The British Library is currently mid-way through a three-year partnership project with the Iran Heritage Foundation UK (with additional support from the Bahari Foundation and the Barakat Trust), to open up access and increase awareness of our collection of over 11,000 Persian manuscripts. These originate from Iran, Central Asia and India, and range in time from the 12th century to handwritten and typed texts of recent years. They include some of the most famous illustrated Persian and Mughal manuscripts, several of which were recently on view in our exhibition Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire (if you couldn't make it, see our recent post ‘A farewell to the Mughals’).
Majnun is brought in chains to Layla's tent. From Nizami's Layla Majnun. Painted by the 16th-century Safavid court artist Mir Sayyid ?Ali (Or.2265, f. 157v). Find this online
Our aim is to construct reliable and consistent metadata describing each manuscript, and to have the bulk of the collection catalogued in digital format by the end of 2014, subject to funding. Details of over 2,000 works have already been added to FIHRIST, a web-based catalogue providing a searchable interface for manuscripts in Arabic script from the major manuscript collections in the UK.
A second part of our digital project is to digitise and put online 50 manuscripts over the next two years. So far we have uploaded the entire text of Shah Tahmasb’s copy of Nizami’s Khamsah (Or.2265) and the three poems by Khvaju Kirmani (Add.18113), copied in Baghdad in 1396. These can be read cover to cover on British Library Digitised Manuscripts.
From Nizami's Haft paykar: Bahram Gur kills the dragon. Painting by Muhammad Zaman dated 1675/76, added perhaps when the manuscript was rebound at the court of Fath ?Ali Shah Qajar (r.1797-1834) (Or.2265, f. 203v). Look at this online
Over the next few months we'll be adding the following manuscripts — so watch this space!
IO Islamic 132: Collection of Poetical Divans, Ilkhanid, 1314-15 Add. 27261: Iskandar Sultan's Miscellany dating from 1410-11 Add. 25900: Khamsah of Nizami, with paintings by Bihzad. Copied in 1442 (see previous post) IO Islamic 3540. Firdawsi's Shahnamah. Shiraz, 16th century Or. 6810: Khamsah of Nizami, copied for Amir Barlas. Herat ca.1494 (see previous post) Add. 18579. Anvar-i Suhayli by Husayn Va‘iz Kashifi. Mughal, 1610-11: IO Islamic 3442. Shahanshahnamah by Fath ʻAli Khan Saba. Qajar, 1810
From the Kulliyat of Khvaju Kirmani, copied in 1396. In this painting, by the artist Junayd Naqqash Sultani (his name is inscribed in an architectural block above the bed), Humay has gold coins poured on him as he leaves Humayun's room, the day after their wedding (Add.18113. f.45v). Find this online
We are now seeking funding for further digitsation. If you would like details or are able to help in any way, please visit our page ‘Opening up Access to the Persian Collections’.
We are often asked what the Mughals' favourite books were. Unfortunately there is no complete record of the contents of the Mughal Library, but John Seyller’s comprehensive survey in 1997 of manuscripts containing Mughal valuations and inscriptions (see below) gives a fairly good indication. A clear favourite was the Khamsah (‘Five Poems’) written in Persian by Niẓāmī (d.ca. 1202). Other very popular works were the Gulistān (‘Rose Garden’) and Būstān (‘Scented Garden’) by the well-known Persian poet Saʻdī (d. 1291/92), the poems of Jāmī (d. 1492) and, of course, the Dīvān of Ḥāfiẓ of Shiraz (d.ca. 1389). The British Library collections suggest similar conclusions, with several fine examples of Mughal copies of these works.
The Khamsah of Niẓāmī
In a recent post (‘A Jewel in the Crown’) I wrote about what was probably the most highly regarded imperial copy of Niẓāmī’s Khamsah (‘Five Poems’). However an equally beautiful example is Or.12208, which was copied for Akbar between 1593 and 1595 by ʻAbd al-Raḥīm, one of the most celebrated calligraphers of his day. It originally contained 42 illustrated folios (2 double-page illustrations), 5 of which are now in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; the remaining 37 are still intact in the manuscript. Altogether 22 different artists contributed to this work, all of whom were Hindu painters except for ʻAbd al-Ṣamad who came to India from Iran with the Emperor Humayun in 1555.
Khusraw defeats Bahrām Chūbīn, from Khusraw u Shīrīn in Niẓāmī ’s Khamsah. Illustrated by Manohar (fl c. 1580–1620) (Or.12208, f. 72r)
The Dīvān of Ḥāfiẓ
Examples of two elegant copies of the Dīvān of Ḥāfiẓ (Or.14139 and Or.7573) were given in our most recent post. A third (Grenville XLI) probably dates from between 1600 and 1605. Folio 3r contains a note, possibly by Jahangir, saying that the work was completed at Allahabad where he held court as Prince Salim. Another note, by Shah Jahan, records that it entered his library on the day of his accession on 25 Bahman [corresponding to 8 Jum. II] 1037 (14 February 1628, a similar note occurs in Or.6810 which you can see here).
