Or 11919 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

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1 copy of Makhzan al-asrār by Niẓāmī

Author: Niẓāmī نظامی
Title: Makhzan al-asrār
Title: مخزن الاسرار
Colophon: کتبه العبد الفقیر الحقیر...جعفر التبریزی...فی سنة ثمان و ثلاثین و ثمانمائه الهجریة النبویة بدار السلطنة هراة
Colophon: (f. 13r) Completed in Herat in 838 AH (1434/35) by Jaʻfar al-Tabrīzī.
Language(s): Persian

Text lacks initial right hand page.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: 13 ff
Dimensions (leaf): 22 × 14.7 cm.

Layout

25 lines per page in 4 columns except for f. 1r which has 3 columns, the leftmost diagonal.

Hand(s)

Nastaʻlīq; copied in black ink, with red, blue and gold headings. Copyist is Jaʻfar al-Tabrīzī.

Decoration

(F. 1r). Blue and gold polychrome panels top and bottom, set within illuminated surround, originally part of a double page opening; f. 1v has illuminated headpiece; blue and gold text frames.

Additions: 


Folio 13v contains seals (see below) and 3 damaged inspection notes, one dated 17 Ziʼl-Qaʻdah year 24 of an unspecified ruler; two inscriptions recording the total number of folios as 21; and a reverse impression from a facing page recording the previous owner (az bābat-i amvāl-i) as one Mīrzā ʻAlī Bayg.




Typed note, presumably by Manuk, inserted after f. 13, claiming an inspection dated regnal year 26 and two seals with the name of Aurangzeb.

Manuk number: M.33.

Endpaper: ‘Bequeathed by P.C. Manuk Esq. July 1949'; rear pastedown includes his monogram 'PMC' .

Binding

Black 20th century European boards with gilt border around edge.

Seal(s):

Circular seal: Amānat Khān Shāh Jahānī sanah 5 sanah [10]42 (1632/33). This seal survives as a mirror image only on (f. 13v) presumably from a now missing facing page.

Circular seal: Sayyid 'Alī
 [al-Ḥusaynī murīd-i Pād]shāh 'Ālam'gīr 10[75] (1665/66) (f. 13v). Identified on the basis of better copies in other mss.

Circular seal: ʻAbd Allāh khānah'zād-i ʻĀlam'gīr Pādshāh sanah [1093 (1682/83)] (f. 13v). Dated on the basis of other examples.

History

Origin: 838 AH (1434/35); ; Herat

Provenance and Acquisition

Copied originally in Herat, it belonged to one Mīrzā ʻAlī Bayg. During the reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb it was part of the Mughal Imperial Library.

Bequeathed to the British Museum by P.C. Manuk and Miss G.M. Coles, through the National Art Collections Fund,July 1949. Transferred to the British Library in 1973.

Record Sources

Manuscript description based on G. M. Meredith-Owens: Handlist of Persian manuscripts 1895-1966. London, 1968, p. 74, with additional enhancements.

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

Subjects

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