Or 16618 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

An anonymous Persian translation of Sīrat al-Sulṭān Jalāl al-Dīn Mankūbirnī. This is the well-known biography, composed in 639/1241-2 by Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Nasavī, of the Khwārazmshāh who resisted the Mongol invasion. See GAL I, p. 319 and S I p. 552; Storey/Bregel’, PL II pp. 757-8; and, for the history of the period, J.A. Boyle, ‘Dynastic and political history of the Il-Khans’, Cambridge History of Iran, V, pp. 303-421.

The present manuscript, which is apparently unique, formerly belonged to Prof. Mükrimin Halil Yinanç, a Professor of History at Istanbul University. A microfilm copy formed the basis for the critical edition published by Mujtabà Mīnuvī, who had seen the manuscript itself in Istanbul in 1950, as Sīrat-i Jalāl al-Dīn-i Mānkuburnī (Tehran, 1344/1965 and 1365/1986). For further details of the Persian work, its author, and this manuscript, see the editor’s introduction. Mīnuvī gives the author’s full name as Shihāb al-Dīn Muḥammad Khurandizī Zaydarī Nasavī. In his view the ink, paper, handwriting and orthography all suggest that the manuscript was probably copied before 700/1300-1.

Begins: Basmala al-Ḥamd li-Llāh Rabb al-‘Ālamīn va l-ṣalāt ‘alà khayr khalqih Muḥammad va ālih ajma‘īn Hamī gūyad mu’allif-i aṣl Ṣadr-i Sa‘īd Shihāb al-Dīn Muḥammad Khurandizī ... ki chūn bar tarkīb-i tavārīkh ki mu’allifān-i māżī karda and

Ends: va tārīkh va ghazavāt-i ān Pādshāh-i jahāngīrī ki dar shīva-’i basālat va shajā‘at va farhang va khibrat ba-aḥvāl-i jang bī nazīr būd mudavvan gasht va ḥalāt va sarāt-i ū min avval amrih ilà ākhir ‘umrih bar vifq-i dilkhwāh mashrūḥ shud Va l-ḥamd li-Llāh...

Other contents: f. 1r, miscellaneous notes and scribbles; 147v, ownership note of (M. H. Yinanç) Mukrimīn bin Khalīl Kāmil bin Muḥammad Sāqib al-Albistānī.

Iran or Asia Minor, 7th-8th/13th-14th century.

Good archaic naskhī. 19 lines. Headings in red. Beige paper of medium thickness. Worm damage to some folios. 147 folios. 234 x 160 mm.; text area not ruled, 150 x 117 mm. from mid-top to mid-bottom line. Binding: later Ottoman boards faced with ebrû (marbled) paper.

Purchased from Christie's South Kensington (6 October 2008, Lot 311).