RSPA 219 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Ashburner Collection

Royal Society Arabic and Persian

Zoroastrian miscellany containing 5 separate works

Summary of Contents: A collection of five Zoroastrian works dating from around 1824 and described on f. 1r as Rivāyat va maʻnī-yi Avastā. The copyist who may also be the author of some of the works is named as Siyāvakhsh son of Rustam Ūrmazdyār

Language(s): Persian

Title: Dāstān-i māh'yān-i dīnī

Title: داستان ماه یان دینی

A poem on the Zoroastrian months.

Arranged in four columns.

Title: Aḥkām-i Jāmāsb'nāmah

Title: احکام جاماسب نامه

An imaginary account in prose of a conversation between king Gushtasp and the philosopher Jamasp.

Ends half-way down folio 21r.

Title: ʻUlamā-yi Islām

Title: علمای اسلام

A Zoroastrian polemical treatise in prose, supposedly written in the 10th century AD.

Title: Qā'idah-'i digar az barā-yi barshnūm

Title: قاعدهٔ دیگر از برای برشنوم

Rules, in prose, for performing the Barshnum ceremony, accompanied by diagrams on folios 47r and 51v.

The colophon is dated 10 Ṣafar 1261 (18 February 1845) and was copied by Siyāvakhsh son of Rustam Ūrmazdyār, with his descent via 17 generations to Yazdagird Ṣandal.

A series of questions and rules, in prose. without title or preface, concerning purification and other ceremonies.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support:

Extent: ff. i+60+i

Dimensions (leaf): 220 × 175 mm.

Foliation:

European numerals in pencil.

Layout

Various layouts.

Hand(s)

Nastaʻlīq.

Decoration

Diagrams on folios 47r and 51v.

Additions:

Headings in red.

Catchwords.

Binding

Leather European-style Indian binding with gilt borders and central panel containing gilt-stamped medallion.

Accompanying Material

History

Origin: 1825 - 1864 CE ; India/>

Provenance and Acquisition

RSPA 119-265 were presented to the Royal Society between 1864 and 1865 by Burjorjee Sorabjee Ashburner; bookplate: "Presented to the Royal Society / by Mr. Burjorjee Sorabjee Ashburner / May 1864".

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. 131 no. CCXIX

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