Asian and African studies blog

Iranians worldwide are today celebrating Noruz and the beginning of the new year. Originating in pre-Islamic times, the Noruz festival was formally incorporated by the emperor Akbar into his ‘divine era’ (tārīkh-ilāhī) as marking the beginning of the solar year.

Jahangir seated on his throne. From an early 19th century copy of Jahāngir’s memoirs, the Jahāngīrnāmah or Tūzuk-i Jahāngīrī, edited by Muḥammad Hādī (Or.1644, f 11v)  

Noruz was the occasion of partying and lavish exchanges of presents as described by Jahangir in his memoirs the Jahāngīrnāmah or Tūzuk-i Jahāngīrī. On March 21st 1619, the first day of his 14th regnal year, Jahangir participated in an entertainment organised by his son Shah Jahan. Jahangir was presented with “choice rarities and valuables from every region”. These included jewels valued at 156,000 rupees, a sword-hilt especially designed by Shah Jahan containing jewels he had himself set and cut, a miniature orchestra made of silver, and a golden elephant howdah (platform for carrying passengers).

Description of the Noruz festivities at the beginning of the 14^th year of Jahangir’s reign. From an 18^th century copy of Jahangir’s memoirs (IO Islamic 164)

There were also two large elephants and five [others with] trappings from the offering of Qutbulmulk, the ruler of Golconda. The first elephant was named Dad-i-Ilahi. Since it entered the royal elephant stable on Nawroz, I renamed it Nur-i-Nawroz. It is an extremely fine elephant, with nothing to detract from its size, beauty, and magnificence. Since I liked its looks, I got on and rode it around the palace.
(Thackston, The Jahangirnama, see below, p. 297)

The festivities lasted 19 days during which more presents were given and the emperor granted many imperial titles and promotions.

Sir Thomas Roe independently gives an account of the Noruz festivities at the beginning of Jahangir’s 11^th regnal year in March 1616, in which he describes the Emperor enthroned, sourrounded by paintings of English royals and nobility:

The manner is: ther is erected a Throne fower foote from the ground, in the Durbar Court, from the back wherof to the place wher the King comes out, a square of 56 Paces long and 43 broad was rayled in, and couered ouer with faire Semianes or Canopyes of cloth of gould, silke, or veluett, joyned together and susteyned with Canes so couered. At the vpper end were sett out the pictures of the King of England, the Queene, my lady Elizabeth, the Countesse[s] of Sommersett and Salisbury, and of a Cittizens wife of London; below them another of Sir Thomas Smyth, gouernor of the East India company. Vnder foote it is layd with good Persian Carpetts of great lardgnes. Into which place come all the men of qualetye to attend the King, except some fewe that are within a little rayle right before the Throne to receiue his Commandes. Within this square there were sett out for showe many little howses (one of siluer) and some other Curiosityes of Price. The Prince Sultan Coronne had at the lefte syde a Pauilion, the supporters wherof were Couered with Siluer (as were some of those also neare the Kings throne). The forme therof was Square; the matter wood, inlayd with mother of pearle, borne vp with fower pillars and Couered with Cloth of gould about the edge. Ouerhead, like a valence, was a nett fringe of good pearle, vpon which hung downe Pomegranetts, apples, peares, and such fruicts of gould, but hollow. Within yt the king sate on Cushions very rich in Pearles and Jewells. Round about the Court before the Throne the Principall men had erected tents, which encompassed the Court, and lined them with veluett, damask and taffety ordinaryly, some few with Cloth of gould, wherin they retyred and sett to show all theyr wealth; for anciently the kings were vsed to goe to euery tent and there take what pleased them, but now it is Changed, the King sitting to receiue what new years guifts are brought to him.
(The embassy of Sir Thomas Roe, vol. 1, pp. 142-4)

Ursula Sims-Williams, Asian and African Studies

Further reading

The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India; translated, edited and annotated by Wheeler Thackston. Washington D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, 1999

Thomas Roe, The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the Court of the Great Mogul, 1615-1619, as narrated in his Journal and Correspondence; edited by William Foster. 2v. London: Hakluyt Society, 1899

A particularly enigmatic manuscript in the British Library’s collection is IO [India Office] Islamic 3113A, a sumptuously decorated Qur’an which, according to the detached label that accompanies it, was copied by the Mughal emperor Shah ʻAlam (1643-1712).

