Abstract:

Recent scholarly perspectives suggest that the manuscripts titled Nawādir al-nihāya (‘Ali Shīr Navā’ī (1441–1501) could potentially represent curated collections, specifically selected divans, containing the author’s lyrical compositions from specific years. In this scholarly inquiry, we seek to address these questions by examining two manuscripts (No.11675, 1995) meticulously preserved in the collection of the Al Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences.

In the manuscript of Nawādir al-nihāya (No.11675) copied by ‘Abd al-Jamil kаtib (d. XVI s.), the collection of ghazals stands out in terms of abundance compared to other manuscripts. Notably, both the main body and the marginal texts are written in the same script, indicating that the poems in the margins were transcribed by the scribe ‘Abd al-Jamil himself. According to us, these ghazals, attributed to Navā’ī and believed to have been composed between 1487–1490, particularly during the reign of Astrobad.

The presence of a ghazal ending with this maqta may serve as evidence supporting our viewpoint:

Bešä ičrä devlär maqtuli bolsun, ey pariy

Gar Navā’ī yana azmi Astrabad äylägäy.

The second manuscript of Nawādir al-nihāya, (No.1995) which was examined during the research, was transcribed by Sultan ‘Ali Mashhadi (1432–1520). The colophon text does not specify the exact date of this particular copy, which was intended for Sultan Husain’s palace library (years of reign 1469–1506). The researcher discovered that Navā’ī had completed writing his Khamsa at the time when this manuscript was copied. This deduction is based on compelling evidence extracted from a ghazal contained within the divan. Furthermore, the Mashhadi manuscript completely reflected the main and marginal ghazals of ‘Abd al-Jamil’s scribe copy, up to the part of the ghazals ending with the letter shin. This alignment likely indicates that the Mashhadi copy was scribed based on ‘Abd al-Jamil’s handwriting.