RSPA 111 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Jones Collection

Royal Society Arabic and Persian

1 copy of Maqāmāt al-Ḥarīrī by al-Ḥarīrī

Language(s): Arabic & Persian

Title: Maqāmāt al-Ḥarīrī

Title: مقامات الحريري

Copied for William Jones by Ḥājj ʿAbd Allāh al-Makkī.

Incipit: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم. اللهم إنا نحمدك على ما علمت من البيان والهمت من التبيان

Explicit: يحظي بالعفو إنه هو أهل التقوى وأهل المغفرة وولي الخيرات في الدنيا والآخرة

Colophon: وكان الفراغ من تسطير هذا الكتاب بعون الملك الوهاب يوم الأحد المبارك لاثنين وعشرين خلين من شهر رمضان سنة ألف ومايتين وأربع من الهجرة المحمدية وذلك بأمر عالي الرتب والمفاخر كابرا عن حضرة المخدوم سر وليم يونس الذي هو أحد حكام العدالة العالية السلطانية بدار الأمارة كلكتة المحمية على يد الخادم حاج الحرمين الشريفين الحاج عبد الله المكي ولله در القايل. أقشم بالبيت وأياته *** ومشعر الحج وميقاته. إن الحريري حري بأن *** تكتب بالتبر مقاماته

Author: al-Ḥarīrī الحريري

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Strong European paper, barely damaged, with Taylor, GR, fleur de lys water marks.

Extent: ff.- iii+297+iv

Dimensions (leaf): 320 × 200 mm.

Dimensions (written): 200 × 110 mm.

Foliation:

European numerals in pencil.

Condition

Textblock in excellent condition – the paper has sustained little damage, beyond the large rip on f99. However, the binding has completely broken apart and is no longer attached to the textblock. The text therefore cracks at f99 along the spine, almost pulling apart.

Layout

Uniform layout of nine lines per column per page.

Hand(s)

Black ink thuluth script of Ḥājj ʿAbd Allāh al-Makkī

Decoration

Additions:

Only occasional annotations by Jones (metres of poems, for example on f200v). Other annotations by him include “fine” or curly brackets next to certain verses for highlighting. On f1r he has written “The Moral Discourses of Harīrī who was born at Basra yc 1054”. Throughout there are Arabic and Persian glosses in a minute hand, that of Abdallah al-Makki, which serve to explain the complex words and meanings of the maqāmāt

Binding

Brown leather and board binding with floral (European style Indian) desin in gilded frieze with marbled endpapers. Same cover as some of Jones' collection Fatāwā ʿĀlamgīrī.

Accompanying Material

History

Origin: 21_Ramaḍān_1204 AH; 4 June 1790 CE ; India

Provenance and Acquisition

RSPA 1-118 were presented to the Royal Society in January 1792 by Sir William and Lady Jones. According to Wilkins, this manuscript was presented by Sir William Jones.

The Royal Society's collection of 280 Persian and Arabic, and 86 Sanskrit manuscripts were transferred to the India Office Library in 1876.

1876

India Office Library

Record Sources

Manuscript description based on E. Denison Ross and E. G. Browne, Catalogue of two collections of Persian and Arabic manuscripts preserved in the India Office Library (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1902), p.72 no. CXI

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.

Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World