Manuscript. Persian. Title from fol. 1a. Scribe not identified. Possibly written in India. Date on fol. 1a; manuscript may be older. Paper; medium cream color paper with no visible watermarks; fol. 1b has floral unwan in gold, blue, red and white contains the Basmalah; text block enclosed in ruled border of one thin blue and one wide gold line; text itself is set off by single gold line on either side; hemistichs and sections are also separated by a thin gold line; black ink, section titles in red; catchwords. Nastaʻliq; 19 lines in written area 16.5 x 6.3 cm. Fol. 1b-114a. Library of Congress. Persian manuscript, M76. Binding is tan paper over boards with black cloth spine and corners. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
Manuscript. Persian. Title from fol. 1a. Ghulām Nabī walad Miyān ʻAbd al-Ghafūr. Copied in Pir Ramzan Ghazi neighborhood, Multan, Pakistan. Paper: glossy laid paper of varying thickness with no visible chain-lines or watermarks; small unwan in red, green, gold and black ink with a thick black border; black ink, section headings in red ink; catchwords on rectos. Nastaʻliq; 13 lines in written area 14.5 x 8.3 cm. Folios 1b-135a. Library of Congress. Persian manuscript, 1. Contemporary red Indian binding. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website. Incipit: هذه النسخة المسماة هشت بهشت من تصنيف ختم الشعراء وافصح الفصحاء دركاه اله امير خسرو ... Colophon: تمت تمام كتاب هشت بهشت از يد فقير حقير پير تقصير غلام نبي ولد ميان عبد الغفور ... ساكن محله پير رمضان غازي ...
Manuscript. Persian. Title supplied by cataloger. Scribes not identified. Written in India. Paper; coarse, cream color laid paper with no visible chain lines or watermarks; black ink with rubrication on some texts; catchwords. Work contiains: [1]. A collection of letters and notes by Muhammad Bahadur Shah II, King of Delhi, 1775-1862 (dated 1855) -- [2]. Unidentified historical treatise (undated) -- [3]. One leaf numbered leaf 20 from an unidentified work -- [4]. Daftar-i avval from the Mukātabāt-i ʻAllāmī by Akbar, Emperor of Hindustan, 1542-1605 (dated 1257 [1841 or 1842]). Nastaʻliq; various lines in written areas of varying size. Fol. 1a-39a, 1a-117b, 1 leaf, fol. 1b-125a. Library of Congress. Persian manuscript, M96. [Other physical details, binding] Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
Manuscript. Persian. Title supplied by cataloger. Colophon: ʻAbd al-Rashīd al-Daylamī. Written in India. Paper; thick, cream color oriental paper; black ink; decorated unwan on fol. 1b in blue and gold; six lines to the page; text of each line in text-box alternatingly aligned right and left; entire text within an outer gold border near the page edges; and a second smaller gold border surrounding the text proper; each text line is separated be a blank space within the borders defined by the text boxes; catchwords on rectos. Nastaʼliq; 6 lines in written area 13.5 x 9.2 cm. Folios 1b-14b. Library of Congress. Persian manuscript [number]. Modern tan leather binding with center medallions back and front; remains of original binding preserved in box with manuscript. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website. Explicit/Colophon: حرره عبد الرشيد الديلمي.
