Delhi Persian 498 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a

Journal in refined prose and verse recording the seige and conquest of the Quṭb Shāhī capital Ḥaydar'ābād (Andhra Pradesh) by the Timurid or Mughal Emperor ʿĀlamgīr I (Aurangzeb) in 1097/1686, composed by the minister and poet "Mīrzā Muḥammad" Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Fatḥ al-Dīn Niʿmat Khān (also known as Muqarrab Khān and Dānishmand Khān) with the takhalluṣ ʿĀlī (d. 1121/1709)

Not dated

Item b

Sufī allegorical work in mixed refined prose and verse by the Timurid or Mughal minister and poet "Mīrzā Muḥammad" Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Fatḥ al-Dīn Niʿmat Khān (also known as Muqarrab Khān and Dānishmand Khān) with the takhalluṣ ʿĀlī (d. 1121/1709)

Not dated

Item c

Account of the interfraternal wars of succession fought and ultimately won by the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Bahādur Shāh I ibn ʿĀlamgīr I, composed by the minister and poet "Mīrzā Muḥammad" Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Fatḥ al-Dīn Niʿmat Khān (also known as Muqarrab Khān and Dānishmand Khān) with the takhalluṣ ʿĀlī (d. 1121/1709)

Not dated

Item d

Work on pious meditations in refined prose by the Timurid or Mughal minister and poet "Mīrzā Muḥammad" Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Fatḥ al-Dīn Niʿmat Khān (also known as Muqarrab Khān and Dānishmand Khān) with the takhalluṣ ʿĀlī (d. 1121/1709), completed in 1104/1692-3 according to the concluding chronogrammatic verse: ‘shukr-i niʿmat vājib-i vājib’

Not dated

Item e

Collection of satirical letters by the Timurid or Mughal minister and poet "Mīrzā Muḥammad" Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Fatḥ al-Dīn Niʿmat Khān (also known as Muqarrab Khān and Dānishmand Khān) with the takhalluṣ ʿĀlī (d. 1121/1709)

Rubrication or subheadings omitted

Not dated

Item f

Official and diplomatic letters composed by Tahir Vahid, secretary to Shah 'Abbas Safavi II

Rubrication or subheadings omitted

Not dated

Item g

Brief collection of the letters composed in refined prose by Mirza 'Abd al-Qadir Bi-dil, some on behalf of his elite patrons and contemporaries

Not dated at end (f. 147v)

Additional composition by the same author on the nature of earth and dust on following leaf (f. 148r); not dated

Item h

Description of Kashmir in refined prose and verse

Not dated

Item i

Brief collection of the letters composed in refined prose by the poet Munir of Lahore

Not dated

Item k

Rare composition in refined prose and verse on the theme of virtuous princes, divided into seven ṣifat sections

Not dated

Item l

Unidentified collection of miscellaneous letters in refined prose and verse, with mixed attributions

Not dated

Item m

Unidentified collection of miscellaneous letters in refined prose and verse, with mixed attributions

Not dated

Item n

Rare collection of letters in refined prose ascribed to the early-seventeenth-century Iṣfahānī writer, Naṣīr al-Dīn Hamadānī, containing much material of historical importance

Not dated

Item o

Collection of refined letters and notes (approximately 105) by Amān Allāh Khānah'zād Khān ibn Mahābat Khān Khānkhānān (d. 1046/1647)

Although varied in subject, the letters are characterised by a mystical tone of language and addressed laregly to religious scholars and local divines

Dated at end (f. 297r): completed on the morning of Thursday, 22 Z̲ī Qaʿdah [regnal] year 45 of Emperor Shāh ʿĀlam (circa 1219)/22 February 1805

Item p

Rare collection of refined letters by the seventeenth-century prose stylist and historian, Mīrzā Jalālā-yi Ṭabāṭabāʾī. The letters lack rubrication or subheadings

Above the ‘basmalah’ and ‘Yā Fattāḥ’ invocations in Arabic is the Sanskrit invocation (Devanagari): ‘śrī Gaṇeśāya namaḥ’

Not dated

Item q

Highly ornate and vivid composition in refined prove and verse recounting the beauties of Kashmīr by the seventeenth-century prose stylist and historian, Mīrzā Jalālā-yi Ṭabāṭabāʾī, dedicated to the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Shāh Jahān I; rare

Not dated

Item r

Excerpt from the edition of official regnal history produced for the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Shāh Jahān I, entitled Pādshāh'nāmah, written by the seventeenth-century prose stylist and historian, Mīrzā Jalālā-yi Ṭabāṭabāʾī

Although the editor of the volume selected this excerpt for its opening account of Emperor Shāh Jahān viewing elephants fighting, the remainder of the text recounts the lunar birthday ceremony that occured on 2 Z̲ī al-Ḥijjah 1042/10 June 1633, which falls into the Pādshāh'nāmah account for the 'old style' sixth regnal year

Not dated

Item s

Unidentified congratulatory address (sometimes called the Shabnam-i shādāb) in refined prose and verse ascribed to Ẓahīrā or Ẓahīr al-Dīn Tafrishī presented to a minister during the reign of the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar (r. 1124-1131/1713-1719), described by Levy as ‘unintelligible’

