[IO Islamic 942] قصّۀ امير حمزه

Ḳiṣṣa-i-Amîr Ḥamzah. This manuscript is now IO Islamic 785 in the India Office collections. [metadata: Hermann Ethé, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, 2 vols. (Oxford: India Office, 1903): volume 1, number 942 here with notations and hyperlinks]. 785 Portion of an enlarged version of the same. The incomplete romance, contained in this most incorrect copy, and styled on fol. 1^a, both (!) قصَۀ امير همزه and قصّۀ امير عرب , seems to be an enlarged and greatly modified redaction of the original Ḥamzanâma, resembling that defective copy of the رموز حمزه (or as it is styled with the same mistake in spelling as here: رموز همزه), which is described in Rieu ii. p. 761 (Add. 24, 418). A great number of the first chapters are apparently missing here; the portion preserved in our copy contains thirty short داستان (on ff. 1^b, 8^b, 12^b, 16^a, 19^b, 29^b, 33^a, 39^b, 42^b, 47^a, 59^b, 62^b, 65^a, 68^a, 69^b, 77^b, 82^b, 91^a, 99^b, 104^a, 108^a, 113^a, 119^a, 130^a, 136^b, 143^a, 145^b, 163^a, 173^a, and 184^b), every one of which begins with the phrase (read سر) آمدم بر سرى داستان. Among the prominent characters that appear here are, besides Ḥamzah himself (called امير عرب or عرب (!) همزۀ) and the prophet Muḥammad, شاهزادۀ ایرج, بابا عمر عيار, عاص بن انوس, زمرّدشاه, بديع الزمان , etc. Beginning of this copy, after the standard phrase which introduces every chapter: امّا للبن آرايان بساطين ( بساتين read) اخبار و نخل پيرايان فرداس ( فردوس read) اشمار گلدستۀ سخن تازه تر ازو نسترين ( از نسرين or از نسترين read) ازين باغ كهن چنين به بزم بيان آورده اند كه بابا عمر عيار بر درى ( در read ) بارگاه زمرّدشاه رسيد الخ. No date. The رموز حمزه have been printed in seven vols., Ṭahrân, A.H. 1274. No. 942, ff. 186, ll. 19; Nasta’lîḳ; size, 8^3/4 in. 5^1/2 in.