The opening pages of the Qurʼan, containing the Sūrat al-Fātiḥah (‘the opening’) and the beginning of the Sūrat al-Baqarah (‘the cow’). The upper panels contain the chapter (sūrah) headings and the lower panels contain Qur’anic verses, on the right: ‘None touch it except the purified’ (Sūrah 59:79) and on the left: ‘It is a revelation from the Lord of the Worlds’ (Sūrah 69:43). (IO Islamic 3113A, ff. 1v-2)

The manuscript consists of 209 folios, each highly decorated with very few repetitions in the design. The beginning of each of the 30 sections (juzʼ) is easily recognisable by its dense illumination whereas the remaining folios are slightly less ornate. The final chapter is followed by a two-line prayer in a different hand, below which is given a date: fī tārīkh sannah 1141 (1728/29). It seems probable that the concluding prayer and the date were added after the manuscript was completed, perhaps by a later owner who might also have done the fairly extensive repairs which have been painted and written over. The paper itself is of an inferior quality.


The Qurʼan is bound in green velvet, worked with silver thread

Accompanying the manuscript is a label claiming that the copyist was Shah ʻAlam, Awrangzeb’s successor who ruled as Bahadur Shah I from 1707 to 1712.

The contemporary historian Mustaʻidd Khan writes in his Maʻāsir-i ʻĀlamgīrī that, while still a boy, prince Muḥammad Muʻaẓẓam Shāh ʻĀlam had acquired a perfect knowledge of the Qurʼan: “He is deeply read in Arabic, and the fluency and elegance of his diction are the wonder of the very Kurán-readers of Arabia.” It would be tempting to link this Qurʼan with him, but in the absence of supporting evidence it can only remain a suggestion. Another puzzling fact is that at the end of the manuscript the date 1141 (1728-29) had been added in a different hand. However Shāh ʻĀlam I (Bahādur Shāh) had died by then and Shāh ʻĀlam II  would have been less than a year old! How the manuscript was acquired by the India Office Library and the identity of the previous owner seem, unfortunately, to be unrecorded.

Below are some examples demonstrating the individual character of the illumination. I hope that by making this Qur’an more generally known readers may be able to let us know of any parallel examples.

The Qur’ān is divided into 30 sections to facilitate a monthly reading schedule. In this manuscript the beginning of each section is easily recognised by the densely decorated margins. The line of gold marks the beginning of section 12 (IO Islamic 3113A, ff 77v-8)

The beginning of Sūrah 51, Sūrat al-Dhāriyāt (‘scatterers’) (IO Islamic 3113A, ff 178v-179)

Ursula Sims-Williams, Asian and African Studies

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A major diplomatic incident in 1695

Piracy and highjackings have been in the news recently, but in Mughal times they were such a problem that they several times brought about a complete breakdown in relations between the Mughals and the European countries.

During the 17th century, Surat was the most important port in Western India. It was a major trading centre and also the embarkation point for an estimated 15,000 pilgrims per year (see Hajj, below), travelling to the ports of Mocha and Jeddah on their way to Mecca. As early as 1613 Portuguese traders had siezed the Queen Mother Maryam Makani’s flagship Rahimi, carrying off her entire cargo and approximately 700 passengers to Goa (see Findley below). The resulting deterioration in Jahangir’s relationship with Portugal opened a window of opportunity for Sir Thomas Roe’s mission of 1615-18.

Acts of piracy continued in the years that followed, culminating in 1695 with the self-styled ‘Captain’ Avery’s capture of the Ganj-i Sawa’i, the largest of the Mughal ships, on its voyage home to Surat. This incident is described in some detail in the Persian Muntakhab al-lubāb by a contemporary historian Khāfī Khān who had several acquaintances on board. The ship was carrying fifty-two lacs of rupees in gold coins, the revenue from the sale of Indian goods at Mocha and Jedda. Despite having eighty cannon and four hundred muskets, it was captured and boarded by pirates (Moinul Haq’s translation, see below, pp. 419-25):

The whole of the ship came under their control and they carried away all the gold and silver along with a large number of prisoners to their ship. When their ship became over-loaded, they brought the imperial ship to the sea-coast near one of their settlements. After having remained engaged for a week, in searching for plunder, stripping the men of their clothes and dishonouring the old and young women, they left the ship and its passengers to their fate. Some of the women getting an opportunity, threw themselves into the sea to save their honour while others committed suicide using knives and daggers.

