DIWAN-E GHAZALIYA-E SAʾIB TABRIZI: THE COLLECTION OF GHAZALS OF SAIB TABRIZI
SAIB TABRIZI (CA. D. 1677), COPIED BY HAJJ MOHAMMAD BEZLI
Dated 1135 AH (1722 AD)

Persian manuscript on paper composed of 192 leaves (384 pages). 21 lines to the page, written in elegant nastaʿliq script in black ink and arranged in double columns within a written box (jadwal) bordered by a gilded fillet, also featuring horizontal panels for titles. Opening page illuminated with an ʿunwan featuring a lobed gilded niche decorated with blue arabesques and arrow-like tendrils extending into the upper margin. A few notes and glosses in the margins. Brown leather binding with flap, impressed with a central gilded lobed medallion with pendants.

Saib Tabrizi was one of the most prominent poets of Safavid Iran and a major representative of the Indo-Persian (sabk-e hindi) poetic style. He gained wide recognition during his time in Mughal India (where he lived for seven years) and later in Iran, where his innovative imagery and metaphorical richness strongly influenced Persian literary tradition. He compiled one of the largest divans in classical Persian literature. Although the estimates of the biographers of 120,000 to 200,000 verses are inflated, the most comprehensive edition of the dīvan nevertheless contains some 75,000 lines of poetry.

20.5cm x 13.5cm

For further references on the subject see: Ehsan Yarshater, Persian Poetry in the Timurid and Safavid Periods, Camb. Hist. Iran VI, pp. 965-94;
Several 17th and 18th century diwans by Saib Tabrizi are hold in Western collections, among them: Cambridge University Library (Or. 1680), The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester (Persian MS 78) while another collection of ghazals is in the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (RAS Persian 285).