RSPA 11 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Jones Collection

Royal Society Arabic and Persian

1 copy of Tārīkh-i Jahānkushā-yi Nādirī by Muḥammad Mahdī Astarābādī ibn Muḥammad Naṣīr

Language(s): Persian

Title: Tārīkh-i Jahānkushā-yi Nādirī

Title: تاریخ جهانکشای نادری

William Jones published a translation of this text in French in 1770 and English in 1773, before his trip to India.

Incipit: بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم. بر دانایان رموز آکاهی و دقیقه شناسان حکمتهای آلهی واضخ است

Explicit: ستار و عمله روانه توقف انجافر صفی

Colophon: Colophon partially illegible. Specifies the date as 12th Dhū 'l-Ḥijjah 1202 AH. Mentions Abū Ṭalib Nīshāpūrī and Muḥammad Riz̤ā Ḥusayn al-Māzandarānī. The latter appears to be the scribe and he copied the manuscript from the former's library.

Author: Muḥammad Mahdī Astarābādī ibn Muḥammad Naṣīr محمد مهدی استرآبادی ابن محمد نصیر

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Very thin white woven paper.

Extent: ff.288+iv

Dimensions (leaf): 240 × 180 mm.

Dimensions (written): 190 × 120 mm.

Foliation:

European numerals in pencil.

Condition

Good condition. Pages stick together. Dirty.

Layout

Hand(s)

Elegant shikastah script in black ink. Colophon is in a difficult-to-read shikastah written transversely across the page.

Decoration

Additions:

There are infrequent Persian annotations and marginal comments throughout the manuscript. Title page provided by Jones.

Binding

Red leather European-style Indian binding with gilded patterns.

Accompanying Material

History

Origin: 11_Dhū 'l-Ḥijjah_1202 AH; 12 September 1788 CE ; India

Provenance and Acquisition

RSPA 1-118 were presented to the Royal Society in January 1792 by Sir William and Lady Jones. Manuscript presented by Lady 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. 7-8 no. XI

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