Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

MS. Huntington 598 (Bodleian Library, Oxford University)

Oriental Manuscripts Huntington Collection

Contents

Summary of Contents: A compilation of three stories in Pre-Classical Chaghatay written in the post-Mongol or Timurid version of the Old Uyghur script. Originally penned for جلال الدین میر چاقماق Jalāl al-dīn Mīr Čaqmaq, the Timurid amir of Yazd under شاهرخ Šāhruḫ. All three stories are slightly defective, and the folios of many are out of order.

Language(s): Pre-Classical Chaghatay written in the post-Mongol or Timurid version of the Old Uyghur script

1.
folios 1b-8b, 59a-60b, [part of text missing], 27a-31b, 51a-58b, 139a-146b, [part of text missing], 90a-92b, 86a-89b, 93a-95b, [part of text missing], 97a-97b, [part of text missing], 108a-115b, 117a-124b, 116a-116b, 147a-147b, and 26a-26b

The ordering of the folios in the middle section of this item may be slightly out of order and awaits further research.

References

2.
[beginning of story missing], folios 107a-107b, 9a-17b), 75a-75b, [part of story missing], 85a-85b, [part of story missing] 41a-41b, [part of story missing], 42a-42b, 32a-40b, 44a-49b, 106a-106b, 67a-84b, and 76a-84b, [end of story missing]

References

Uzuntaş, Hülya. Uygur Harfleriyle Yazılmış Çağatayca Seyfül-Müluk Hikayesinin Transkripsiyonu Çevirisi ve Sözlüğü. Ankara: Akçağ Yayınları. 2019.
3.
[beginning of story missing], folios 43a-43b, 50a-50b, 98a-98b, 18a-25b, 96a-96b, 99a-105b, 125a-138b, and 148a

References

Kaya, Ceval. Uygur Harfli Rızvan Şah ile Ruh-Afza Hikayesi. Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları. 2008.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: ff. 148
Dimensions (leaf): 25.4 × 16.5 cm.
Foliation: The older Arabic foliation -- and the modern foliation which follows it -- does not accurately reflect the order of the text. This suggests that (1) the folios were disordered and reassembled before the foliation was added, and (2) the foliator could not read the Old Uyghur script well enough to determine that the folios had been reassembled out of order.

Layout

Single column/row of 15 lines per page, meant to be read from top to bottom, left to right.

Hand(s)

Script: Splendid cursive Uyghur characters. Scribe: Manṣūr Baḫšï -- baḫšï being an Old Uyghur and Mongol title which, in the Timurid context, seems primarily to have denoted a member of the class of Turkic- and Mongol-language scribes and functionaries.

Decoration

Illuminated frontispiece. This was likely prepared for an Arabic-script text as is stands at what would have been the top of the page had the manuscript not been written in the Uyghur script.

History

Origin: Yazd, Iran; 1st Dhū al-Ḥijjah 838 AH; 28th June 1435 CE

Provenance and Acquisition

The collections of Robert Huntington, d. 1701.

Purchased by the Bodleian Library in 1693.

Record Sources

Manuscript description based on: Beeston, A. F. L. (Alfred Felix Landon); Ethé, Hermann, 1844-1917.; Sachau, Eduard, 1845-1930; Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstânî, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford; at the Clarendon Press 1889-1953

Availability

In order to protect and preserve this artefact, access to it is restricted, and readers are asked to work from reproductions and published descriptions as far as possible. If you require access to the original, please submit your request through the Bodleian Archives and Manuscripts Request service. When your request is received, you will be asked to provide further information outlining the subject of your research, the importance of this item to that research, and the resources you have already consulted. Your application will then be considered by our curatorial staff. Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card (for admissions procedures contact Bodleian Admissions).

Funding of Cataloguing

JISC


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