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Hand-List of Islamic Manuscripts acquired by the India Office Library, 1936–81

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

This manuscript is written in the rather inelegant “Bihari” hand, which C. Stewart quite properly described as “a branch of the Cufick”. The scribe has used a curious colour-scheme for each page, writing line 1 in blue, line 2 in red, lines 3–6 in black, line 7 in red, line 8 in blue, line 9 in red, lines 10–13 in black, line 14 in red, and line 15 in blue: the garish effect is further accentuated by the use of gilt ornaments to mark the verses, sections, etc., and by a minute Persian interlineary translation in red ink. There are rather crude ornamental panels on foil. 1–2, 199–200 (beginning of S. xix), and 412–13. The pages are somewhat damaged by damp, and some have been torn and inexpertly mended. The binding is Indian, of about 1830.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1939

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References

page 353 note 2 Stewart, C., A descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental Library of the late Tippoo Sultan of Mysore, p. 166. See I.O. Ar. MSS.2 (Storey), p. 1, n. 1Google Scholar.

page 355 note 1 See Sarfaraz, , Descriptive Catalogue…. Bombay (1935), pp. 5460Google Scholar, for a discussion of this subject: the usual date given is 745/1344–5, but this is manifestly incorrect.

page 355 note 2 Sarfaraz, op. cit., p. 57.

page 356 note 1 See Aitchison, C. V., A Collection of Treaties, Engagements, and Sanads, ii, p. 15Google Scholar.

page 356 note 2 Arberry, I.O. Per. Books, p. 538. This publication is not mentioned in Storey's, C. A. highly interesting “The Beginnings of Persian Printing in India” (in Oriental Studies in honour of Cursetji Erachji Pavry, pp. 457 ff.)Google Scholar. The title-page reads: “Treaty of Commerce,/between/Charles Earl Cornwallis, /Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter;/one of His Britannic Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council; Lieutenant General of His Majesty's Forces;/Governor General and Commander in Chief of all the Possessions and Forces of His Britannic Majesty, and of the/Honorable the United Company of Merchants of England in the East-Indies, &c. &c. &c./on the part of the said/Honorable United Company,/and/ His Excellency the Vizier ul Momalik Hindostan, Assuf Jah Nawab,/Assuf ud Dowlah Yeheha Khan Behadur, Huzzubber Jung./Published by Authority./Calcutta:/printed at the Honorable Company's Press./M.DCC.LXXXVIII.” The Persian text is printed with Wilkins' types.

page 359 note 1 Alternative titles are: 'Aqīdat ahl al-sunnah wa'l-jamā'ah, and Bayān al-sunnah wa'l-jamā'ah [Brock, ., Suppl., i, p. 294Google Scholar].

page 362 note 1 This is, of course, a very common feature of titles of Persian books, cf. Akhlāq i Jalālī (by Jalāl al-Dīn Dawānī), Mujarrābāt i Riḍā'ī (by Riḍā Ḥasan), etc.

page 365 note 1 Apparently not preserved.

page 366 note 1 This library has now been dispersed, see Rescher, , Abriss, i, p. 55, n. 1Google Scholar.

page 366 note 2 'Abd al-Qādir al-Shādhilī's biography of al-Suyūṭī is mentioned in Shadharāt al-dhahab, viii, p. 53.

page 367 note 1 Aḥmad, according to Brock, ., Suppl., i, p. 804Google Scholar, but see Cour, A. in El., iv, pp. 246–7Google Scholar.

page 368 note 1 Perhaps the beautiful Lady Jane Seymour, wife of the twelfth Duke of Somerset and granddaughter of the dramatist Sheridan, (see DNB., li, p. 315)Google Scholar.

page 368 note 2 This statement is, of course, quite inaccurate. The Abwāb al-jinān is dedicated to Shāh 'Abbās II of Persia (d. 1077/1667): Muḥammad Shāh was Emperor at Delhi from 1131/1719 to 1161/1748.

page 381 note 1 H. Blochmann was at that time an Assistant Professor of the Calcutta Madrisaa, in the library of which institution the manuscripts had been housed since their removal from Delhi in 1859.

page 387 note 1 Lacuna in MS.