King's Pote 49 (King's College Library, King's College Cambridge)

Pote Collection

Summary of Contents: 1 copy of Bahār-i Sukhan.

Author: Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Lāhūrī محمد صالح لاهورى

Note concerning author: Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Lahurī is almost certainly Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Kambūh, biographer of Shāhjahān and teacher of Aurangzeb who died c.1674, author of the ʿAmal-i Ṣāliḥ = Shāhjahān nāmah. The preface of the BL copy (Or. 178) is by Abū al-Barakāt, known as Munīr whose own letters are in King's 17.

Title: Bahār-i Sukhan

Title: بهار سخن

Language(s): Persian

Colophon details: Place: Akbarābād Date: 21st Jumādā I, year 9 of Muḥammad Shāh, i.e. 1139 / 14 Jan 1727 Scribe: Anonymous.

Colophon further notes: Written in 15 days.

Note concerning manuscript: A single folio added at the beginning contains a table of contents.

Note concerning work: Collection of letters and other prose compositions.

References

Browne no. 195

Palmer no. 49

Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum (3 vols.) C. Rieu 1879-1883 p.398a [BL Or. 178]

Mughals in India: a bibliographical survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts D.N. Marshall 1962 p.338

Physical Description

Form: codex

Extent: 90 folios.

Dimensions (leaf): 27.5 × 17.8 cm.

Dimensions (written): 25.2 × 14 cm.

Foliation: Foliated.

Layout

25 lines per page.

Ruled in double red with a blue outer.

Hand(s)

Script: Indian nastaʿlīq. Scribe: Anonymous.

Decoration

F.1v: an illuminated sarlauh in gold, yellow, green, red, and blue.

Binding

Plain leather, Indian style. Plain paper (non-European) front doublures, lower doublure is cream vase of flowers on pink paper (with two birds). Decorations: Plainly tooled frame. Condition: Bad condition. The spine is worn. The upper board is separated. Dimensions: 27.5 × 17.7 × 2 cm. Boxed. Polier's number: 99.

History

Origin: Akbarābād; 21st Jumādā I, year 9 of Muḥammad Shāh, i.e. 1139 AH; 14 Jan 1727 CE

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

Funding of Cataloguing

King's College Cambridge

Subjects

Letter writing, Persian

Comments

Comment on this record