Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Delhi Persian 86A (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Calendar with annotations on Timurid Household, 4 items (a-d)

Contents

Summary of Contents: Collection of Urdu ghazalīyāt mainly by Ẓafar, the Timurid (Mughal) Emperor Bahādur Shāh II, and Persian entries recording marriages and other significant events for the same imperial family, all added at the end on an incomplete ledger of comparative tables for three calendrical systems (ranging 1815-1820 CE). Volume not dated; datable to the mid nineteenth century. Nastaʿlīq and awkward shikastah āmīz (especially items b-d) by multiple hands. Extensive annotations (see items b-d). Intermittent foliation in pencil. Binding damaged (combed marbled papers and printed cloth trim pasted over delaminating pasteboards, revealing inner matter of Kaithi and English accounts), labels. Possible loss of folios from end. Folios mostly unbound with some loose interleaf material; water and fungal stains. wormholes, later repairs. Condition very fragile.

Language(s): Persian and Arabic

1. ff. 1r-160v
Language(s): Persian, Urdu, and Arabic

Delhi Persian 86A a.

Partially completed jantarī or calendar, comprised of tables intended to record daily events in accordance with the solar ʿĪsavī (Christian), lunar hijrī, and luni-solar faṣlī calendrical systems (ranging 1815-1820 CE), by an unnamed author.

Only the first line of the first page contains an entry in Urdu, indicating the tables were no longer usable or useful after that. Although the gridlines of tables continue until later in the manuscript (see item b), the dated lemmata only continue until folio 74r.

Not dated at end.

Lemmata in scribal nastaʿlīq, with entries added in a speedily-written cursive shikastah āmīz hand.

2. ff. 161r-167r

Delhi Persian 86A b.

Untitled brief and informal selection of Urdu ghazalīyāt, muqaṭṭaʿāt, and rubāʿīyāt, the majority of which are by the poet bearing the takhalluṣ Ẓafar, that is, the last Timurid (Mughal) ruler, Emperor Bahādur Shāh II (d. 1279/1862), as well as by the last poet laureate and court historian of the same emperor, Najm al-Dawlah Dabīr al-Mulk Mīrzā Asad Allāh Khān Bahādur Niẓāmjang takhalluṣ Ghālib, known as Mīrzā Nawshāh (d. 1285/1869), written by an unnamed compiler in the same hand throughout and including items c-d.

Speedily-written cursive shikastah āmīz hand transcribed diagonally, vertically, and horizontally, in two vertical columns per page.

Not dated at end.

Language(s): Persian, Urdu, and Arabic
3. ff. 167v-170r

Delhi Persian 86A c.

Untitled cluster of annotations recording the nikāḥ or marriage ceremonies for princes of the Timurid (Mughal) imperial family, including particulars of mahr and witnesses, using a combination of Persian and Urdu reckoning for dates and entries, spanning the years 1268-73/1851-6.

Not dated at end.

Speedily-written cursive shikastah āmīz hand transcribed into multiple narrow columns under headings.

Language(s): Persian, Urdu, and Arabic
4. ff. 172r-173r

Delhi Persian 86A d.

Untitled cluster of annotations recording the activities of various nikāḥ khvān or marriage officiates and qāz̤īs, listed as Qāz̤ī Nāṣir ʿAlī, Qāz̤ī Fayz̤ Allāh, Qāz̤ī Luṭf ʿAlī, Qāz̤ī Qudrat Allāh, organised in a combination of English (March-April 1852) and lunar hijrī dates, the latter spanning the years 1268-70/1851-54.

Not dated at end.

Speedily-written cursive shikastah āmīz hand transcribed under extended headings.

Language(s): Persian, Urdu, and Arabic

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: 174 ff.
Dimensions (leaf): 295 × 185 mm.

Hand(s)

History

Origin: 1851 - 1856 CE ; India, Delhi

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

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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