Add MS 7907

The collected poems of the Uzbek prince ‘Ubayd Allāh Khān (reigned 1534-39 CE), brother of Shaybānī Khān and son of Mahmud Sultan. He was, after the death of Shaybānī Khān, the virtual chief and mainstay of the Uzbek Empire, but was not raised to Khanship until after the death of his cousin Abu Sa'id Khan in 939 AH (1532-33 CE). He died in 946 AH (1539-40 CE).

A Chagatai verse of ‘Ubayd Allāh Khān quoted in the Lataif-name (Add MS 7669) as well as another one in the Abushqa, are both found in the present copy.

This divan consists almost entirely of ghazals in alphabetical order. At the end are a Terkib-bend (f 69v), and an alphabetical series of Rubaiyat, which comes to an end at the letter zayy.

The calligraphy in this volume was completed by Sulṭān-‘Alī Mashhad, who wrote it at the request of the author, according to the colophon. Given this information, and the fact that Sulṭān-‘Alī Mashhad lived in Herat, the date of the manuscript must be between 913 AH (1507-08 CE), when Herat fell to the Uzbeks, and 919 AH (1513-14 CE), when the calligrapher died, according to Habib as-Siyer.

The present volume features an illustration of a hunting scene on f 1 as well as an unvan.

This copy was likely produced in Herat.