Add MS 7923

تا نقش جمالنک ای در پاک

پرتو صالوب اولدی زینت خاک

The author, of whom no notice has been found, designates himself only with the aforementioned mahlas. He lived under Shah Abbas I of Persia, to whom he addresses a kaside in the prologue, although the poem was not completed until after the Shah's death. The epilogue contains a panegyric on the Shah's successor, Shah Safi. The date of completion of the poem (1083 AH/1672-73 CE), is given on f 183v.

In a passage on f 178v, the author refers to his three poems as Vərqa və Gülşa, Danə və Dam, and Zənbur və Asəl. The present poem is probably translated from a Persian original, to which, however, no clue is given. The names of the hero and heroine are known to Persian lexicographers as Varqah and Gulshāh, the latter possibly hinting at the Persian origin of the story. A Persian poem without the author identified entitled Varqah, Gulshād was lithographed in Tehran in 1282 AH (1865-66 CE).

The scene of the story is in the Arabian Peninsula. Ḥāriṣ, the king of a nomadic tribe known as the Banī Shaybah, appoints two sons as his successors, Humām and Hilāl. Two children are born to the two men: Warqā, the son of Humām, and Gulshā, daughter of Hilāl. They grow up in mutual affection, but are soon separated. Warqā soon overcomes his rival, ˁamr, chief of the Banī Ẓayf, who had carried off his beloved, and afterwards ˁantar, a formidable warrior from Yemen. Other adventures bring him to Syria, and he finally succumbs to the pangs of separation. Gulshā dies on the tomb of her lover. In the end, however, both are recalled to life in answer to the prayer of Muḥammad, and they end their days happily every after.

The same Mesihi has left three short Persian poems on the final page of the manuscript.

The manuscript was completed in 1050 AH (1640 CE).