Manuscript. Persian. Marginalia dated 1827. Title from final section (daftar 7). Name of scribe not indicated. Probably written in India. Paper; (main section) light cream color unpolished laid paper; no visible chain lines or watermarks; unwans in gold, blue and green had the head of each daftar; text inclosed in ruled border of three lines in blue and red; black ink with rubrication; page divided into two colums with surrounding commentary; catchwords on rectos; (introduction and daftar 7) coarse laid paper with no visible chain lines or watermarks; 15 lines; no borders; black ink with some rubrication. Nastaʻliq; main section, 18 lines in written area 18.5 x 8.2 cm, introductory and daftar 7 15 lines in written area 15.5 x 9 cm. Introduction folios 1b-8a; main section 8b-387b; final section (daftar 7) 388b-449b. Library of Congress. Persian manuscript, M71. Nineteenth century red morocco leather binding with small gold medallions front and back; on spine: Nawab Babu, Mumtazum Nissa, Begum sahbah. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
Manuscript. Persian. Title supplied from container. Scribe not identified. Written in India? Paper; thin, lightly polished laid paper with vertical laid lines and no visible chain lines or watermarks; elaborate floral carpet page in blue, gold, pink, and black surrounded by three borders: the outer of a gold floral design, the next of a repeating design in blue and gold and the inner of a floral design of repeating flowers in alternating rose and pink on a gold background; remainder of text has outer ruled bord of thin blue, white, gold, red and dark blue; text block within ruled border in blue, white, red, blue, a wider floral border and an inner border of blue and red; sections separated by a horizontal block in gold; hemistichs divided by a wide dark blue vertical divider with gold highlighting; black ink; catchwords. Nastaʻlīq; 15 lines in written area 13 x 6.2 cm. Numerous miniatures throughout the text. Fol. 1b-466b (incomplete) Library of Congress. Persian manuscript, M19. Binding; disbound; text block and many pages loose in remainder of binding which is brown leather; spine lacking. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
Manuscript. Persian. Each work has separate title ; title of first work fol. 1b; title for second work, fol. 82a. Each section has different date: Makhzan al-asrār dated 28 Rajab 954 [9 September 1547]; second section dated 4 Shaʻbān 954 [19 September 1547]. Name of scribe not indicated. Probably written in Iran or India. Paper: thick, cream color Oriental paper; text in columns in black ink with section headings and some marginal notes in red ink; second work has some section headings in gold ink ; text is surrounded by many marginal notes; no catchwords. Pasted label on page 2 of cover: "(1) Makhzan-al-asrār. (2) Ṣubḥat-al-asrār. (3) K̲h̲ulāṣat-al-khamsa. by Niẓāmī 945/1547. 22.3 c. 29.3 cms. 14 lines per page. 2 columns. Nastaʻlīḳ. Marginal notes." Nastaʻlīq; 14 lines in written area 10.5 x 6 cm. Folios 1b-121a. Library of Congress. Persian manuscript, [number]. Binding in dark blue leather with embossed diamond pattern front and back. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website. Incipit: كتاب مخزن الاسرس حضرت شيخ نظامي عليه الرحمة. Explicit/Colophon: تمت الكتاب بعون الله الوهاب تاريخ 4 شهر شعبان 954.
Shahnameh (Book of kings) was composed by the revered Iranian poet Abū al-Qāsim Firdawsī (940-1020). The book recounts in verse the mythological history of ancient Persia and tales of the famous heroes and personalities of Iranian history, from legendary times to the 7th-century reign of Yazdegerd III, the last king of the Sassanid dynasty. Considered the national epic of Iran, the book was widely read throughout the Persian-speaking world. This manuscript copy was made in India in the 17th or 18th century. The text is written in nastaʻliq script in four columns of 25 lines. The text begins on folio 1b with rubrication and gold interlinear decoration up to folio 3a; folios 1b and 2a have an elaborate border of grape decoration in various shades of green and gold. Catchwords are on the recto pages. The paper is a cream-colored Eastern laid paper. Black ink is used, with highly decorated major ʻunwāns (title pages); minor ʻunwāns are in gold ink, now very faded. Full-page paintings illustrating scenes from the text appear on folios 1a, 144a, 193b, 412b; half-page paintings are on folios 10a, 10b, 127a, 157b, 193a, 230a, and 409a; two small paintings are in the lower corners on folios 133a and 402a. World Digital Library.
Manuscript. Persian. Caption title. Name of scribe or scribes not indicated. Purchase Written in Kashmir, India. Paper; light-cream paper; four colums per pate with triple-ruled frames of black, blue, and gold; column divisions illuminated in red, blue, and gilt; large illuminated headpieces at ff. 2.v, 153.v, 307v, and 465v., each having a different design, comprising two to three cartouches of red-on-gold calligraphy, surmounted by illuminated panels, surrounded by floreated frames all in various permutations of gold, blue, black, white, red, and pink; section headings in red-on-gold cartouches throughout, and sections of the text arranged into a diamond patterns, with the interstices floreated in gold; text in black ink. Browne. A literary history of Persia, v. 1, 110-123; v. 2, 129-145 Nastaʻliq; 25 lines in written area 28.2 x 15.6 cm. Includes 50 three-quarter-length miniatures to accompany the text. Folios 1a-582b. Library of Congress. Persian manuscript, M14. Contemporary Indian binding of blind-stamped red leather with bronze clasps, original leater headbands, discreetly rebacked retaining the original spine; flyleaves and pastedowns were renewed in the 19th century; front pastedown has a Persian inscription supplying a foliation; the rear pastdown contains and English cataloger's note (brown ink) supplying the title, author, and date of copying. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
