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Art. III—Notes on Persian MSS. in Indian Libraries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
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I. The Mullā Fīrūz Library, Bombay.—This owes its existence to the liberality and public spirit of Mullā Fīrūz b. Kawus, a Parsi ecclesiastic and a friend of Jonathan Duncan, for whom he wrote the poem called the Georgenāma. The library is open to the public, but it seems to be little known to the citizens. It is situated in the native part of the town, in a lane off the Kalka Devi Road, and is near the Roman Catholic Cathedral. There is a printed catalogue (Bombay, 1873) by E. Rehatsek, a Hungarian scholar, who lived for many years in Bombay, and who died there in December, 1891.
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References
page 69 note 1 There does not appear to be any biography of him, but Mr. Rehatsek gives some information about him in the preface to his catalogue, and the Mullā gives some particulars about himself in the book of his poems and in his Dīn, Khirad, pp. 60, 181, and 215 of Rehatsek's Catalogue. He was a native of Broach, and went to Persia with his father when he was 10 years old, and stayed there twelve years. He died in 1830. From Sir Alexander Johnstone's report, Appendix, Transactions R.A.S., vol. iii, it appears that Mullā. Fīrūz's father was sent to Persia at the expense of the Parsīs. Maria Graham (Lady Callcot) describes the Mullā's personal appearance in her Journal (London, 1812).
page 71 note 1 See DrHendley's, Memorials of the Jeypore Exhibition, London, 1883Google Scholar. There are old seals on the MS., but I could not read them, and Dr. Hendley says they are illegible.
page 72 note 1 Visa in Sanskrit. She changed Visn, poison, into her own name; or in Hindī, Bikh into Bikhyā. The prince was Chandrahāsa.
page 72 note 2 See Supplement to Rieu's Catalogue, No. 73, p. 49.
page 73 note 1 Joshī Gangādhar, the old librarian seen by Mr. Eastwick, was still alive when I was at Jaipur, but had retired, and been succeeded by his son. The book is probably a translation of Al Qazbīnī, Rieu, ii, 462.
page 75 note 1 Bib. Ind., 1st ed., pp. 472 and 341 (pp. 611 and 448 of Dr. Ranking's translation).
page 76 note 1 Apparently the general history was once among the Elliot MSS; see Sprenger's Catalogue, l.c., p. 252. The Tawārīkh Qandahār there mentioned is really M. ‘Aārif's history, and it is described as beginning with Kayumarṣ and coming down to 1020 a.h.
page 78 note 1 A MS. with a similar title (Samar-al-filāsafa), and dealing with the same subject, is mentioned in Palmer's Catalogue of the MSS. in King's College, Cambridge (J.R.A.S., n.s., Vol. III, p. 126). But unless some mistake has been made in cataloguing it cannot be the same work, for it is entered as an Arabic MS. 'Abdu-Sattār was also the author of an abridgment of the Ẕafarnāma of Sharafu-d-dīn Yazdī (Rieu's Catalogue, i, 177b, Add. MS. 16,685). There is a slight mistake in the beginning of Dr. Rieu's notice. It says: “the abbreviator, who lived under Jahāngīr, and describes himself as having lately entered the ranks of His Majesty's servants.” The author does not say this, nor could he, for he was an old servant, and had served under Jahāngīr's father. What he says (p. 2b, 11. 9 and 10) is that when Jahāngīr came to Ajmīr in 1024, after his victory over Rana Umra, and after the latter had entered the ranks of Jahāngīr's servants, he, 'Abdu-Sattār, was ordered to abridge the Sharafnāma. There is an abridgment of the same work by another hand in the India Office Library.
page 78 note 2 So in my notebook, but there must be some mistake, for the book was not written till the 48th year.
page 79 note 1 The copy with was courteously made for me by Mushīr-ad-daula, the Khalifa Ṣāḥib, is now in the British Museum.
page 81 note 1 Mr. Bourdillon, I.C.S., kindly photographed some of the illustrations for me, and I send them for the inspection of the members. The photograph of the picture of Akbar's birth is so interesting that it might perhaps be published, though it only gives a faint idea of the original.
page 82 note 1 One is a fine copy of the Shāhnāma, which cost Rs. 700, and another is a copy of Ḥakīm Sanāī's poems, with an especially beautiful frontispiece.