Khāfī Khān’s account of the capture of the Ganj-i Sawaʼi. This copy beloged formerly to James Grant (1750–1808), the East India Company’s sarishtahdar  (‘account-keeper’), who had it copied in 1782 from a copy in the library of the late Ṣamṣām al-Mulk Shāhnavāz Khān (d.1781), minister of Nizam ul-Mulk in Haidarabad and editor of the famous biographical dictionary Maʻāsir al-umarāʼ (Add.6574, f.168)

Avery’s act seriously jeopardised the East India Company’s trading activities. A huge reward was offered for his capture but he was never tracked down. The emperor Aurangzeb, on his part, retaliated by imprisoning the English traders at the East India Company factory in Surat and threatened a siege of Bombay. Khāfī Khān recounts the occasion when, during the hostilities, he was transporting goods from Surat to Rahiri (Raigarh) and had an interview with the governor of Bombay Sir John Gayer.

…the discourse turned upon different topics, pleasant and unpleasant, bitter and sweet; questions and answers were made. Of these questions one was about the cause of the arrest of his agents. Trusting that God and His Prophet would protect me, I said in answer: “You do not take upon yourself the responsibility of the shameful deeds committed by your men, which are condemned by all sensible men”.

Despite assurances that the pirates, though English, were nothing to do with the East India Company, Khāfī Khān reflected:

The revenue of the island of Bombay most of which is derived from betel-nuts and cocoa-nuts, does not amount to more than two or three lakhs of rupees. It is reported that the entire amount of trade of that wicked fellow [the Governor of Bombay] is not more than twenty lakhs of rupees. The source of the remaining unstable income of the English is the plunder and capture of the ships going to the House of God. At intervals of one or two years, they attack these ships, not at the time when, loaded with grains, they proceed to Mukhkhah and Jeddah, but when they return, bringing gold, silver, Ibrāhīmis and riyāls [non-Mughal currencies].

Henry Avery and his legacy

Born in the West Country, Henry Avery (or Every, also known as John Avery and ‘Long Ben’) was recruited as first mate on a ship which he highjacked and sailed to Madagascar. There he recruited a larger crew and embarked on a successful though short-lived career of piracy. After the capture of Ganj-i Sawai, Avery and his men sailed to the West Indies where they went their separate ways. Several crew members were caught and hanged but Avery was never heard of again.

From A General and True History of the Lives and Actions of the Most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers etc., originally published in 1724 (this edition: Birmingham: R. Walker, 1742). The author, Captain Charles Johnson, has been identified with Daniel Defoe (c1660-1731)

Meanwhile Avery became a household name in 18th and 19th century Britain, synonymous with the spirit of adventure and life at sea. Numerous fictional and semi-biographical accounts of his life were published: The Ballad of Long Ben and The King of Pirates by Daniel Defoe, to mention just a few. In the earliest, The life and adventures of Capt. John Avery written by a pseudonymous Adrian van Broeck and published in 1709 (see below), Captain Avery seized not only Ganj-i Sawai’s treasure but the Emperor Aurangzeb’s granddaughter who happened to be on board. They married and sailed away to Madagascar where they lived happily (almost) ever after:

As time obliterates the most deep impressions of sorrow, so the lady was not long before she forgot the pleasures of her grandfather’s court, in the joys of her own, and found herself happily brought to bed of a son...while the female part of her retinue were no less backward in presenting their husbands with the fruits of their conjugal endearments.

