RAS Persian 174A. (Library, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland)

Urdu, Arabic, Persian. The introduction is in Urdu. (This item is entered in pencil on the Library copy of Codrington. There are no Urdu poems in the MS, as stated in Codrington/Reade: the pencilled entry has, correctly, 'proem in Urdu'.) On blue and cream European-style paper. The text is in gatherings, loose in a blue card cover. The original stabbed stitching is absent, probably removed to protect the pages. Loose within the cover are: a) A typed note about the inscriptions on British Museum paper, attached to b) a brief handwritten note, the signature illegible, by someone who accompanied Frere to Bijapur and knew the circumstances of the compilation, dated 17 May. c) A letter in Urdu from Muhammad 'Ali Munshi of Bijapur to Frere, reminding him of the visit to Bijapur and requesting his favour. Dated March 1866. Commissioned by Sir Henry Bartle Frere on the occasion of his visit to Bijapur as Governor of Bombay in December 1865. Ruled margins. The inscriptions are written within panels showing the shape of the originals. Headings and punctuation in red.