Delhi Persian 1502 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Item a.

Untitled mas̲navī on farriery and the criteria for selecting good horses by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

The work is written obliquely at alternating angles, arranged in up to four columns.

Nastaʿlīq in thin ink.

Flyleaves 1Av and 1Br-1Bv carry notes mixed with Hindavī on 1) correct deportment; 2) Hindavī cosmological terms explained; 3) list of Indic luni-solar months and their Persian calendric equivalents; 4) musical restrictions; 5) musical annotations.

Item b.

Two poetic compositions lacking metre in Hindavī, probably intended for recitation in dhrūpada compositions, by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

Item c.

Rare treatise on north Indian music, combining Persian and Hindavī poetic combinations, as well as supplying explanations for technical terms, by Mīr Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Shāh Niʿmat Allāhī (d. 1060/1651), with the takhalluṣ Kashfī, a master calligrapher and religious scholar (author of the Manāqib-i Murtaz̤avī), later appointed librarian to the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Shāh Jahān I (d. 1076/1666).

The work consists of two bāb and a khātimah.

Not dated at end.

The treatise has been copied from an earlier, possibly seventeenth-century calligraphic source, as it preserves some of the orthographic and calligraphic idiosyncrasies interpreted or sometimes misinterpreted by the scribe.

This work is by the same nastaʿlīq hand as item e.

There follows on folio 23r annotations listing tāl structures and the names of some ragas and raginis.

Item d.

Incomplete copy of a treatise on north Indian music, dealing with the terminology and compositions of rāg and rāginī, by the musician and author ʿInāyat ʿAlī, the adopted son or mutabannī of the late Sayyid ʿAbd Allāh, known as Sayyid ʿIzzat Khān.

The work consists of ten chapters termed in Hindavī khand, beginning with a muqaddimah.

The work ends abruptly without formal completion, but is not defective at the end.

Numerous tables organising and classifying compositions.

Not dated at end.

Item e.

Incomplete excerpts from the rare treatise on north Indian music, combining Persian and Hindavī poetic combinations, as well as supplying explanations for technical terms, by Mīr Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Shāh Niʿmat Allāhī (d. 1060/1651), with the takhalluṣ Kashfī, a master calligrapher and religious scholar (author of the Manāqib-i Murtaz̤avī), later appointed librarian to the Timurid or Mughal Emperor Shāh Jahān I (d. 1076/1666).

The work consists of two bāb and a khātimah.

This copy of the treatise selectively omits many passages, perhaps for the sake of brevity.

The work ends abruptly without formal completion, but is not defective at the end.

Not dated at end.

This work is by the same nastaʿlīq hand as item c.

Item f.

Treatise on north Indian music, dealing with the terminology and classification of rāg and rāginī, but omitting any Hindavī compositions, by an unnamed author.

The work is organised into numerous tables omitting the compositions.

Dated colophon (f. 106v): completed 15 Jumādá al-Avval 1219/22 August 1804.

Item g.

Excerpt from an untitled treatise on north Indian music on the classification of rāg and rāginī, but omitting any Hindavī compositions, by an unnamed author.

The work flows around large taʿlīq mufradāt exercises on folio 109v (the mufradāt continued until f. 111r).

Dense shikastah āmīz hand, terminating with bold taʿlīq.

Not dated at end.