Ursula Sims-Williams, Asian and African Studies

Further reading

Ellison B. Findly, “The Capture of Maryam-uz-Zamānī’s Ship: Mughal Women and European Traders”, Journal of the American Oriental Society 108/2 (1988), pp. 227-38
Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam, ed. Venetia Porter. London: British Museum Press, 2012, p.169
S. Moinul Haq, Khafi Khan’s History of ʻAlamgir. Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1975
Adrian van Broeck, The life and adventures of Capt. John Avery, the famous English pirate... Written by a person who made his escape from thence, and faithfully extracted from his journal. London: J. Baker, [1709]. Available online in Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)

In addition to single drawings and maps contained in larger works, the Mughals almost certainly used route maps which had obvious practical applications. Some 18th century examples exist in the form of schematic lists, while others are diagrammatic representations. Maps in this format may well have been produced centuries earlier, but are not to be found among the few surviving examples of which the British Library is fortunate in having two. These are almost identical copies of the route from Delhi to Kandahar in Afghanistan. One (IO Islamic 4725) is a scroll measuring 20 metres, and the smaller (IO Islamic 4380), on display in the exhibition ‘Mughal India’, is 12 metres long. No indication of orientation or scale is given.

Neither of the maps is dated, but a note in English on the back of the larger scroll mentions a “Moulvee Ghulaam Kadur”. This is possibly Mawlavi ʻAbd al-Qadir Khan ("Abould Kadir Khan" in the published report) who in 1806 worked for John Lumsden, a civil servant of the East India Company at the Nawab Vizier’s Court in Lucknow. As a result of a threatened invasion by the ruler of Afghanistan, Zaman Shah Durrani (ruled 1793-1800), Lumsden, in 1797, sent an agent, Shaykh Rahim ʻAli to Kabul to collect data and report back. From Rahim ʻAli's notes, ʻAbd al-Qadir extracted an account of the 75 stages of the journey from Delhi to Kabul and published it in The Asiatic Annual Register for 1806 (for details see below). It is possible, however, that the British Library maps were based on an earlier model since their details complement rather than duplicate the printed account. They include references to the residence of Maharaja Amar Singh who ruled Patiala from 1748 to 1782,  and "the late Burhan al-Mulk", the first Nawab of Oudh, who died in 1739, besides frequent mention of ruined serais (‘travel-lodges’) which were probably destroyed in the disturbances from the mid to late 18th century. Unlike the memoir, both maps extend the route as far as Kandahar.

The Fort of Delhi and the area to the north (IO Islamic 4725) 

The map begins at Delhi with the area around the Red Fort, north of the River Jumna. On the lower right is Salimgarh Gate and on the left is Buland Bagh. To the left of the Delhi Gate is Saʻd Allah Khan's Chowk. North of the Fort are vineyards on the right and a rose garden on the left. Between the Fort and Chandi Chowk (in the centre going north) are the garden pavilion of Shaista Khan and the Urdu Bazar. At the top of this section are the Faiz Canal on the right and the Khass Bazar on the left.

The route between Patiala and Ludhiana (IO Islamic 4380)

The section illustrated above shows, from the bottom on the left, Patiala the residence of Raja Amar Singh, 14 kroh (1 kroh is about 1.5 miles) from Sirhind, and on the right, Banur. The Sirhind Bridge takes the road to Sirhind Fort “destroyed by the Sikhs”.  Beyond that, on the bank of the river Sutlej on the right is the Maikhor garden built by Fidai Khan and Qasba Ropar. After passing an old serai, the road reaches Lashkar Khan’s Sarai and beyond that the Serai of Ludhiana with Ghat Manchiwara on the right and Qasba Payak on the left.

The corresponding stages, 14-17, in the printed account describe the roads of Sirhind as excellent, “with many wells, fountains, and shady mango trees on each side, and the lands in the highest state of cultivation”. The next stage is “quite deserted, and only fit for an army to halt at”. At Ludhiana the Zamindars (landowners) are recently converted Muslims, formerly Rajputs. The roads are shaded with a number of wells, mango orchards and tanks. The local chiefs are Tara Singh and Ghaiba Singh.

The city of Kandahar  (IO Islamic 4380)

The final destination is the city of Kandahar situated 118 kroh from Kabul, 409 from Lahore and 667 from the capital Shahjahanabad. The road continues westwards with the mountains on the north leading to the Darya-i Shur, while the southern mountains face Mecca, leading to Tur and Jabal.

