Walters Ms. W.582, Poem in honor of the Prophet Muhammad

W.582

Poem in honor of the Prophet Muhammad

Vernacular: قصيدة البردة

Authority name: al-Būṣīrī (d. 694 AH / 1294 CE)

As-written name: Sharaf al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al-Būṣīrī

Name, in vernacular: شرف الدين محمد بن سعيد البوصيري

This is an illuminated copy of the famous poem in honor of the Prophet Muhammad, popularly known as Qaṣīdat al-burdah (Poem of the mantle), composed by Sharaf al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Būṣīrī (d. 694 AH / 1294 CE). The text was written in a variety of scripts in the eleventh century AH / seventeenth CE. According to the colophon, written in riqāʿ script, it was executed by Ḥabīb Allāh ibn Dūst Muḥammad al-Khwārizmī. The text of the poem begins on fol. 5b. Each page has borders of various colors with illuminated floral and geometric motifs. The borders and brown leather binding date to the twelfth century AH / eighteenth CE.

11th century AH / 17th CE

Iran (or Turkey?)

As-written name: Ḥabīb Allāh ibn Dūst Muḥammad al-Khuwārizmī

Name, in vernacular: حبيب الله بن دوست محمد الخوارزمي

Book

Literary -- Poetry

The primary language in this manuscript is Arabic.

1. Transliteration: mashaqahu al-ʿabd al-mudhnib /1/ al-rājī ilá raḥmat rabbih al-ghanī /2/ Ḥabīb Allāh ibn Dūst Muḥammad /3/ al-Khwārizmī ghafara dhunūbahumā /4/ wa-satara ʿuyūbahumā bi-ḥurmat al-nabī /5/ wa-<ā>lih wa-ṣaḥbih wa-sallama h (= intahá) /6/
2. Comment: Written in riqāʿ script giving the name of the scribe as Ḥabīb Allāh ibn Dūst Muḥammad al-Khwārizmī

Paper

Cream glazed paper for main panels; multi-colored paper for inlaid margins

Foliation: ii+23+ii

Catchwords: Written on versos

16.5 cm wide by 25.5 cm high

6.5 cm wide by 13.0 cm high

1. Columns: 1
2. Ruled lines: 9
3. Text laid out in five panels inscribed in different scripts and in red, blue, black, and gold

1. Title: Qaṣīdat al-burdah
2. Author: al-Būṣīrī (d. 694 AH / 1294 CE)
3. Scribe: Ḥabīb Allāh ibn Dūst Muḥammad al-Khuwārizmī
4. Incipit: قال الشيخ الامام ... سبب انشائ هذه القصيدة ...
5. Hand note: Written in polychrome vocalized text using the following scripts: thuluth, naskh, and muḥaqqaq for the main text, riqāʿ for the colophon
6. Decoration note: Margins decorated with floral and geometrical designs, the latter in the form of stamp-like pendants

Upper board outside:

1. 
2. Title: Binding
3. Form: Binding
4. Label: This dark brown leather binding has a narrow central panel with oval and pendants, as well as triangular cornerpieces. They are decorated with floral motifs and cloud scrolls.

fol. 1b:

1. 
2. Title: Incipit page with illuminated headpiece
3. Form: Incipit; headpiece
4. Label: The codex opens with this decorated incipit page with an illuminated rectangular headpiece. The page has five inner panels of text executed in the following scripts: muḥaqqaq (gold), naskh (black), and thuluth (blue).

fol. 5b:

1. 
2. Title: Incipit page with illuminated headpiece
3. Form: Incipit
4. Label: The poem begins on this illuminated page. The central panel is framed by decorated margins and a domed headpiece. The text itself is divided into four panels executed in naskh (black) and thuluth (gold and blue) scripts.

fol. 23a:

1. 
2. Title: Illuminated explicit page with colophon
3. Form: Explicit; colophon
4. Label: This is the final illuminated page in the codex. The last panel contains the colophon, written in riqāʿ script, giving the name of the scribe as Ḥabīb Allāh ibn Dūst Muḥammad al-Khwārizmī.

The binding is not original.

Probably dates to the later twelfth century AH / eighteenth CE, contemporary with the inlaid margins; red goatskin (with flap); central lobed oval with pendants and cornerpieces; doublures of black leather with central lobed oval and pendants brushed with gold

Two erased large seals (fol. 1a)

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest

Brockelmann, Carl. Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (New York; Köln: E.J. Brill, 1996), 1: 308; S1: 467.

Principal cataloger: Gacek, Adam

Catalogers: Landau, Amy; Smith, Sita

Editor: Bockrath, Diane

Conservators: Jewell, Stephanie; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Barrera, Christina; Emery, Doug; Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William; Simpson, Shreve; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara

The Walters Art Museum

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.