Delhi Persian 629B (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

Substantial fragment from an early section of the universal history, entitled Ḥabīb al-siyar fī akhbār afrād al-bashar, by the Timurid (Mughal) and later Safavid polymath historian Mīr Ghiyās̲ al-Dīn ibn Humām al-Dīn al-Ḥusaynī, known as Khvāndamīr (d. 942/1536), written under the patronage of and dedicated to the Safavid governor of Herat, Mīrzā Karīm al-Dīn Ḥabīb Allāh Sāvajī, who ordered the updating and correcting of the universal history, the Rawz̤at al-ṣafāʾ fī sīrat al-anbiyāʾ va al-mulūk va al-khulafāʾ, composed earlier under patronage of the Timurid noble, Amīr ʿAlī Shīr Navāʾī(d. 906/1501), by the historian’s maternal grandfather, Mīr Muḥammad ibn Burhān al-Dīn Khāvand Shāh ibn Maḥmūd al-Ḥusaynī al-Bukhārī, known as Mīr Khvānd (d. 903/1498).

This copy comprises part of the opening introduction or iftitāḥ and the first section termed majlad, covering accounts of the early prophets down to the early caliphs.

Defective at the beginning and end.

Lacunae in the original text are replaced by later leaves transcribed in an awkward nastaʿlīq hand.

Original text in scribal naskh, occasional rubrication, other headings supplied by a later hand in margins.

Not dated at end; datable to the late sixteenth century with replacement leaves dating to the early eighteenth century.

Annotations in margins.

Not foliated.

Original covers lost.

Damaged binding of painted and tooled reddish leather edged with brown leather; detached spine, paste boards delaminating (revealing Arabic text, from copies the Qurʾān, ḥadīs̲, and grammatical texts).

Folios mostly unbound; water and fungal stains, cropped, creased, later repairs.