Manuscript is incomplete; text breaks off abruptly at second word of line 5, leaf 257a. Tārīkh-i Nādirī (The history of Nadir) is a historical work that chronicles the political and military career of Nadir Shah, who was born in 1688 and rose to power in Iran during the 1720s; he became shah in 1736. (This work is also known as Jahāngushāy-i Nādirī in reference to the celebrated history of Genghis Khan, whom Nadir Shah admired.) Nadir Shah is known as a military warrior famous for his campaigns in Iran, Afghanistan, northern India, and Central Asia. He was assassinated by his officers in June 1747. The name of the author of this work, Muhammad Mahdi Munshi' ibn Muhammad Nasir (also seen as Mahdi Khan Astarabadi), appears on page four. Mahdi Khan was a court secretary, historian, and close confidante of Nadir Shah, whom he accompanied on many of his campaigns, so the work is an important historical source. The manuscript is organized chronologically and recounts about 100 military and political events. The preliminary pages contain a preface outlining the political developments in Iran and Qandahar (or Kandahar) that led to the Afghan invasion of Persia in 1722 and the emergence of Nadir Shah as a ruler who would confront and eventually defeat the Afghans and other enemies. The manuscript is incomplete, with the scribe having stopped mid-sentence after completing several lines from the penultimate section of the work, "On the end of the [Nadir Shah] and the manner of his murder...". Virtually all of this penultimate section (chronicling the cruel and bloody final years of Nadir's reign) and the final section (on the rule of ʻAli Quli Khan and Ibrahim Khan, nephews of Nadir, who each claimed the throne for a brief period after the assassination of their uncle) are therefore missing from the manuscript. The missing parts correspond roughly to six pages of text. In the manner typical of Persian court historiography, the author emphasizes throughout the restoration of order, the introduction of justice, and the defeat of the enemies of the state. Various poems and verses from the Qur'an appear throughout the text. The manuscript is written by a single hand in a uniform nastaliq, the calligraphic Persian script. All of the events recounted have a rubricated title. The first word of every other page is repeated as a "catchword" in the bottom margin of the previous page to ensure the proper order of the pages prior to binding, as was common practice in Persia and elsewhere. World Digital Library.
Memoirs of Timur originally written in Chagatay, now lost, translated into Persian by the Mughal scholar Abū Ṭālib al-Ḥusaynī. The 14th-century Turkic-Mongol ruler Timur (Tamerlane) wrote a memoir in Chagatai Turkish, the original of which is now lost. The work was intended as a book of advice for princes and rulers and has been given various titles over the years, including, as in this manuscript, Malfūẓāt (Utterances). The memoir was translated into Persian by Abu Talib al-Husayni, who appears to have been a Shia scholar-official from Khorasan in the service of the Mughal rulers in India in the 1630s. Al-Husayni discovered a Turkish version of the manuscript in the library of an Ottoman governor in Yemen, which he used as the basis for his translation. Al-Husayni dedicated his translation to Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (1628-58), who apparently disliked it and demanded revisions, which were done by Muhammad Afzal Bakhtiyari. This copy of al-Husayni's translation was probably produced somewhere in India in the mid-19th century. The manuscript contains only one of the many versions of Timur's memoir to have been written and revised over the centuries. It begins with a preface (folios 1-4) in which Bakhtiyari offers a note of praise to God, Muhammad, the four Rightly-Guided Caliphs, and the Timurid sultans. The preface also contains the title of the manuscript; a brief mention of the story of its discovery, translation into Persian, and revision; and remarks on its usefulness for future princes and statesmen, along with a commentary on the childhood and kingly life of Timur. This is followed by a brief section entitled "Divinely-Inspired Twelve Principles of Timur" (folios 4-5). Among the 12 principles by which Timur was said to have been inspired are "Just Rule," "Differentiation between Truth and Falsehood," and "Following God's Laws." The bulk of the manuscript (folios 5-653) covers events in the life of Timur. The narrative is in the first person, and begins with the appointment of the four viziers. Some of the events are titled with red subheadings, while others are not. A final section (folios 653-55) describes Timur being on the road to conquer China, the illness he contracts on the way, his wasiyat (will), and death. The manuscript is written in thick nastaʻliq script, although not in one hand, indicating that it was copied by one or more persons at different times. Turkish Chagatai quotations with Persian translations appear in various places in the text. Pagination is in Arabic numerals. There are numerous repetitions, tautologies, and obscurities throughout the text, reflecting the influence of the many official and unofficial biographies and memoirs of Timur that have been copied and recopied into various languages over the centuries by different individuals and for different purposes. These "Books of Timur," of different genres and titles, were patronized and popularized mainly by Mughal rulers of India in the 17th and 18th centuries. World Digital Library.