Ursula Sims-Williams, Asian and African Studies

Further reading

Susan Gole, Indian Maps and Plans: From Earliest Times to the Advent of European Surveys. New Delhi, India: Manohar Publications, 1989. Includes a reduced facsimile copy of IO Islamic 4725, together with a complete translation of the Persian text

Abdul Rehman, Historic towns of Punjab: ancient & medieval period, Lahore: Ferozsons, 1997, pp.157-60. Includes a reduced facsimile copy of IO Islamic 4380, of the section from Serai Khan Khanan to Khairabad

Mawlavi ʻAbd al-Qadir Khan, “Miscellaneous Tracts for the year 1806”, The Asiatic Annual Register: or, A View of the History of Hindustan, and of the Politics, Commerce, and Literature of Asia, 8. 2 (1806 [1809]), pp.46-57

One of the items on exhibit in ‘Mughal India’ is an album containing examples of some of the best calligraphers of 19th century Delhi. Unfortunately we were only able to display one opening in the exhibition, which was copied by the last Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’ (ruled 1837-1857), famous as a poet and calligrapher. It contains two verses in Arabic in praise of the Prophet Muhammad, taken from the introduction to the Gulistan  ('Rose garden') by the 13th century Persian writer Saʻdi. In more recent times they have become famous after being sung by popular qawwali singers in Pakistan: 

He attained the heights in his perfection;
he obscured all darkness with his beauty.
Beauteous is his every quality.
Invoke blessings on him and his Family.

Calligraphy by the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II (Add.21474, f. 3) 

Keeping and training pigeons has been a universally popular pastime from time immemorial. The Mughals were no exception. Pigeons were bred at court and also imported from distant countries. Abu’l-Fazl (see previous blog) writes of Akbar’s pleasure at receiving ‘fairy-flying’ pigeons from the Mughals' homeland Farghana in Central Asia, along with a skilled pigeon-fancier, Ḥabīb (Akbarnamah, events of regnal year 31).

Portrait of Zayn Khan Kokah (c.1542–1601), Governor of Kabul. This portrait dating from around 1595 has been extended in the 17th century by the addition of some pigeons and a dovecote to make it a standard size to fit into an album (Johnson Album 18, 18)

In the Āʼīn-i Akbarī (‘Akbar’s regulations’), Abu’l-Fazl devotes a whole section (Book 2, Āʼīn 29) to amusements which include pigeon-flying (ʻishqbāzī), breeding and the different colours of the royal pigeons. Altogether there were estimated to be more than 20,000 pigeons at Akbar’s court, but only 500 were select (khāṣṣah). When the emperor moved camp, the pigeons were taken as well, with bearers carring their portable dovecotes. Pigeons were trained to do quite complicated manoevres: the wheel (charkh) “a lusty movement ending with the pigeon throwing itself over in a full circle” and turning somersaults (bāzī). A select pigeon could perform 15 charkhs and 70 bazis in one session. Although ordinary people were amused by pigeon flying, His Majesty, Abu’l-Fazl writes, “uses the occupation as a way of reducing unsettled, worldly-minded men to obedience, and avails himself of it as a means productive of harmony and friendship.” (Blochmann’s translation, see below). 

Pigeons were also important in communications, with particular breeds being trained for this purpose. Abu'l-Fazl singles out the Raṭh pigeon as a good carrier. As recently as 2002 pigeons still played a role in the Orissa Police Pigeon Service (Independent, 21 March 2002). 

The Kabūtarnāmah, an illustrated pigeon manual copied in 1788, here showing a training session and some different types of pigeon (IO Islamic 4811, ff. 2v-3)

Sayyid Muḥammad Mūsavī’s Book of pigeons

One of the most visually attractive items in the exhibition ‘Mughal India’ is IO Islamic 4811, ‘The book of pigeons’ (kabūtarnāmah), by Sayyid Muḥammad Mūsavī whose poetical name was Vālih. This work consists of a poem of 163 couplets, followed by a short prose treatise explaining the different types of pigeons, their colours and characteristics, and the art of pigeon-flying. It was written, as a gesture of friendship, for one Miyān Khūban who asked for an elegantly written account of pigeon flying.

Muḥammad Mūsavī Vālih was born in Khurasan, migrated to Hyderabad and then moved to Arcot (Tamil Nadu) where he died in 1184 (1770/71). He wrote several other works including a Sufi masnavi (poetic tale) called Najm al-huda, and a poem on cock-fighting (See Storey below, pp. 410-11).

