Abu'l-Majd Majdud bin Adam Sana'i Ghaznavi, better known as Sana'i, Muntakhab-i Hadiqa, an abridged version of the Hadiqa al-haqiqa by Sana'i, copied by Mirza Husayn al-Musawi, presented to Sayf al-Sultan by Mir Ma'sum 'Ali al-Musawi

Persia, dated 14th Safar 1221/3rd May 1806

Persian manuscript on paper, 52 leaves, 10 lines to the page written in nasta'liq script in black ink in two columns, headings written in red ink, intercolumnar rules and inner margins ruled in black and gold, opening double-page illumination with headpiece and text within cloudbands on a gold ground, margins profusely decorated with stylised floral motifs, two seal impressions of the owner dated AH 1255/AD 1839-40, later lacquer binding, not belonging, with covers with stylised vines and bunches of grapes, border of stylised floral motifs 173 x 108 mm.

Ma'sum 'Ali al-Musawi was a poet (d. 1833), who seems to have produced other similar texts, including a collection of poems (jung-e ash'ar) in the University Library of Tehran (no. 3587), presented to Na'ib al-Saltanhah and dated Rabi' II 1233/February-March 1818. Neither Sayf al-Sultan nor the scribe Mirza Husayn al-Husayni have been identified.

The text is an anthology of 1001 bayt of Sana'i's Hadiqa al-haqiqa. For copies of the Hadiqa in the British Library, London, Bodleian, Oxford, and in Berlin, see C. Rieu, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, London 1977, pp. 146–147, no. 215. Another abridged copy entitled Intikhab-i Hadiqa or Muntakhab-i Hadiqa, and with the same opening and concluding verses as this copy, is in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. See F. Richard, Catalogue des Manuscrits Persans, Tome II: Le Supplement Persan, Rome 2013, p. 908, SP 704.

There are two seal impressions of the owner of the manuscript, Muhammad Taqi, dated AH 1255/AD 1839-40.