Containers:

Box 1

Identifier:

Manuscript no. 3

Dates:

1511

Scope and content:

Belles-lettres. Jami's allegorical romance, in verse (completed 1483 CE).

• Author: Jami, 1414-1492
• Scribe: ?la al-Din Mu?ammad al-Haravi
• Language: Text in Persian
• Origin: Timurid Herat
• Layout: Average of 14 lines of text in two columns per page.
• Script: Written in a nasta? liq hand.
• Decoration: Illumination on title page.
• Binding: Black leather binding with stamped gilt leather decoration; painted red endpapers.
• Additional description: Verses enclosed in gold and blue text box. Episode headings generally one to three lines; first line blue, second line gold, and third line red. Pagination in ink on upper corners.
• Contents:
  • ff. 1b-18a: Opening verses;
  • ff. 18a-19a : The story of the lighting of the candle of Yisuf's beauty in the otherworldly night-chamber and the burning of Adam's heart upon witnessing that light;
  • ff. 19a-21b: How the sapling of Yisuf's beauty was brought into the Garden of Testimony, and how it was nourished by the tears of Jacob's eyes and the desires of Zulaykha's heart;
  • ff. 21b-24b: On the qualities and attributes of Zulaykha, from the sunrise of whose beauty, the occident had become the orient, but even a thousand degrees more so;
  • ff. 24b-26a: On how Zulaykha saw in the scabbard of sleep the sword of Yisuf's beauty for the first time, and how she was love-slain by that sword in the scabbard;
  • ff. 26a-27b : On how the morning breeze blew upon Zulaykha and awakened her sleepy narcissus eyes, and on how she drank the blood of her heart like a blossom and sealed her lips from the nightly vision;
  • ff. 27b-30b: On how the string of the intellect of maidens was tied into a knot of astonishment when they witnessed the change in Zulaykha's condition, and how her nurse untied that knot by the fingertips of interrogation;
  • ff. 30b-33b: How Zulaykha saw Yisuf in a dream a second time, and how the chains of her love quavered, dragging her into the embroilment of madness;
  • ff. 33b-35b: On how Yisuf came to her dream a third time, and how she learned his name and status, returning to sanity and consciousness;
  • ff. 35b-37b: How the envoys of the monarchs of those parts other than Egypt came to ask for Zulaykha's hand, and how her heart was constricted from her resulting despair;
  • ff. 37b-39b: How Zulaykha's father sent a messenger to the ?ziz of Egypt, offering her to him, and how he accepted it;
  • ff. 39b-41b: How the breeze of acceptance blew from Egypt, and how Zulaykha's litter was conveyed to Egypt like a bouquet of flowers;
  • ff. 41b-43a: How the ?ziz of Egypt found out that Zulaykha had arrived, and how he rose to set out for her welcoming, and how he adorned the army of Egypt in rich array;
  • ff. 43a-45a: How Zulaykha saw the ?ziz of Egypt from an opening in the pavilion-tent and cried "He is not the one I have seen in my dream, and for whom I have suffered the tribulations of love";
  • ff. 45a-47a: How Zulaykha came into Egypt along with the ?ziz of Egypt, and how the Egyptians came out and sprinkled trayfuls of offerings upon Zulaykha's litter;
  • ff. 47a-50a: How Zulaykha spent her days in the absence of Yisuf, and how she pined and grieved during the passing of those mornings and nights;
  • ff. 50a-51a: The beginning of the brothers' jealousy, and how they cast Yisuf out of Canaan;
  • ff. 51a-52b: How Yisuf dreamed that the sun and the moon and twelve stars were bowing down to him, and how the brothers heard this, and how their jealousy was increased;
  • ff. 52b-53b: How the brothers held council with one another to see what ruse they might devise to separate Yisuf from their father;
  • ff. 53b-54b: How the brothers went to their father and asked him to take Yisuf into the wilderness with them;
  • ff. 54b-57a: How the brothers took Yisuf away from their father, and how they dug a well of darkness in the path of their own guidance, throwing him who was guiltless into the well;
  • ff. 57a-59a: How the caravan arrived at the well, and how they took Yisuf out of the well, illuminating the world once again by the light of his beauty;
  • ff. 59a-60a: How the proprietor brought Yisuf to the environs of Egypt, and how the king found out about it and sent the ?ziz to their welcoming;
  • ff. 60a-61b: How Yisuf got into the river Nile to wash himself of the dust of the road, and how he sat in a litter intending for the court of the king of Egypt;
  • ff. 61b-63a: How Zulaykha, arriving at court and asking the reason for the congestion, saw Yisuf's beauty and recognized him;
  • ff. 63a-65a: How the proprietor presented Yisuf for sale, and how Zulaykha bought him by doubling what the others were buying him for;