Not dated

Item t

Expanded translation in refined prose of an Arabic treatrise on the civil and financial regulation of a virtuous state and monarchy, based on a Pahlavi original attributed to Khusraw Anūshīrvān, commenced by the prose stylist and historian, Mīrzā Jalālā-yi Ṭabāṭabāʾī, in 1062/1652, as recorded in the work's chronogrammatic authorised title, Dastūr'nāmah-yi Kisravī, and dedicated to the ruler of Gujarat and youngest of the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Shāh Jahān's sons, Prince Sulṭān Muḥammad Murād Bakhsh (d. 1661)

The version in the present volume appears to be somewhat abridged

Not dated

Subscription lists Arabic letters of the alphabet with Persian translations of their 'meaning', followed by the 'meaning' of the eight clusters of the standard abjad letters

Item u

Account of Prince Shāh Jahān's siege and conquest of the rebel fort of Kangra in 1028/1618 at the order of his father, the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Jahāngīr, written after Shāh Jahān's acession as emperor by the prose stylist and historian, Mīrzā Jalālā-yi Ṭabāṭabāʾī, in six varied and florid styles of prose and verse treated here as separate sections

Dated at end (f. 429v): completed 28 Shavvāl [regnal] year 44 of Emperor Shāh ʿĀlam (circa 1218)/10 February 1804

Item v

Preface to the Kitāb-i naw'ras, a treatise on Indian music composed by Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II, Sultan of Bijapur (1580-1627)

Not dated

Item w

Preface to the Gulzār-i Ibrāhīm (note in the manuscript the spelling of gulzār as gulz̲ār), which praises the poet's patron, Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II, Sultan of Bijapur (1580-1627). The work is conventionally treated as a part of the collection of works, entitled Sih nas̲r

Not dated

Item x

Preface to the Khvān-i Khalīl, which praises the poet's patron, Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II, Sultan of Bijapur (1580-1627). The work is conventionally treated as a part of the collection of works, entitled Sih nas̲r

Not dated

Item y

Collection of refined prose letters and petitions supposedly addressed by the writer to his beloved

Title given at end as Panj ruqʿah

Not dated

Item z

Account in refined prose praising the sights and varied delights of the Mīnā bāzār, built by Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II, Sultan of Bijapur (1580-1627), following the genre of shahr āshūb poetry

Dated at end (f. 477r): completed 5 Z̲ī Ḥijjah [regnal] year 44 of Emperor Shāh ʿĀlam (circa 1218)/13 March 1804

Item aa

Preface in refined prose introducing a miscellany of prose and verse compiled by Ṭughrā's senior contemporary, Mīrzā Jalālā-yi Ṭabāṭabāʾī

Not dated

Item bb (text written obliquely in margins around item aa, etc.)

Preface in refined prose introducing the dīvān of the poet Abū al-Barakāt Lāhawrī "Munīr" (d. 1054/1644) by his senior contemporary, Mīrzā Jalālā-yi Ṭabāṭabāʾī, who noted the poet's precocious industry in writing more than twenty-thousand abyāt before reaching the age of thirty

Not dated

Item cc

Unidentified preface introducing a work focusing on religious themes

Not dated

Item dd

Unidentified collection of compositions (possibly various types of correspondence) in refined prose, some containing stray references to names and dates

Rubrication or subheadings omitted

Not dated

Item ee

Unidentified collection of compositions (possibly various types of correspondence) in refined prose, containing references to early Persian poets

Not dated

Item ff

Unidentified correspondence in refined prose, appearing to be a letter by a certain Mīrzā Abū Saʿīd asking forgiveness of his father for insolence and insubordination

Not dated

Item gg

Untitled preface in refined prose introducing the Dīvān of the poet Abū Ṭālib "Kalīm" Kāshānī Hamadānī by his contemporary, the prose stylist and historian, Mīrzā Jalālā-yi Ṭabāṭabāʾī

Not dated

Item hh

Untitled preface in refined prose introducing the Dīvān of the poet Muḥammad Jān "Qudsī" Mashhadī by his contemporary, the prose stylist and historian, Mīrzā Jalālā-yi Ṭabāṭabāʾī, written at Agra, 11 Rabīʿ al-Avval

Not dated

Item ii

Preface in refined prose to a manuscript combining the Pādshāh'nāmah histories in mas̲navī form of the poets Muḥammad Jān "Qudsī" Mashhadī and Abū Ṭālib "Kalīm" Kāshānī Hamadānī, by their contemporary, the prose stylist and historian, Mīrzā Jalālā-yi Ṭabāṭabāʾī

Not dated

The preface is followed (ff. 498v-501r) by a number of unidentified letters in refined prose

Item kk

Untitled collection of the correspondence in refined prose of the prose stylist and historian, Mīrzā Jalālā-yi Ṭabāṭabāʾī

Rubrication or subheadings omitted

Not dated

Item ll

Untitled collection of the correspondence in refined prose attributable to Ṭughrā Mashhadī, partially rubricated

Lacuna after f. 536

Item mm

Rare collection of the official and private correspondence in refined prose of Mīrzā Īzad Bakhsh "Rasā" (d. 1119/1707-8)

Above the ‘basmalah’ and ‘Yā Fattāḥ’ invocations in Arabic is the Sanskrit invocation (Devanagari): ‘śrī Gaṇeśāya namaḥ ’

Not dated

This work is followed (after f. 577) by blank leaves