Or 16167 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

A detailed treatise on Persian syntax, by Munshī Shīvarām called "Jawhar", of Bareilly and Shāhjahānpūr. According to his preface, Jawhar accompanied the Marquess of ‘Hastigs’ (sic) and Capt. Macan (i.e. Turner Macan, the prominent scholar of Persian) to Calcutta in 1233/1818.

This is the autograph manuscript, completed at Fatḥpūr on 12 Ṣafar 1243/4 September 1827, under the guidance of Mawlavī Maẓhar Saʿīd Khān Rāmpūrī.

This manuscript may well be unique, for no other copy of this text in prose is recorded in published catalogues. In 1235/1819-20, however, Munshī Shīvarām completed a metrical version in 375 verses, to which he gave the title Jawhar al-tarkīb. This work was published in several editions, chiefly with a commentary by one of various authors.

For further details on the author, including other writings, and for the printed editions, see Storey PL vol. III Part 1, pp. 131-2. Storey, loc. cit., also lists two manuscripts of Sharḥ-i qaṣīdah-'i Jawhar-i tartīb (sic), a commentary by Shaykh Ḥaydar ʿAlī ibn Shujāʿ al-Dīn Muḥammad Laṭīfpūrī, one being BL IO Delhi Persian 348 (A) (undated, 13th/19th century); the other is in Aligarh; to these should be added BL Or 13724, f. 2v-44r (Waley, Supplementary Handlist, p. 55).

Begins: ‘Basmalah... Rabb yassir va tammim bi-al-khayr... Baʿd az ḥamd-i Khudā va naʿt-i Rusūl mīguʾīd (sic) Jawhar-i bī-hunar va hīchdān-i bī-jawhar. Nām-i īn nuskhah naḥvast Dalīl al-tarkīb. Chashm-i inṣāf va durustī ast zi arbāb-i hunar. Rāqim-i as̲īm dar sanah 1233 hijrī muṭābiq-i 1818... ’

Ends: ‘Īn ʿāṣī ba-har ḥāl bā kamāl-i sharmsārī dar kisvat-i īn awrāq darmān umīd vā dāshtah ast. Yaqīn kih az naqd-i duʿāyī maḥrūm maḥz̤ nakhwāhad albattah bas va mā baqiy havas’

Other contents: ff. 170v-167v (laid out and paginated from left to right), ‘Grammatical Terms’, a Persian-glossary of grammatical terms in tabular form which begins: ‘Ism a noun, Ism jamid -- primitive, Ism mushtaqq – derivative’; inside back cover, bookseller’s number and description ‘329 / Persian / Miftahu l-Tarkib’, and small adhesive label ‘FROM / Madden & Co. / Late Parbury & Co. / 8, Leadenhall Street.’

Colophon, f. 166r. 12 Ṣafar 1243/4 September 1827.

Nasta‘līq. 19 lines. Red headings and overlinings. Grammatical tables framed in red. Thin white paper; that of ff. 67-70 is off-white and of average thickness, and both types are probably Indian. In the original pagination, p. 72 was not numbered and the numbers 74 and 75 were omitted. 171 folios. 229 x 163 mm.; text area variable, ca. 180 x 114 mm. Boards with leather and marbled paper. Spine broken.