Art. XV.—Account of a rare manuscript History of Iṣfahán, presented to the Royal Asiatic Society on May 19, 1827, by Sir John Malcolm, and now described by Edward G. Browne, M.A., M.R.A.S

Edward G. Browne

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00028665

Art. XV.—Account of a rare manuscript History of Iṣfahán, presented to the Royal Asiatic Society on May 19, 1827, by Sir John Malcolm, and now described by Edward G. Browne, M.A., M.R.A.S

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

Edward G. Browne

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Amongst the Persian manuscripts belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society is one, now numbered 180 (not described in Morley's Catalogue), which contains a very interesting monograph on the city of Iṣfahán. As these local histories are often of very great importance in supplementing the large general histories, with the contents of which we are gradually becoming acquainted, I was desirous of reading it through, which, thanks to the laudable generosity of our Society in lending its manuscripts to private individuals, I was enabled to do. Of the notes which I made during its perusal this article is the outcome.

Type: Original Communications
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , July 1901 , pp. 411 - 446

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00028665 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1901

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^{page 411 note 1} In the numbering of the leaves one leaf has been accidentally omitted after f. 9. This, to avoid altering all the subsequent numbers, is now marked f. 9^*.

^{page 416 note 1} MS.

^{page 416 note 2} MS.

^{page 416 note 3} MS.

^{page 417 note 1} The heading of chap, iii is omitted, and I am not certain where the division between it and chap, ii should come.

^{page 417 note 2} Cf. Sachau's translation of al-Bírúní's Chronology of Ancient Nations, p. 28.

^{page 421 note 1} MS.

^{page 422 note 1} Or perhaps Dímútiyán. Here the word is written (without points) as , but lower (f. 18a, 1. 9), in some Arabic verses, as and . See note on p. 425 infra.

^{page 422 note 2} The anecdote to which allusion is here made is given in Ouseley's Notices of the Persian Poets (London, 1846), pp. 90–91 and 93–95. See also my edition of Dawlatsháh, p. 54.

^{page 424 note 1} See de Slane's translation of Ibn Khallikán, vol. ii, pp. 502–507.

^{page 424 note 2} Kafr^u 'A′qibⁱⁿ is a place situated on the sea of Tiberias. See Yáqút, iv, p. 290.

^{page 425 note 1} See n. 1 on p. 422 supra. The first, second, and last of these four couplets are given in Yáqút, vol. ii, p. 713, s.v. , with for the unintelligible . The MS. reads for in 1. 2; for in 1. 7; and for in 1. 8. For Y. has .

^{page 427 note 1} 1 See p. 422, 11. 12–13 supra.

^{page 427 note 2} By Yáqút (iii, 700) he is called .

^{page 427 note 3} The word is, in the MS., prefixed to this line. Professor Bevan conjectures that it is a corruption of some indication of the metre (Kámil) in which this couplet is written.

^{page 431 note 1} The form Shísh, which is probably correct, occurs lower (1. 11).

^{page 432 note 1} This plant, from the exudation of which the celebrated sweetmeat called gaz is manufactured, is particularly abundant in the desert called Kaffa-i-Abarqúh between Dihbíd and Yazd.

^{page 432 note 2} The reading (apparently in the sense of “hillocks”) is uncertain, but seems the most probable.

^{page 432 note 3} The river Zar-afshán (“Gold-scatterer”) in Transoxania is similarly called for the same reason.

^{page 433 note 1} It is not clear whether the Arab conquest is meant, or the above-mentioned conquest of Mu'ayyidu'd-Dawla.

^{page 434 note 1} One Miṣra‘ which I take to be the second half of this bayt, has been accidentally omitted by the copyist. The other miṣra‘ (here printed) is evidently corrupt, as it does not scan.

^{page 435 note 1} The point of this sentence consists in the sequence of numbers which it contains. For a similar piece of ingenuity, see A. de Biberstein Kazimirski's Dialogues Français-Persans, pp. 123–124.

^{page 437 note 1} The first is so corrupt that I can make nothing of it.

^{page 437 note 2} There is an error here. At this date al-Mu‘taṣim was Caliph. Al-Mu‘taḍid reigned a.d.892–902.

^{page 439 note 1} This verse occurs in a qaṣida by Sa‘du’d-Dín Hiraví, already cited at pp. 422–4 supra.

^{page 439 note 2} He was, says the author, originally of Márbín.

^{page 439 note 3} Ṭabarí (i, 666) gives a quite different genealogy.

^{page 441 note 1} MS.

^{page 441 note 2} MS.

^{page 442 note 1} The following readings of the MS. have heen corrected: 1. 1, ; 1. 2, ; 1. 5, ; 1. 6, ; 1. 7, ; 1. 8, ; 1. 9, ; 1. 10, .

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Art. XV.—Account of a rare manuscript History of Iṣfahán, presented to the Royal Asiatic Society on May 19, 1827, by Sir John Malcolm, and now described by Edward G. Browne, M.A., M.R.A.S

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