Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Delhi Persian 1502 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Miscellaneous works on Indian and Persian music, 7 items (a-g)

Contents

Summary of Contents: Miscellaneous collection of treatises on Persian and north Indian music, comprised of seven items. Volume not dated; item f dated (15 Jumādá al-Avval 1219/22 August 1804) separately. Neat scribal nastaʿlīq, rough shikastah āmīz, bold taʿlīq by multiple hands. Limited annotations in margins. Sporadic foliation in pencil. Original leather binding (faded russet red course cotton (?) cover or ghilāf stitched over leather binding), labels; damaged. Folios mostly bound, some loose folios; wormholes.
1. ff. 1r-7r

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.

Language(s): Persian, Arabic, and Urdu
2. ff. 7v-8r

Item b.

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

Not dated at end.

Language(s): Persian, Arabic, and Urdu
3. ff. 9v-22r

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.

Language(s): Persian, Arabic, and Urdu
4. ff. 25v-87v
Language(s): Persian & Arabic

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.

5. ff. 88v-99r
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

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.

6. ff. 99v-106v
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

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.

7. ff. 107r-109v
Language(s): Persian and Arabic

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.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: 111 ff.
Dimensions (leaf): 215 × 151 mm.
Dimensions (written):

Hand(s)

History

Origin: 15 Jumādá al-Avval 1219 AH; 22 August 1804 CE ; India

Record Sources

Based on unpublished description in Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the India Office Library, vol. 3. Available on British Library Digitised Manuscripts, manuscript number: MSS Eur E207/22_f114r

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card for admissions procedures contact British Library, Registering for a Reader Pass. Contact apac-enquiries@bl.uk for further information on the availability of this manuscript. For information on catalogues and ordering manuscripts see Finding and ordering Persian manuscripts in the British Library.

Bibliography

Funding of Cataloguing

BL


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