  • ff. 65a-68a: The story of a girl named Bazigha, a descendant of the ?id, who was like none other in her wealth and beauty, and who fell in love with Yisuf absently, and saw the Truth in that mirror of beauty, and reached the Truth via that path;
  • ff. 68a-70a: How Zulaykha instructed Yisuf, and how she served him with whatever was at hand;
  • ff. 70a-71b: How Yisuf described the tribulations of the road and the agonies of the well, and how Zulaykha realized that this was the cause for his sadness that day;
  • ff. 71b-72b: How Yisuf besought a shepherd, on account of the fact that there has never been a prophet who did not herd livestock, and how Zulaykha prepared the means of his shepherding;
  • ff. 72b-74a: How Zulaykha asked Yisuf for attainment, and how Yisuf fled from her;
  • ff. 74a-75b: How the nurse asked Zulaykha the cause of her burning and smoldering;
  • ff. 75b-77a: How Zulaykha sent the nurse to Yisuf to ask for her wish, and …[text faded];
  • ff. 77a-79b: How Zulaykha went herself to Yisuf and implored, and how Yisuf excused himself from satisfying her desire;
  • ff. 79b-81b: How Zulaykha sent Yisuf to the garden and how she set him up;
  • ff. 81b-83b: How evening fell, and how the maidens presented their beauties to Yisuf, to see unto which one of them would Yisuf be inclined;
  • ff. 83b-85a: How Zulaykha implored her nurse for a ruse that would bring about the attainment of Yisuf;
  • ff. 85a-86b: How the nurse built a house in which the pictures of Yisuf and Zulaykha were painted;
  • ff. 86b-90a: How Zulaykha summoned Yisuf into that house and asked for attainment;
  • ff. 90a-95a: How Zulaykha brought Yisuf into the seventh house, and how she set forth her endeavor into the Nile of desire, and how Yisuf ran away and left her rueful and pining;
  • ff. 95a-97b: How the ?ziz of Egypt came up to Yisuf in front of that house, and how [Yisuf] hid what had past between him and Zulaykha, and how Zulaykha divulged it;
  • ff. 97b-99a: How the captains dragged Yisuf to prison, and how a nursling infant testified to his innocence, and how he was left alone;
  • ff. 99a-103a: How the women of Egypt removed their hands from the mouths, and began upbraiding Zulaykha, and how the sword of the zeal of love cut their tongues and hands;
  • ff. 103a-105b: How the women of Egypt excused Zulaykha after they had witnessed Yisuf's beauty, and how Yisuf disdained submission to Zulaykha, and how she threatened him with imprisonment;
  • ff. 105b-108a: How the women of Egypt induced Zulaykha to send Yisuf to prison, and how Zulaykha obeyed them;
  • ff. 108a-111a: How Zulaykha regretted having sent Yisuf to prison, and how she began to weep and wail for his absence;
  • ff. 111a-113b: How Zulaykha grew impatient at Yisuf's absence, and how she went to prison at night along with the nurse and witnessed his beauty;
  • ff. 113b-115b: How in daytime Zulaykha went to the rooftop of her palace, and watched the rooftop of the prison from there, and how she began weeping and moaning over his absence;
  • ff. 115b-117a: The description of how Yisuf did good to the men in jail, and how he interpreted the dream of the confidants of the king of Egypt, and how he charged one of them to recall him to the king;
  • ff. 117a-120a: How the king of Egypt requested Yisuf for the interpreting of his dream, and how he pleaded that he investigate into what had passed between him and the women of Egypt;
  • ff. 120a-122a: How Yisuf came out of prison, and how the king honored him, and how the ?ziz of Egypt passed away, and how Zulaykha was stricken with loneliness and separation;
  • ff. 122a-125a: The description of Zulaykha's condition after the death of the ?ziz of Egypt, and how the love of Yisuf overpowered her, and how she was stricken with the tribulation of estrangement;
  • ff. 125a-127a: How Zulaykha came to Yisuf's way and built a hovel so she might find solace at the sound of the passing of his army;
  • ff. 127a-129a: How Zulaykha blocked Yisuf's way, and how she did not find favor, and how afterwards she went home, broke the idol, believed in God most high, went back to his way, and found favor;
  • ff. 129a-131b: How Zulaykha came to the private house of Yisuf, and how, by his prayers, she regained her sight, beauty, and youth;
  • ff. 131b-133b: How Yisuf took Zulaykha as wife by the order of God most high, and how he took her to the marriage bed;
  • ff. 133b-135b: How the love for Zulaykha overpowered Yisuf, and how he built a house of worship for her;
  • ff. 135b-137a: How Yisuf saw his mother and father in a dream, and how he asked God most high to pass away, and how Zulaykha panicked;
  • ff. 137a-142a: How Yisuf passed away, and how Zulaykha died from the pain of his separation;
  • ff. 142a-152a: closing material.

Physical description:

152 leaves : paper ; 222 × 120 mm. bound to 206 × 123 mm.

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