The Prophet Sulayman with attendant jinns and angels, surrounded by birds and animals (Grenville XLI, f.14r)
Saʻdī’s Gulistān and Būstān
The opening of Sadi’s Gulistān (‘Rose Garden’), copied by Mīr ʻAlī Ḥusaynī (Or.5302)
This copy of the Gulistān was copied in 975 (1567/68) by the calligrapher Mīr ʻAlī Ḥusaynī who describes himself in the colophon as a royal scribe (al-kātib al-sulṭānī) at the capital (dār al-khilāfah), Bukhara (Uzbekistan). Assuming that this is the genuine work of the famous master Mīr ʻAlī, it is the latest dated example of his work by 20 years (Thackston, pp. 154-55). Between 1531 and 1547/48 Mīr ʻAlī copied several notable manuscripts in Bukhara which subsequently passed into Mughal ownership (see John Seyller’s article below), including another Gulistān, which was copied for Sulṭān ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz Bahādur Khān (ruled 1540-1549). The miniatures in the British Library Gulistān include six Bukhara-style paintings which were commissioned apparently at Akbar's request (see dedicational inscriptions on ff. 30r and 91r). Four of these are ascribed to the artist Shaykhm Muzahhib — possibly Shaykhm, son of Mullā Yūsuf al-Haravī, one of the painters of Rawẓat al-Muḥibbīn, also partially copied by Mīr ʻAlī (see Seyller below, p. 339). The manuscript was 'improved' again in Jahangir's reign when seven more paintings were added, probably between 1605 and 1609.
From Saʻdī’s Gulistān. The king visits the dervish, seated outside his house in a traditional chārbāgh garden, having abandoned his former way of life as a result of being introduced to worldly pleasures. Illustration by an unnamed artist, possibly Sur Das Gujarati (see Losty and Roy, p. 94), which has been added to the manuscript during Jahangir’s reign (Or.5302, f. 50r)
The Būstān Add.27262, illustrated below, is dated 26 Rab. I 1039 (13 Nov. 1629) at Agra and was copied by one of Shah Jahan’s court poets, Ḥakīm Rukn al-Dīn Masʻūd called Ḥakīm Ruknā and Masīḥ (d. 1647 or 1655/56 — according to different sources). Ḥakīm Ruknā, who was also a physician, emigrated to Akbar’s court in 1597/98 having previously been in the service of the Safavid ruler Shah ʻAbbas I (r. 1588 to 1629).
From Saʻdī’s Būstān. Illustration by an unnamed artist depicting a story illustrating the advantages of silence: an old man interferes and breaks up a mixed-race courtship, only to be severely reprimanded by the girl afterwards (Add.27262, f. 129r.)
Saʻdi’s verses were also often used as examples of calligraphy. Examples by the last Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’ (r. 1837-1857) and his eldest son Mirza Darabakht (1790–1849) can be seen in an earlier post ‘A 19th century album of imperial calligraphy’.
John Seyller, “The Inspection and Valuation of Manuscripts in the Imperial Mughal library”, Artibus Asiae 57 no 3/4 (1997), pp. 243-349 Barbara Brend, The Emperor Akbar’s Khamsa of Niẓāmī. London: British Library, 1995 Wheeler Thackston, “Calligraphy in the Albums”, in E. Wright, Muraqqaʻ: Imperial Mughal Albums from the Chester Beatty Library Dublin (Alexandria, Va.: Art Services International, 2008), pp. 153-63 J.P. Losty and M. Roy, Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire. London: British Library, 2012 J.P. Losty, The Art of the Book in India. London: British Library, 1982
The Barakat Trust has generously awarded the British Library a grant to digitise two of our most treasured Persian manuscripts, Or.6810 and Add.25900, both copies of the Khamsah (‘Five Poems’) by the twelfth century poet Nizami. Both works include paintings by the master-painter of Herat, Bihzad (died 1535/36), who worked at the courts of the Timurid Husayn Bayqara (ruled 1469-1506) and the Safavid Shah Tahmasp (ruled 1524-1576).
Iskandar with the seven sages, dated AH 900 (1495/95), (Or.6810, f. 214r)
Or.6810 dates from around 1494/95 and was written for Amir ʻAli Farsi Barlas, an amir of the Timurid Sultan Husayn Bayqara. It contains one double page and 20 single miniatures by Bihzad and other artists, and was one of the most precious manuscripts in the Mughal imperial library (see my recent post ‘A jewel in the crown’). It was still in the royal collection at the beginning of the 18th century and was probably taken as loot during the political upheaval which followed Nadir Shah’s conquest and the sack of Delhi in 1739. In December 1782 it was purchased by the collector Richard Johnson working for the East India Company in Lucknow, and was ultimately acquired by the British Museum in 1908.
Iskandar visits the wise man in the cave (Or.6810, f. 273r)
Add.25900 was copied in 846 (1442) and contains 19 miniatures which were added after it was completed. One is contemporary, dating from 846 (1442), while 14, like those of Or.6810, date from Husayn Bayqara’s reign — f.77v is dated 898 (1492/93). Three of these are ascribed to Bihzad. The final four miniatures are Safavid Tabriz style paintings of around 1535-40. Before being acquired by the British Museum, the manuscript belonged to the Indologist James Robert Ballantyne (1813-1864), Librarian of the India Office Library from 1861 to 1864, who had acquired it in November 1837.
Battle between Iskandar and Dara, ascribed to Bihzad, from the Iskandarnāmah (Add.25900, f.231v)
When digitised these two manuscripts will be freely available to look on the British Library's digitised manuscripts page: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
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