Walters Ms. W.637, Collection of poems (divan)

W.637

Collection of poems (divan)

Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ

Vernacular: ديوان حافظ

Authority name: Ḥāfiẓ, 14th cent.

As-written name: Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ al-Shīrāzī

Name, in vernacular: شمس الدين محمد حافظ الشيرازى

Note: Author dates preferred by cataloger: fl. 8th century AH / 14th CE

This is an illustrated and illuminated copy of the collection of poems (dīvān) by Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfiz al-Shīrāzī (fl. eighth century AH / fourteenth CE), produced in India, possibly Kashmir, in the thirteenth century AH / nineteenth CE. It opens with an illuminated headpiece with the doxological formula (basmalah) (fol. 1b); there are twenty illustrations. The lacquer binding with central floral design is contemporary with the manuscript.

13th century AH / 19th CE

India (Kashmir?)

Book

Literary -- Poetry

The primary language in this manuscript is Persian.

Paper

Laid paper, probably Kashmiri

Foliation: i+171+ii

Catchwords: Written obliquely on versos

8.0 cm wide by 13.5 cm high

5.5 cm wide by 10.0 cm high

1. Columns: 2
2. Ruled lines: 13
3. Framing lines in blue, orange, gold, and black

fols. 1b - 171a:

1. Title: Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ
2. Author: Ḥāfiẓ, 14th cent.
3. Incipit: الا يا ايها الساقى ادر كاسا وناولها...
4. Hand note: Written in nastaʿlīq script (Indian hand)
5. Decoration note: Twenty illustrations; illuminated headpiece; framing lines in blue, orange, gold, and black

Upper board outside:

1. 
2. Title: Binding
3. Form: Binding
4. Label: This lacquer binding is decorated with a floral central design surrounded by a border of gold-painted floral motifs on a black ground. It dates to the thirteenth century AH / nineteenth CE.

fol. 1b:

1. 
2. Title: Incipit page with headpiece
3. Form: Incipit; headpiece
4. Label: This painted incipit page has a headpiece inscribed with the doxological formula (basmalah).

fol. 4b:

1. 
2. Title: The Prophet Muhammad (not depicted) ascends on Burāq
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 10a:

1. 
2. Title: King Solomon seated on his throne carried by demons
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 18b:

1. 
2. Title: Laylá and Majnūn and Sultan Maḥmūd and Iyāz
3. Form: Illustration
4. Label: In the foreground of this illustration, Sultan Maḥmūd and his favorite, Iyāz, are shown. Behind are Laylá and Majnūn. All four are referred to in this ode.

fol. 24a:

1. 
2. Title: A wine party
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 37a:

1. 
2. Title: Shīrīn before Farhād, who is cutting through rocks
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 43b:

1. 
2. Title: Jamshīd and Kay Khusraw
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 50a:

1. 
2. Title: King Solomon with his magic seal (signet) and a demon
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 57a:

1. 
2. Title: Jamshīd and Kay Qubād
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 59b:

1. 
2. Title: Alexander the Great and his magic mirror
3. Form: Illustration
4. Label: Ḥāfiẓ, like Iskandar (Alexander the Great), uses a mirror to seek his beloved.

fol. 67b:

1. 
2. Title: Kay Khusraw prefers the Water of Life to wine
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 74a:

1. 
2. Title: Jacob becomes blind during his long wait without hearing anything from Joseph
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 75b:

1. 
2. Title: Farhād carries Shīrīn and her dead horse to her castle
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 85a:

1. 
2. Title: Shīrīn visits Farhād with her men
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 87b:

1. 
2. Title: The beloved admired by Jamshīd and Kay Khusraw
3. Form: Illustration
4. Label: This page illustrates the first couplet on the page, in which the poet comments that his beloved has hundreds of Jamshīds and Kay Khusraws as slaves.

fol. 103a:

1. 
2. Title: Alexander the Great and the prophet Khiḍr
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 115b:

1. 
2. Title: The crucifixion of Ḥallāj
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 124b:

1. 
2. Title: King Solomon in the company of angels, demons, and flying birds
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 134a:

1. 
2. Title: Paradise represented by a pavilion in a garden with water pools and angels
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 137b:

1. 
2. Title: Sultan Maḥmūd and Iyāz
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 145b:

1. 
2. Title: Jamshīd enthroned
3. Form: Illustration

The binding is original.

Lacquer binding (without flap); central panel filled with floral design; border with floral gold-painted motifs on a black ground

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest

Gacek, Adam. Persian Manuscripts in the Libraries of McGill University: Brief Union Catalogue. (Montreal: McGill University Libraries, 2005), no. 39.

Principal cataloger: Gacek, Adam

Catalogers: Landau, Amy; Smith, Sita

Editor: Bockrath, Diane

Conservators: Jewell, Stephanie; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Barrera, Christina; Emery, Doug; Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William; Simpson, Shreve; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara

The Walters Art Museum

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