Delhi Persian 68* (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Unattributed, small collection of private and official correspondence by a certain Shaykh Mubārak for Islām Khān in the reign of an unidentified ruler, probably the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Akbar I. It is unclear whether the author of these letters is the same as the father of the aforementioned emperor's historian and companion, Shaykh Abū al-Faz̤l Nāgawrī

Some letters mention the names of familiar and some not-so-familiar historical figures from the late sixteenth to early seventeenth centuries. For example, the Bundelah Rajput ruler Maharajah Bir Narsingh Dev, Muhammad Khan, Mirza Muhammad Murad, Shaikh Habibullah, ‘Abdussalam (Islam Khan?), Muhammad Tahir, Maryam Makani, Muhammad Yusuf, Shaikh Fathullah, ‘Abdulkarim, Mir Zainul‘abidin, Muzaffar Khan, Sayyid Adam, Muhammad Sharif, Shaikh ‘Abdurrahim, Mir Muhammad the kotval, Sayyid Sharafuddin, Mir Abulfaris, Sayyid Ahmad, ‘Usman Khan, Mirza Rustam Beg, ‘Abdulhajib, Khvajah Fathullah Beg, Khvajah Manohardas, Khvajah La‘lchand the mushrif, Khvajah Jagdevdas, as well as the revenues of Bengal

No rubrication

Dated colophon (f. 12v): completed by Muḥammad Ḥayāt for Rawshan ʿAlī ibn Qāz̤ī Bakhsh ʿAlī, in 8 Ṣafar (1203), 14 Kātik 1196 banglah/8 November 1788

Owner’s inscription at end: ʿInāyat Allāh, resident of Jāʾis

Unbound; torn, wormholes; fragile