منظومۀ سوز و گداز

Walters Ms. W.649, Burning and melting

Walters Ms. W.649, Burning and melting

Sūz va gudāz

سوز وگداز

Muḥammad Riz̤ā Nawʿī Khabūshānī (author)

Nawʿī Khabūshānī (d. 1019 AH / 1610 CE) (author)

محمد رضا نوعي خبوشاني (author)

Muḥammad ʿAlī Naqqāsh Mashhadī (artist)

Ibn Sayyid Murād al-Ḥusaynī (scribe)

This is an illuminated and illustrated copy of the poem Sūz va gudāz (Burning and melting) by Nawʿī Khabūshānī (d. 1019 AH / 1610 CE), which recounts the love story of a Hindu girl who burns herself on the funeral pyre of her betrothed. The codex was written in nastaʿlīq in black ink by Ibn Sayyid Murād al-Ḥusaynī and illustrated by Muḥammad ʿAlī Mashhadī in 1068 AH / 1657 CE. According to the colophon, Ibn Sayyid Murād al-Ḥusaynī copied the manuscript for the painter Muḥammad ʿAlī, the “Mani of the time,” as a “souvenir.” The fact that the manuscript was produced for one of the most prolific artists of seventeenth-century Iran makes it a highly significant document. It opens with an illuminated incipit with headpiece (fol. 1b) and closes with an illuminated tailpiece with colophon (fol. 21b). Text pages have interlinear illumination and small rectangular and triangular pieces with polychrome floral and scrolling vine motifs. There are eight miniatures in a style associated with the Safavid centers of artistic production of Mashhad and Isfahan (fols. 5a, 9a, 10b, 13a, 14a, 16a, 17b, and 19b). For full description, see http://www.thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/html/W649/description.html

The primary language in this manuscript is Persian.

Eight miniatures (fols. 5a, 9a, 10b, 13a, 14a, 16a, 17b, and 19b); illuminated incipit with headpiece (fol. 1b); illuminated tailpiece with colophon (fol. 21b); interlinear illumination; framing lines in blue, gold, and red; small rectangular and triangular pieces with polychrome floral and scrolling vine motif on gold ground on text pages

fol. 1b Illuminated incipit with headpiece Incipit This illuminated incipit with headpiece bears the basmalah in the lower rectangle.

fol. 2a Illuminated text page Text page Verses of the poem Sūz va gudāz (Burning and melting) are written in nastaʿlīq in black ink. Framing lines in blue, gold, and red surround the text, and a border of polychrome floral motifs on a blue ground divides the verses.

fol. 5a The author Nawʿī Khabūshānī prostrates himself before Prince Dāniyāl Illustration The author Nawʿī Khabūshānī prostrates himself before Prince Dāniyāl, son of Emperor Akbar, to whom he dedicated this poem.

fol. 9a Youth confesses his falling in love to his father Illustration Set in India, the story begins with a young Hindu man confessing his strong love for his childhood friend to his father. His father consents to the young man’s request to marry and sends a message to the girl’s parents.

fol. 10b Young Hindu girl prepares herself for her wedding Illustration The young woman, in female company, prepares herself for her wedding. She is shown in the center of the composition holding a mirror.

fol. 13a Bridegroom is buried under a collapsed building Illustration On the morning the young man and woman were to be wed, the bridegroom travels to the home of his beloved. On his way, he stops to rest in a mud building. As a result of heavy rains, the structure falls and buries the bridegroom and his companions alive.

fol. 14a Bride with mourners carrying the bridegroom's coffin Illustration Overcome with grief, the young Hindu woman accompanies her bridegroom’s coffin to the funeral pyre and decides to commit sati (self-immolation).

fol. 16a Young Hindu girl before the Mughal Emperor Akbar Illustration The Mughal Emperor Akbar attempts to dissuade the young Hindu girl from committing sati (self-immolation).

fol. 17b Prince Dāniyāl accompanies the young Hindu girl to the funeral pyre Illustration Emperor Akbar eventually permits the young Hindu girl to practice sati (self-immolation). Akbar's son, Prince Dāniyāl, accompanies the woman to the funeral pyre.

fol. 19a Text page with illuminated triangular pieces Text page This text page has triangular pieces with a polychrome floral and scrolling vine motif on a gold ground. The verses, in nastaʿlīq script in black ink, are written obliquely in the center of the page.

fol. 19b Hindu couple united on the funeral pyre Illustration The young Hindu girl has thrown herself on her beloved’s funeral pyre. The historic Hindu practice of self-immolation or widow-burning, called sati, was an uncommon subject for Persian literature.

fol. 21b Illuminated tailpiece with colophon Tailpiece with colophon The colophon with illuminated tailpiece indicates that the calligrapher of this work was Ibn Sayyid Murād al-Ḥusaynī, who copied it as a “souvenir” for the “Mani of the time,” the master Muḥammad ʿAlī, a painter from Mashhad, in the month of Safar in the year 1068 AH [November 1657 CE]. It reads as follows: Aḥqar ʿibād Allāh ibn Sayyid Murād al-Ḥusaynī bar sabīl-i yādkārī /1/ bi-jihat-i mānī al-zamānī afz̤al al-muṣavvirīn Ustād Muḥammad /2/ ʿAlī Naqqāsh-i Mashhadī marqūm qalam-i shikastah /3/ raqm kardānīd taḥrīran ghurrah-i Ṣafar sanat 1068 /4/

1st Ṣafar 1068 AH / November 1657 CE

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest

Persian

paper

image/jpeg

1657

All Walters manuscript images and descriptions provided here are copyrighted © The Walters Art Museum.