Delhi Persian 744A (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Afghan history and Urdu poem, 2 items (a-b)

Summary of Contents: Complete history on the Afghan nation followed by a short Urdu poem added by the scribe. Volume not dated; item a dated at length to 7 Jumādá al-S̲ānī 1115/18 October 1703. Awkward nastaʿlīq. Annotations in margins. Foliated in pencil throughout. Original covers lost. Binding of brown tooled leather with medallions, damaged; labels. Folios mostly bound; cropped, water and fungal stains, smudging. later repairs. Condition fragile.

Language(s): Persian, Arabic and Urdu

1. ff. 1v-223r

Language(s): Persian and Arabic

Delhi Persian 744Aa.

Abridged recension by an unnamed editor of the popular history of the Afghān or Pathān nation claiming descent from a lost tribe of Israel after the Patriarch Yaʿqūb or Jacob, with particular reference to Afghan ruling dynasties in India until the restoration of Timurid (Mughal) rule under Emperor Bābur, written by Khvājah Niʿmat Allāh ibn Khvājah Ḥabīb Allāh al-Hiravī under the patronage of Pīrā Khān Lūdī entitled Khān Jahān(d. 1040/1631), the protégé of Emperor Jahāngīr (d. 1037/1627), but executed under Emperor Shāh Jahān I (d. 1076/1666).

Dated colophon (f. 223r): copied from a manuscript belonging to Afz̤al Khān ibn Aʿẓam Khān for ʿĀqil Khān ibn Chawdharī Mukhtiyār Khān, and copied by Muḥammad Sharīf ibn Shaykh Ṭarab Jhajharī, at qaṣbah Shāhjahānpūr, Thursday, 7 Jumādá al-S̲ānī in RY 49 of Emperor ʿĀlamgīr, 1115/18 October 1703.

Author: Khvājah Niʿmat Allāh ibn Khvājah Ḥabīb Allāh al-Hiravī خواجه نعمت الله ابن خواجه حبيب الله الهروى

Title: Makhzan al-Afghānī

Title: مخزن الافغانى

2. ff. 223v-224v

Author:

Delhi Persian 744Ab.

Untitled archaic Urdu mas̲navī (possibly in the Dakhinī dialect) summarising Sunnī Ḥanafī doctrine and ritual, with a close emphasis on the pronouncements of Imām Jaʿfar [al-Ṣādiq], by an unnamed author.

Not dated at end.

This work is followed by annotations on geometry in Persian by a later hand.

Language(s): Urdu and Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex

Extent: 224 ff.

Dimensions (leaf): 295 × 185 mm.

Hand(s)

History

Origin: 7_Jumada-II_1115 AH; 18 October 1703 CE Shāhjahānpūr, Uttar Pradesh ; India, Shahjahanpur UP

Provenance and Acquisition

Purchased by the Government of India at sale organised by Delhi Prize Agents, 1859; administrative deposit India Office Library, 1876

1876

Government of India

Availability

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