Jalal al-Din Rumi - The Mathnawi مثنوي) or مثنوی) - 1600

A really interesting and extremely rare fragment from a 1600 dispersed copy of the Mathnawi by Jalal al-Din Rumi, one of the great Sufi Muslim poets. It contains the opening page (introductory preface), together with the illuminated header and first page of Book 1 on the reverse. Although in distressed condition, it contains some fantastic detailing and is a remarkable salvage from a very badly damaged manuscript. It is written in fine black naskh script within gold ruled panels, the text surrounded by elaborate polychrome and gilt floral illumination.

The front mounted page contains the introductory preface for the work, opening with the basmala and concluding with the pious invocations including, "And He is the best of guardians, and the best of helpers". It is richly decorated in gold, lapis blue, red and white pigments in the classical Persian manuscript tradition.

The rear of the manuscript is the opening leaf of Book 1 of the Mathnawi-yi Ma'nawi (the celebrated Six Books of Rumi. It is arranged in four columns of Persian verse, the normal layout for many Mathnawi manuscripts. There is an elaborate 'unwan' (illuminated headpiece) above the text and a golf title cartouche, sadly largely rubbed away. However, the opening lines correspond with the famous beginning of the first Book (Daftar-i Awwal): "Listen to the reed flute, how it tells a tale; / it complains of separations".

The Mathnawi (Arabic: مثنوي mathnawī) or masnavi (Persian: مثنوی Mas̲navī), is regarded as the greatest and most influential poetic work of muslim mysticism, taking Rumi 25 years to dictate, although the 6th and final book was never completed before he died. It was composed for the benefit of a group of Rumi’s disciples in the Sufi order better known as the whirling dervishes. It is poetic text derived from the Quran that teaches Sufis how to reach their goal of being truly in love with God.

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