Or 16183

This volume contains the Khamsa, or 'Quintet,' of the outstanding Chagatai writer, statesman and patron of learning Ali Shir Nava’i (844-906 AH/1441-1501 CE). Nava’i's poetry in Chagatai was the most important aspect of his literary output, bringing him much renown.

The Khamsa consists of five masnavis. Although they are modelled on the Khamsas of the Persian masters Amir Khusraw Dihlavi (died 725 AH/1325 CE), Nizami (died 605 AH/1209 CE), and Jāmī (d. 897/1492), Nava’i often maintains a very different emphasis or interpretation. His work reflects his personal ideals, among them his concern for justice (Subtelny, ‘Mīr ʿAlī S̲h̲īr Nawāʾī’).

In the present manuscript, the five masnavis are arranged according to the chronological order of their composition. The last poem, Sadd-i Iskandari, is incomplete. They are arranged as follows:

(1) ff 1v-82r : Hayrat al-abrar, A didactic poem in emulation of Nizami’s Makhzan al-asrar, Amir Khusraw’s Matla‘ al-anwar and Jami’s Tuhfat al-ahrar. The text of the first and last few lines differs from that given in Rieu’s catalogue description of Add MS 7908. Nava’i completed the work in 888 AH/1483 CE. The masnavi has around 4000 couplets and is arranged in two parts as sixty-four chapters.

Begins:

nutq-ra aylagan * Tangri Hamdi birla agaz aylaganOlki makhluqat Khallaq dur Ol * afir nash fani u Baq dur Ol

Ends:

Hayrat al-abrar tamamin qılıb * qoydı qadam baqi-ga ‘azmin qılıbBaqsi di Khusrav u Shirin sözi * ‘ashiq Farhad-i hazinin söziQayil bu salis katib durur * bakhshi dise il ni ‘ajayib durur

(2) ff 84v-133v : Farhad u Shirin, The romance of the Armenian princess Shirin and the shepherd and sculptor Farhad. It is a romantic masnavi modelled on Nizami’s Khusraw u Shirin and Amir Khusraw’s Shirin u Khusraw, and was completed in 889 AH/1484 CE. Nava’i’s version consists of 5780 couplets, and differs from others by centring Farhad’s character.

Begins:

Bi-Hamdika fath-i abvab al-ma‘ani * nasib it gönglüme fath olmag ani

Ends:

manga tutgil ki sözi kutah item * nitay bir lahza chun manzilga yetem

Between ff 122 and 123 are two blank folios, and from the catchword on 122v it is clear that there is a lacuna in the text at this point.

(3) ff 134v-180r : Layla u Majnun, The romance of Layla and Majnun, a romantic masnavi based on Nizami’s and Amir Khusraw’s Persian works of the same name. It consists of around 3500 couplets.

Begins:

Ay bakhshı atining bila sar-aghaz * anjami-ga kim yatar har aghaz

Ends:

yüz yıl oqumaqini qıl nas bim * har bazmda it sözi rafiqim

(4) ff 180v-241v : Sab‘a-yi sayyar, ‘The Seven Planets’, a romantic masnavi adapted from Nizami’s Haft paykar and Amir Khusraw’s Hasht bihisht, completed about 889 AH/1483 CE. It has around 5000 couplets across fifty chapters.

Begins:

Ay sipasing dimekde il tili lal * il ka til Sindin oldi tilga maqal

Ends:

yetti aflakni anga yar it * yetti iqlim ‘ilimin kharidar itHaft paykar tamam [bitib?] oldi * tarikhi ming toqsan üch boldi

(5) ff 241v-330v : Sadd-i Iskandari, A poem on the Alexander Romance, based on Nizami’s Persian two-part poem Iskandarnama and Amir Khusraw’s Ayina-yi Iskandari. The first couplet of the text differs from that in Rieu’s description of Add MS 7908. It was completed about 890 AH/1485 CE. Its couplets exceed 7000 in number. However, the version in the present manuscript appears to be incomplete at the beginning, and is certainly so at the end.

Begins:

Ki ta yatim dürri kim talab idim * birib ‘umr naqdin kharidar idim

Ends:

hunarparvar ishni buyurguji dur * hunarvar val laf urguji dur

Other contents of this volume include two separate couplets of verse in Chagatai on f 1r. Also on 1r is a note in pencil stating that the text was published in the year 13??. The text of an ornate formal letter is on 331v-332r, and doodles and a note in pencil including the date 1312 are on 332v. The work is undated, though is likely from the late 12th or early 13th century AH/late 18th or early 19th century CE.