Persian MS 452 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: An selected excerpt or abridgement of a portion of the Aḥvāl-i Jang-i Marhattah (Events of the Maratha War) by ʻAlī Ibrāhīm Khān (d. ca. 1793). It concerns events pertaining to the mid-18th century to

Author: ʻAlī Ibrāhīm Khān, d. 1793 or 4

Title: Aḥvāl-i Jang-i Marhattah

Title: احوال جنگ مرهته

Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): الحمد لله علی نعمامیهٔ و الصلو‫ة علی نبیّه و الهلبیته و اصحابه این وقایٔع آثار عبرت نامه اولی الابصار است که در عهد حکومت امیر والاجاه فلک بار گاه مرکز دایٔرهٔ اقبال عد و مال خورشید آسمان فطرت ناصب علام رفعت و شوکت نواب مستطاب معلی القاب مشیر خاص حضور سلطان انگلیستان زبدهٔ توئنان بها در عظیم ایشان گورنر بهادر دام اقاله به قلم شکسته رقم علی ابراهیم خان صورت ارتسام می‌یابد...

Explicit: برگ ۳۰ر (folio 30a): الحمد للّه و شکر للّه که این فهرست مجموعه خرم هوشیاراست. و مد حساب مرد دیندار ایست بسال هزار و دوصد و یک هجری در بلده بنارس صورت ارتسام پذیرفت. امید که پسندیده زیرگان و قبول خاطر پر و جوان گردد.

Colophon: برگ ۳۰پ (folio 30b): الحمد للَله پ المنه که تواریخ اهل دکن بتاریخ سی ۳۰ ام ماه اکتوبر سنه ۱۸۶۳ عیسوی حُلیه اتمام در بر کشید.

Colophon: Completed on 30 Oct. 1863 CE

Language(s): Persian

English translation by A. R. Fuller, posthumously published by Elliot and Dowson. Subsequently abridged by Munshī Muḥammad Muḥsin al-Dīn. For another holograph work by this same author, see Persian MS 318

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Written on cross-grained, bone-coloured, externally sized and polished, machine-made wove paper, probably manufactured in Europe.

Extent: 32 folios, 2 flyleaves (ff. i + 32 + i ii).

Dimensions (leaf): 239 × 156 mm.

Dimensions (written): 174 × 90 mm.

Foliation: Foliated in pencilled Arabic numerals that start on folio 1Aa and every ten threafter, subsequently completed when catalogued, hence under by one.

Collation

Comprised of quaternions. 4IV(31)

Condition

Text in good condition, albeit separated from the binding.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 17 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders and colophon.

Additions:
Inscriptions: The right flyleaf a side (f. ia) bears the title and author's name written in Persian, with the name of prior owner Colonel George William Hamilton, likely in the hand of his assitant Muhīn Dās.
Bookplates:
The left paste-down: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with shelfmark ‘2/G’, and ‘Hamilton MSS No. 369’.

Binding

Evidently rebound in Delhi in a hybrid British-Indian style for former owner Colonel George William Hamilton after 1863 when he served there as Commissioner.

Sewn at two unsupported stations, comparatively heavy endpapers added, and edges trimmed. Case-bound in full maroon goatskin leather, tight-backed, over pasteboards, with squares along the edges, defined joints, but without a flap (type III binding per Déroche).

Spine and board margins stained dark brown ~15mm in from the edges, with diagonal painted or ruled lines in the same dye. Exterior margins outlined with ruled double yellow lines on either side, along with single interior lines, all in yellow. Small octagonal paper spine label bears the title in Persian. Compare with Persian MS 477

251 × 161 × 15 mm.

Handle binding with caution. Textblock fully separates from the cover, and the boards yawn at the fore-edge.

History

Origin: Probably completed for Colonel George William Hamilton in Dehli; 30 Oct. 1863 CE

Provenance and Acquisition

Colonel George William Hamilton (1807-1868) served in India from 1823 to 1867, latterly as Commissioner in Delhi in 1862. Therefore, date of the volume's completion comports with his tenure there. He acquired over a thousand Indian and Persian manuscripts, from which the British Museum selected 352, now held in the British Library.

Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) purchased the remainder of Hamilton's collection in 1868.

Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913).

Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1908 to the John Rylands Library.

Record Sources

Bibliographical description based on an index created by Reza Navabpour circa 1993, derived from a manuscript catalogue by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s, concisely published as Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2022 with reference to the volume in hand.

Availability

To book an in-person or online appointment to consult the manuscript, visit Using the Special Collections Reading Rooms. For any other enquiries please email uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk.

Bibliography

H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India, As Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, Vol. VIII (London: Trübner & Co., 1877), pp. 257–297, no. CXXI.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), pp. 327–328 [BL Add. 26272 and Or. 28].

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

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