Delhi Persian 414B (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Short collection of qaṣāʾid or panegyrics by a poet with the takhalluṣ Manṣūr, writing in praise of the ruler Muḥammad Shāh the ‘Shāh-i Jahān,’ who may be the same as Sulṭān Muḥammad the Quṭb al-Mulk Quṭb Shāh(d. 1626). No other clues as to the poet’s origins are disclosed here.

Dated colophon (f. 34v): completed in qaṣbah Marpallah (Marpally, Telangana), 16 Z̲ī al-Ḥijjah 1041/4 July 1632. The configuration of the date is ambiguous and at least one of the numerals have been overwritten.

Rough and compressed shikastah āmīz on alternating buff and olive green tinted papers sparsely covered with large and small silver and gold flecks.

Stamped foliation.

Covers of straw-coloured course cotton over pasteboard, with brown leather over spine; labels.

Folios unbound; water stains, cropped, wormholes, later repairs.

Condition fragile.