Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

RSPA 94 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Jones Collection

Royal Society Arabic and Persian

Contents

Summary of Contents: A commentary on al-Nasafī's ʿAqāʾid.

Language(s): Arabic

Incipit: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم. الحمد لله المتوحد بجلال ذاته وكمال صفاته.
Explicit: فالترقي والعلق إنما هو في أمر التجرد و إظهار الآثار القوية لا في مطلق الشرف والكمال فلا دلالة على فضيلة الملآئكة. والله أعلم بالصواب.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Thick brown woven paper which has been laminated on (most) verso sides.
Extent: ff. iii+85+ii
Dimensions (leaf): 225 × 160 mm.
Dimensions (written): 133 × 74 mm.
Foliation:

European numerals in pencil.

Collation

Catchwords.

Condition

The manuscript is in very good condition after having been repaired. Most folios have been laminated along the verso side, which repairs some minor worm damage.

Layout

The text is uniformly written in one column of 14 lines per side.

Hand(s)

Beautiful and careful black naskh script with gold headings and text divisions.

Decoration

Illuminated headpiece on f1v, this being a gold rectangle surrounding a deep blue floral design with the title on gold illumination inside this.

Additions:
Marginalia. There are marginal comments and additions on many folios, particularly clustered towards the beginning of the MS. These are all in Arabic.
Inscriptions. The volume includes the following dated Mughal inscriptions arranged in chronological order:
  • Folio 1r:
    • Inspection dated 17 Rabīʻ I year 3 (10 Nov 1660);
    • Inspection dated on 5 Muḥarram year 26 (4 Jan 1683). [Certified by] the slave 'Abd Allāh Chalabī;
    • Inspection dated 4 Ẕu’l-Ḥijjah year 3 (4 Feb 1710), with seal of Kifāyat Allāh Khān.
  • Folio 84v:
    • Description recording manuscript as made of official (vazīrī) size Samarqandi paper in naskh script with text headings written in gold, gold rulings, … with headpieces (sarlawḥ) and verses in gold, external leather binding…, doublure with latticed medallion and cornerpieces. Brought as a present (pīshkash) from Balkh by Mīr ʻAzīz and transferred to Muḥammad Ḥasan at Lahore on 3 Rajab year 16 (27 Sept 1642);
    • Inspections dated 22 Rajab year 19 (13 Sept 1645); 23 Safar year 29 (22 Dec 1655) and 5 Ẕī Qaʻdah year 31? (15 August 1657);
    • Transfer dated 30 Rabīʻ I year 24 (23 March 1651) to Khvājah Salāmat [from] Khvājah Muḥammad Ḥasan;
    • Transfer dated 24 Shavval year 25 (10 Oct 1651) to Muḥibb Allāh from Khvājah Salāmat;
    • Transfer to Khvājah Firāsat? on 8 Shavval year 29 (11 Aug 1655);
    • Transfer to Khvājah Ḥ…? on 23 Safar year 29 (22 Dec 1655);
    • Transfer from Kunvar Dās to Muḥammad Manṣūr on 26 Zu’l-Hijjah year one of the blessed reign, equivalent to 1069 (14 Sept 1659). Certified by al-ʻabd Muḥammad Ṣālih: [Value] 70;
    • Transfer from Munʻim Bayg to Murād Bayg on 1 Rabīʻ I year 49 (23 June 1705). Certified by Muḥammad Rashīd musharrif. Value 70.
    • Transfer from Murād Bayg to ʻAẓīm Bayg on 27 Ẕu’l-Qaʻdah year 3 [of Bahadur Shah](6 June 1709);

Binding

Modern British Library binding with flap.

Seal(s):

f. 84v. Circular seal: Muḥammad ... bandah-i Dārā Shikūh sanah 1055 (1645/46).

f. 84v. Circular seal: ʻAbd Allāh ghulām-i Sulṭān Dārā Shikūh 1060 (1650). Occurs twice.

f. 84v. Oval seal: Muḥammad Naṣīr … Dārā Shikūhī [10]61 (1651/52). Occurs three times.

f. 84v. Illegible oval seal possibly dated 1063 (1653/54).

f. 84v. Circular seal of Muḥammad … dated 1066 (1655/56).

f. 1r. Damaged circular seal: Sayyid ʻAli al-Ḥusaynī murīd-i ʻĀlam’gīr pādshāh sanah aḥad, 1, 1069 (1658/59).

f. 1r. Circular seal: Qābil Khān, khānah’zād-i ʻĀlamgīr Pādshāh 29 (1685/86).

f. 84v. Damaged circular seal: Arshad Khān khānah’zād-i Shāh ʻĀlam Pādshāh Ghāzī, [san]ah 3, [11]21 (1709/10). Identified on the basis of better preserved examples.

f. 1r. Two unidentified oval seals and one rectangular dated 1161 (1748/49).

Accompanying Material

History

Origin: Copied in the 16th or early 17th century Iran or Central Asia/>

Provenance and Acquisition

Brought from Balkh by Mīr ʻAzīz and transferred to the care of Muḥammad Ḥasan (or Ḥusayn?) at Lahore on 3 Rajab year 16 (27 Sept 1642).

Belonged to Dara Shikūh (d. 1659), the eldest son of Shah Jahan and while in his possession was inspected three times and transferred at least four times between named officials accompanied by seals of at least three of Dārā Shikūh’s officers.

On 26 Ẕu’l-Ḥijjah 1069 (14 Sept 1659), shortly after Darā’s execution, the manuscript was transferred from Kunvar Das (perhaps one of Dārā’s servants) to Muḥammad Manṣūr, a member of the Imperial Library staff.

It remained in the Imperial Mughal Library during the reigns of Aurangzeb and his successors at least until the early 18th century. The latest identified seal and inscription records an inspection dated 4 Ẕu’l-Ḥijjah year 3 [of Bahadur Shah] (4 Feb 1710) under the seal of Kifāyat Allāh Khān.

Subsequently it passed into private hands and was acquired by Sir William Jones while in India between 1783 and 1792.

RSPA 1-118 were presented to the Royal Society in January 1792 by Sir William and Lady Jones. According to Wilkins' catalogue, this MS 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. 64 no. XCIV, with revisions by Jonny Lawrence and Ursula Sims-Williams.

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.

Funding of Cataloguing

BL


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