Eton Pote 267 (Eton College Library, Eton College)

Pote Collection

Summary of Contents: 1 copy of al-Ṣaḥīfat al-Kāmilah.

Author: Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, d. 710? زين العابدين، علي بن الحسين السجاد

Note concerning author: It seems the author is not Jaʿfar ibn Zaid.

Title: al-Ṣaḥīfat al-Kāmilah

Title: الصحيفة الكاملة

Language(s): Arabic

Colophon details: Date: middle of Rajab 1066 / May 1656 Scribe: Anonymous.

Note concerning manuscript: A beautiful manuscript.

Note concerning work: Incipit as in RAS Arabic 74 (the same work).

References

Margoliouth no. 16 (shelf/item: 13/8)

Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstânî, and Pushtû Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Part III A.F.L. Beeston 1954 p.73 no. 2786 [Bodl. Ms. Arab. E. 66]

Geschichte der arabischen Literatur C. Brockelmann 1892-1902 (2 vols. plus supplements) GAL I.44; GAL Supp. I.76

A second supplementary hand-list of the Muhammadan manuscripts in the university and colleges of Cambridge, A. J. Arberry (1952) p.9, no. 48 [Camb. Or. 1048]

Supplement to the catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the British Museum, C. Rieu (1894) p.163, no.247 [BL Or. 3954]

A catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the Library of the India Office (vol. 1), O. Loth (1877) p.83 no. 334 [BL IO Islamic 831]

Physical Description

Form: codex

Extent: c. 150 folios.

Dimensions (leaf): 15.7 × 9 cm.

Dimensions (written): 10 × 5 cm.

Foliation: Not foliated or paginated.

Layout

10 lines per page.

Ruled in gold with a blue outer. Rubrications in red and in gold.

Hand(s)

Script: naskh. Scribe: Anonymous.

Decoration

Ff.1v-2r: illuminated frontispiece; interlinear gold with red and blue. Margins gold ground with red, blue, pink, green floral pattern. Text block speckled with gold. Margins of later folios contain drawings of flowers in gold with elements in brown, green, red, etc. One folio contains a dark brown thumb-piece.

Additions:

F.1r: seal of Polier (1181).

Signs of collation.

Binding

Reddish brown leather, European style. Plain paper doublures. Dimensions: 16.3 × 9 × 2.5 cm. Unboxed. Polier's number: 667.

History

Origin: middle of Rajab 1066 AH; May 1656 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 second half alphabetically going to Eton. 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 D.S. Margoliouth, Catalogue of the Oriental Manuscripts in the Library of Eton College, Oxford, 1904 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