Delhi Persian 1574* (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)
India Office Library
Contents
Ethical treatise critiquing contemporary amorality and intended as a guide to salvation through a series of illustrative anecdotes and aphorisms, by the historian and translator active at the court of the Timurid Emperor Akbar I, ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Mulūk Shah ibn Ḥāmid Badāʾūnī (d. 1024/1615?), who wrote this work at the suggestion of the eminent courtier and historian, Mīrzā Niẓām al-Dīn Aḥmad, who died before the work was complete.
Dated colophon (f. 167v): completed by Muḥammad Faz̤āʾil in Shāhjahānābād, Monday afternoon, 27 Shavvāl in RY 30 of Emperor ʿĀlamgīr ibn Shāh Jahān, (1094)/19 October 1683.
Scribal nastaʿlīq, occasionally shikastah āmīz.
Limited annotations in margins.
Pencil and Persian foliation.
Lacking original binding.
Binding, red half leather IOL covers.
Folios remargined, remounted and rebound; cropped, wormholes, later repairs.
Condition fair.
Physical Description
Hand(s)
History
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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Funding of Cataloguing
BL
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