How do I get him down again? (IO Islamic 4811, f. 5v)

The Darwin connection

Charles Darwin (1809-82) was himself a keen pigeon fancier and set up a breeding loft at his home in the village of Downe, Kent. In the course of his research he corresponded with Sir Walter Elliot (1803-1887) a naturalist and ethnologist working in the Madras Civil Service. Darwin knew about Abu’l-Fazl’s chapter on pigeons (see Darwin and Elliot’s correspondence 1856-59): "I should mention that I have heard that such exist in the Ayin Akbaree in Persian (I know not whether I have spelt this right) but as this work is translated I can consult it in the India House [i.e. India Office Library, now part of the British Library collections!]". Elliot supplied Darwin with skins of various birds from India and Burma in 1856 and also sent him an English translation of Sayyid Muḥammad Mūsavī’s treatise which Darwin referred to twice in The variation of animals and plants under domestication. London: John Murray, 1868 (vol. 1 pp.141 and 155).

From J.C. Lyell’s Fancy pigeons, 3rd ed. London: Gill, 1887, facing p. 120

This fact was mentioned by James C. Lyell in his Fancy pigeons: containing full directions for their breeding and management, with descriptions of every known variety. 3rd revised ed. London: Gill, 1887. Lyell wrote to Darwin asking about Elliot's translation (p. 104): “but he [Darwin] replied that he was unable to find it in his library, and feared that, as it was in loose sheets, it had been mislaid. I then wrote to Sir Walter Elliot, asking him if he still had the original in Persian. He informed me it was lost, with his library, on the voyage home.” Fortunately Elliot rediscovered his translation and sent it to Lyell who published Sayyid Muḥammad Mūsavī’s introduction as a postscript to his 3rd edition (pp. 412-4).

Darwin’s collection of pigeon skeletons and skins, which he donated to the British Museum in 1867, are currently featured as ‘Museum Treasures’ of the Natural History Museum.

Ursula Sims-Williams, Asian and African Studies

Further reading

Abū’l-Fażl ʻAllāmī,   The Ain i Akbari; translated by H. Blochmann and H. S. Jarrett. 3v. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1873-1894.

C.S. Storey, Persian literature; a bio-bibliographical survey. London: Luzac & co, 1927-

A 15th century illustrated copy of Nizami’s Khamsah (Or.6810)

This beautiful copy of the Khamsah (five poems) by the 12th century Persian poet Nizami first entered the Imperial Library in Akbar's reign and was without doubt one of the most valuable manuscripts in the collection. The Mughals typically categorised their books according to value and content and nearly all the finest copies carry gradings and valuations. This manuscript was classified as ‘Select’ (khāṣṣah), and ‘Class one grade one’ (avval avval) – John Seyller (see below) lists only five others of equal status. Its importance lies chiefly in its decoration and illustrations which include miniatures by the master-painter of Herat, Bihzad (flourished during the reign of the Timurid Husayn Bayqara, 1469-1506). However, with more than 70 inscriptions and seal impressions, it also contains significant material to undertake the somewhat challenging task of working out its history! I’ll be writing more about what can be learned from this kind of study later.

From the story of ʻKhusraw and Shirinʼ. The elders plea with King Hormuzd to forgive his son Khusraw. Ascribed to Bihzad (Or.6810, f. 37v) 

The time and place of origin

Unfortunately the manuscript has no colophon—which might otherwise have conveniently supplied the date and place of copying. However, in a miniature depicting Khusraw arriving at Shirin’s palace (f. 62v), one of the arches carries an inscription reading ‘Prepared for the library of the great Amir, the just, the most courageous Amir ʻAli Fārsī Barlās, may his rule last until the day of resurrection’. A Mirza Ahmad ʻAli Farsi Barlas is mentioned by the emperor Babur in his memoirs as an amir of the Timurid Sultan Husayn Bayqara who ruled Herat from 1469 to 1506. He is described by Babur as being both elegant and a scoundrel with a talent for and understanding of poetry while not actually composing it himself (see Thackston below, p.205).

Dedication on Or.6810, f. 62   

Another painting (f. 214r) is more specifically dated 900 (1494/95) in an inscription in the arch of a window.

