King's Pote 104 (King's College Library, King's College Cambridge)

Pote Collection

Summary of Contents: 1 copy of Ḥabīb al-Siyar.

Author: Khwāndamīr, Ghiyāth al-dīn ibn Humām al-dīn خواندمير، غياث الدين بن همام الدين

Title: Ḥabīb al-Siyar

Title: Tīmūr-nāmah

Title: حبيب السير

Title: تيمور نامه

Language(s): Persian

Colophon details: Date: Undated Scribe: Anonymous.

Colophon further notes: A seal on the final page is dated 1066 so the manuscript must have been copied prior to that.

Note concerning work: Persian history and biography, completed in 930/1524 (in ten volumes). This manuscript contains part 3 of the third, dealing with the history of Timur.

References

Browne no. 387

Palmer no. 104

Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum (3 vols.) C. Rieu 1879-1883 pp.98-102 [BL Add. 23508, etc]

Persian Literature: a bio-bibliographical survey C. A. Storey 1927–39 I.1 p.105

A catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the University of Cambridge, E. Browne (1896) p.114, no. 57 [Camb. Oo. 6.12]

Physical Description

Form: codex

Extent: c. 500 folios.

Dimensions (leaf): 26.7 × 18 cm.

Dimensions (written): 19 × 12 cm.

Foliation: Neither foliated nor paginated.

Condition

Bad water damage, particularly at the start and the end. Some margins have been repaired.

Layout

21 lines per page.

Only the first quarter is ruled, in double red with a black outer. Rubrications in red.

Hand(s)

Script: naskh. Quality: The second half is in bad nastaʿlīq . Scribe: Anonymous.

Additions:

Flyleaf: the seal of Polier (1181). F.1r: two seals, one hexagonal (Aqal al-ʿibād ʿind-Allāh Qubād...) and one circular. Final page: three seals (of which two are identical to the hexagonal seal on f.1r, and the other is dated 1066); also a pair of notes, dated 1071 and 1073.

Binding

Reddish brown leather, Indian style. Marbled paper doublures. Decorations: Pressure moulded turanj and two pendants (which originally contained inlay; floral patterns). A painted silver frame. Condition: The spine is badly damaged. The upper board and much of the spine is detached from the text block. Dimensions: 26.8 × 17 × 6.8 cm. Boxed. Polier's number: 192.

History

Origin: Undated.

Provenance and Acquisition

The "Pote Collection" arrived in England from India in 1790 and was divided between the Colleges of Eton and King's, Cambridge, with the first half alphabetically going to King's. Both halves of the collection are now housed in Cambridge University Library on permanent loan. Most if not all of the manuscripts had previously been owned by Colonel Antoine-Louis Henri Polier (1741–1795).

Gift of Edward Ephraim Pote (d.1832) in 1788.

Record Sources

Manuscript description based on E. G. Browne, "A supplementary hand-list of the Muhammadan manuscripts, including all those written in the Arabic character, preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge", Cambridge, 1922 and E. H. Palmer, "Catalogue of the oriental manuscripts in the library of King's College, Cambridge", J.R.A.S. v.3 (1867), pp.105-131 enhanced with additional descriptions and corrections by Shiva Mihan.

Availability

All manuscripts of the Pote Collection are on permanent loan at Cambridge University Library. Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card for admissions procedures consult Cambridge University Library. Contact near_eastern@lib.cam.ac.uk for further information on the availability of this manuscript

Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World