Therefore it is very likely that this manuscript was either copied during the author's lifetime or shortly after his death in Lucknow in the late eighteenth century. Fihrist lists only two other copies of this text, and both of these are described as eighteenth-century and illustrated ('MS. S. Digby Or. 190' at the Bodleian and 'ms. 24931' at SOAS).
Single volume, illuminated manuscript on laid paper without chain lines, in Urdu, complete, 108 leaves plus two additional fly-leaves at the end, 225 x 155 mm.; text in double-column, 11 lines black nasta'liq with headings in red, 14 illuminated minaitures in the text executed in a Lucknow style, illuminated head-piece opening the text, text-block ruled in gilt, wider double-ruling in blue, lower margin trimmed with occasional loss to lower blue ruling, one folio torn along upper edge with loss to text (facing miniature with elephants), catch-words throughout, some light thumbing to outer margins, a few smudges to the text; near-contemporary green silk over pasteboards, spine hinges repaired, overall an attractive volume.
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