WHEN OMAR WROTE

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 221, 14 June 1930, Page 17

WHEN OMAR WROTE

Rubaiyat MS. STORY OF THE CALCUTTA DISCOVERY Much interest has been aroused in India by the discovery of au early manuscript of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, described as perhaps the most beautiful of tho known illuminated texts of tho collection of verses. The story of tho manuscript was told by Professor Mahfaz ul Huq, of the Presidency College, Calcutta, at the April meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. The Rubaiyat is now in a village library in the Patna district. It is claimed to bo the oldest copy but three in existence. Professor Mahfaz ul Huq said that in calligraphy, illumination, ornamentation, and miniatures, it was the best copy that had yet been discovered. “This superb manuscript,” he said, “comprising 206 quatrains by tho poet, was copied in A.D. 1505, only 46 years after the Bodleian manuscript, which is the oldest known copy of Omar’s Rubaiyat. The manuscript was transcribed by the famous ealigraphist, Sultan Ali, of Mashhad, and illustrated by a colleague of the incomparable Bihzad —the Raphael of the East. It is very finely illuminated and tastefully decorated, and is, undoubtedly, ono of the finest specimens of the art of manuscript-production in Persia in the sixteenth century. “Tho beautiful miniatures which adorn the manuscript arc among the finest specimens of the pictorial art of Persia,' which flourished under Tamerlane and his successors.: Simple in design and 'execution, charming in their colour scheme; and supremely decorative in Character, the. paintings have a fascination of, which the observer never wearies. The hair-fine drawing of lines, the graceful expression pf .faces,, and tho harmonious blending of colours leave an everlasting impression of. the great skill and penetrating vision of the artist.” : . The'story'of the discovery is that a dealer in old books bought the manuscript at an auction sale iu Calcutta, and for many months it lay unnoticed in his , shop..‘Eventually he showed the shabby, loose, and. damaged manuscript to Mr. Najib Ashraf, a Persian scholar of Bihar, who st once' realised its unique importance and bought it for Rs.6o (£4 .10/-). Unfortunately the original fly-leaf of the manuscript, which should have contained its story during the last four centuries, is missing. There are, however, a few notes on the outer border of the manuscript which carry its story to the Tatter half of the. last century. It is learned from a note that the copy had a very large border,- but this was badly damaged by the ravages of time, and a new one was substituted in May, 1891. ■ On one of the folios there appears in Roman letters the signature of Devi Dass, who was an inhabitant of Pasrur, a town in the Sialkot district of tho Punjab. Other notes and endorsements confirm that Devi Pass of Pasrur possessed the manuscript towards tho end of last century,' and thnt it was repaired by Shamin Ahmad iu 1891. Further examination of the manuscript suggests that ou the death of Devi Pass it passed on to his heirs, who, however,, did not.realise its value, with the result that the first 20 folios became damaged and discoloured through lack of care. From this point trace had been lost of tho manuscript until it came .into the hands of the firm of Calcutta auctioneers who disposed of it to the bookseller. The latter sold it to Mr.. Najib. Ashraf, who presented it to his village library. . ;