Persian MS 925 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: A complete copy of the Khizānah-ʼi ʻĀmirah (Royal Treasury), originally composed by Ghulām ʻAlī ibn Nūḥ Āzād Bilgrāmī (1704–1786) in 1176 AH (1762–63 CE) in Aurangabad, then capital of the Princely State of Hyderabad, shortly after his friend and patron Niẓām al-Mulk ‘Alī Khān Āṣaf Jāh II (b. 1734, r. 1762–1803) ascended the throne.nA major poet and author of several historical and biographical accounts, in this work he relates the lives of some 135 Persian poets with selections of their oeuvre, recounts the history of the Āsaf Jahi dynasty up to his patron, and also covers the reigns of Aḥmad Shāh Durranī (b. 1722, r. 1747–1772) and the Maratha empire. Since he lived during many of these events and relates vivid eyewitness accounts, historians deem it a reliable source on 18th-century South Asia. One of two complete copies held in the Rylands, this manuscript copied in 1196 AH (1781–82 CE) dates just twenty Islamic years after the author first completed it

Author: Bilgrāmī, Sayyid Ghulām ʻAlī Āzād, 1704-1786 Āzād بلگرامی، غلام علی حسينی واسطی آزاد

Title: Khizānah-ʼi ʻāmirah

Title: خزانۀ عامره

Incipit: برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): سر کلام راجعه حمد صانعیست که انسان را به گوهر گرانمایه ناطقه بنواخت.

Explicit: برگ ۲۵۷پ (folio 257b): سبحان ربك رب العزة عما يصفون وسلام على المرسلين والحمد لله رب العالمين.

Colophon: Completed in 1196 AH (1781–82 CE).

Language(s): Persian

For another comeplete copy of this work, see Rylands Persian MS 319, and for an adridged redaction, see Persian MS 320. Scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803-1865) describes the work in his groundbreaking essay on biographies of Persian poets published in 1848, and Naval Kishore Press published the earliest lithographed critical edition in 1287 AH (1871 CE). For a complete description see Sachau and Ethé's Bodleian Library catalogue, no. 381.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Cream-coloured, externally sized and polished laid paper, probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent .

Extent: 257 folios, 5 flyleaves (ff. iii + 257 + ii).

Dimensions (leaf): 285 × 175 mm.

Dimensions (written): 200 × 105 mm.

Layout

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

Hand(s)

Copied in black nasta'līq.

Additions:
Inscription: Folio 29a bears a comment on the accuracy of the text, signed by Allāh Yār Bilgrāmī, dated 1196 AH (1781–82 CE), soon after completion.

Binding

Binding made of brown leather on pasteboard

Gilded border

Water damage

History

Origin: Probably completed in the Indian subcontinent; 1196 AH (1781–82 CE).

Provenance and Acquisition

Acquired by Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) from an unidentified source, for his Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh Hall, Wigan.

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, Manchester.

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.

Revised and expanded by James White with reference to the manuscript in 2017

Amended and enhanced 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

A.S. Bazmee Ansari, “Āzād Bilgrāmī”, in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition (Online), (2012).

Ghulām ʻAlī ibn Nūḥ Āzād Bilgrāmī, Khizānah-'i ʻĀmirah. Kānpūr: Munshī Naval Kishūr, 1287 AH (1871 CE).

Nathaniel Bland, 'On the earliest Persian Biography of Poets, by Muhammad Aúfi, and on some other Works of the class called Tazkirat ul Shuârá'. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. IX (1848): p. 150, no. 1.

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), p. 93, no. 287(i).

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), p. 373–374 [BL 0r. 232].

Eduard Sachau and Hermann Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Vol I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889) .cols. 255–260, no. 381 [Ouseley Add. 6].

M. Siddiqui, Āzād Belgrāmī, in Encyclopædia Iranica Vol. 3, Fasc. 1. (1987): pp. 171–173.

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. I, Pt. 2 (London: Luzac & Co., 1935), p. 855–866, §162 (17).

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation

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