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Or 2361, ff 247r-269v

Record Id:
040-003474542
Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
032-003283347
MDARK:
ark:/81055/vdc_100096028409.0x000001
LARK:
SLARK:
ark:/81055/vdc_100131607039.0x000001
Format:
ISAD(G)
Reference (shelfmark):
Or 2361, ff 247r-269v
Title:

Risālah-'i kanz al-tuḥaf dar mūsīqī رساله كنز التحف در موسيقي

Scope & Content:

A Persian treatise on music, the composition of which was finished on 22 Jumādá I of either 756/4 June 1355, or 764/9 March 1363 depending on the reading of a chronogram on f. 269v, line 17, one letter of which lacks any diacritical points (see discussion of this chronogram in MS IO Islamic 2067 in Ethé, Hermann, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office [Oxford: India Office, 1903], 2763, pp. 1491-92). The author is not mentioned, but the treatise has been attributed to Ḥasan Kāshānī (حسن كاشاني; see Tsuge, Gen'ichi, 'Musical Instruments Described in a Fourteenth-Century Persian Treatise "Kanz al-tuḥaf"', The Galpin Society Journal, 66 [2013], pp. 165-184; 255-59).

This copy was completed on 12 Rajab 1075/29 January 1665 by the scribe Muḥammad Amīn Akbarābādī (محمد أمين أكبرآبادي), collated the evening of the 15th/night before the 16th (شپ يكشمبه ١٦ ), and collated again on 24 Ṣafar 1079/3 August 1668 with an early copy dated 784/1382-83 (see colophon, f. 269v, lines 21-29).

The first and second treatises are explicated with diagrams and tables explaining musical theory, while the third is illustrated with labelled line drawings in red accompanying the descriptions of musical instruments.

Contents:

  • Preface containing an allegorical account of the adventures of Fikr and Khayāl, and concluding with verses addressed to the author's patron, Sayyid Ghiyāth al-Dawlah wa-al-Dīn al-Ḥusaynī (سيد غياث الدولة والدين الحسيني; ff. 247v-248r).
  • Introduction (ff. 248r-252v);
  • First treatise on the theory of music (در علمى موسيقى; ff. 252v-255r), with diagrams on ff. 254r-255r;
  • Second treatise on the practice of music (در عملى موسيقى; ff. 255v-260v), with diagrams and tables on ff. 255v-257v and 260r;
  • Third treatise on the construction of instruments and their tuning (در تصنيع سازات وتعديل آن ; ff. 260v-265v);
  • Fourth treatise on advice for students of music (در وصيتى كه طالبان اين فن را), including some verses of Saʻdī (written شرف الدين سعدي; ff. 265v-269v).

Illustrations in the third treatise:

  • ʿŪd (عود, lute; f. 260v);
  • Ghishak (غشك, spike fiddle; f. 262r);
  • Rubāb (رباب, skin-bellied lute; f. 262v);
  • Mizmār or nāy-i siyāh (ناى سياه، مزمار, reed pipe; f. 263r, above);
  • Pīsheh or Bīsheh (پيشه or بيشه, end-blown flute; f. 263r, below);
  • Chank (چنك, harp; f. 263v);
  • Nuzhah (نزهه, rectangular zither with 108 strings; f. 264r). The invention of this instrument is attributed to Ṣafī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ibn Yūsuf al-Urmawī (صفي الدين عبد المؤمن بن يوسف الأرموي, d. 1294) who was also the inventor of the mughnī (see f. 265r below);
  • Qānūn (قانون, a trapezoidal zither; f. 264v);
  • Mughnī (مغني, described as a combination of rubāb, qānūn, and nuzhah; f. 265r).

Begins (f. 247v, lines 1-2):

شكر و سپاس بى حد و قياس سزاوار حضرت آن پادشاهي كه از سراپرده عظمتش خنياگر

ربوبيت برسازد و يكتاى و حدانيتش اين نوازد كه اني انا الله رب العالمين...

　

Ends (f. 269v, lines 18-20):

في ابلاغ الرساله

اى ذات تو موضوع سخا را محمول هستم بقبول اين رساله مامول

با قدر سليماني و نزد تو بود پاى ملخى ز دست مورى مقبول

　

Colophon (f. 269v, lines 21-29, continuing in the tail edge margin):

تمام شد بتاريخ ١٢ شهر رجب سنة ١٠٧٥

بجهت شاه قباد مخاطب ديانت خان

حارثي البدخشي در شاه جهانآباد

بدست محمد أمين أكبرآبادي

تمام مقابله با اصل نموده شد شپ (!) يكشمبه ١٦ رجب سنة ١٠٧٥

در شاه جهانآباد

تمام شد مقابله با نسخه شيخ بدهن

٢٤ صفر سنة ١٠٧٩

در شاه جها[نآ]باد

تاريخ كتابت نسخة شيخ بدهن يوم الثلثاء غرة ذي قعدة سنة ٧٨٤

رسالة كنز التحف تمام شد

Collection Area:
Oriental Manuscripts
Project / Collection:
Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme
Hierarchy Record Ids:
032-003283347
040-003474542
Is part of:
Or 2361 : A collection of fourteen treatises on music theory in Arabic and Persian

 

Or 2361, ff 247r-269v : Risālah-'i kanz al-tuḥaf dar mūsīqī رساله كنز التحف در موسيقي
Hierarchy:
032-003283347[0014]/040-003474542
Container:
View / search within Archive / Collection: Or 2361
Record Type (Level):
File
Extent:

Ff. 247r-269v

Digitised Content:
https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100131607039.0x000001
Thumbnail:
Languages:
Farsi
Persian
Scripts:
Arabic
Start Date:
1665
End Date:
1665
Date Range:
12 Rajab 1075
Calendar:
Hijri qamari
Era:
AH
Access:

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User Conditions:
Finding Aids:
  • Rieu, Charles, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: The British Museum, 1894), Item 823, XIV, p. 561;
  • Rieu, Charles, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: The British Museum, 1895), Item 162, V, pp. 115-16.
Publications:

Edition:

  • Taghi Binesh, ‘Resāle-ye sevvom: Kanz al-tuḥaf', Sih risāle-ye fārsī dar mūsīqī (Tehran: Iran University Press, 1992), pp. 55–128.

Translation and study:

  • Tsuge, Gen'ichi, 'Musical Instruments Described in a Fourteenth-Century Persian Treatise "Kanz al-tuḥaf"', The Galpin Society Journal, 66 (2013), pp. 165-84; 255-59.

Study:

  • Farmer, Henry G. 'Iranian Musical Instruments in the Ninth/Fifteenth Century,' Islamic Culture, 38 (1964) pp. 175-81.
  • Ethé, Hermann, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office (Oxford: India Office, 1903), 2763, pp. 1491-92.
Material Type:
Archives and Manuscripts
Legal Status:
Not Public Record(s)