This all suggests a date of around 1494/95 and Herat as the city of origin. There is also a dedicatory inscription in Arabic contained in the shamsah on folio 3r.

Shamsah (Or.6810, f. 3r)

This reads (Wheeler Thackston’s translation, see John Seyller below):

This is a quintet for one whose five sound senses and five perplexed (inner senses?) can bear witness to its worth, one who will never in his life reckon “the five pilfered ones” (the five intercalary days added to the end of the Persian year), one in whom the five of the “family of the cloak” take pride, lord of the throne of the niqaba in glory, the conquering one, sultan of naqibs, Amir Rażī al-Dīn ʻAbd al-Muṭṭalib, may he help people until doomsday.

Some Royal inscriptions

Despite his inability to read and write (see Ellen Smart below), several minimal inscriptions have been attributed to Akbar, but the habitual notes by the Mughal emperors, found on their most valuable manuscripts, really only began with Jahangir and were continued by Shah Jahan, after whom the practice seems to have been discontinued. This manuscript is one of over 20 known to have included inscriptions of both rulers. To the left of the shamsah on folio 3r is an inscription by Jahangir, written just a few weeks after his accession to the throne.

God is Great. On the fifth of Azar year 1 (Nov 1605) [this book] entered the library of this supplicant at the Divine Court. Written by Nūr al-Dīn Jahāngīr [son of] Akbar Pādshāh in the year 1014 (1605). This Khamsah is one of the select (khāṣṣah) books. [It has] twenty-two paintings, the work of Ustād Bihzād and others. Sixteen are the work of Bihzād, and five are the work of Mīrak, and one is the work of ʻAbd al-Razzāq. Value five thousand rupees.

Folio 3r containing a shamsah, the classification, Shah Jahan’s seal dated 1037 (1628) and inscriptions by Jahangir and Shah Jahan

Folio 3r containing a shamsah, the classification, Shah Jahan’s seal dated 1037 (1628) and inscriptions by Jahangir and Shah Jahan 

 Underneath a second inscription, by Shah Jahan, says:

God is Great. This Khamsah of the eloquent and famous Shaykh Niẓāmī, may God have mercy on him, entered the library of this supplicant at the Divine Court on the twenty-fifth of the month of Bahman Ilāhī, corresponding to the eighth of the month of Jumādā II year 1037 Hijri (14 February 1628), which is the day of the blessed accession. Written by Shihāb al-Dīn Muḥammad Shāh Jahān Pādshāh, son of Jahāngīr Pādshāh, son of Akbar Pādshāh Ghāzī.

Ursula Sims-Williams, Asian and African Studies  

Further reading

Ebadollah Bahari, Bihzad: Master of Persian Painting. London: IB Tauris, 1996. See pp. 129-56 for a description of the paintings in this manuscript
John Seyller, "The Inspection and Valuation of Manuscripts in the Imperial Mughal library”, Artibus Asiae 57 no 3/4 (1997), pp. 243-349
Babur, The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor; translated by W. M. Thackston. New York: Modern Library, 2002
Ellen Smart, ”Akbar, Illiterate Genius”, in Kalādarśana: American Studies in the Art of India, ed. J. Williams (New Delhi: OUP and IBH Publishing Co.,1981), pp. 99-I07

Related articles

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The Khamsah of Nizami: A Timurid Masterpiece

Two 15th century Timurid masterpieces to be digitised

A Khamsah ascribed to the painter Bihzad (Add. 25900)

Christoph Clavius’ Gnomonices Libri Octo (Rome, 1581) and the Kitāb al-Maqāyīs [li-Kalāwīyūs], translated by Mu‘tamad Khān Rustam b. Qubād al-Badakhshī (d. 1705)

Christoph Clavius was born in Bamberg in either 1538 or 1537 (an amusing discrepancy for a scientist whose fame derives from his work on calendar reform) and was initiated into the Jesuit order by Saint Ignatius Loyola himself in Rome in 1555, and passed away in 1612, an eminent scholar. Many of Clavius’ works were influenced by Latin translations of Arabic scientific works, including those of Ibn Rushd (in particular his commentary on Aristotle), the astronomers Abū Ma‘shar, al-Biṭrūjī and al-Farghānī, as well as the mathematician Thābit b. Qurra, among many other scientists writing in Arabic and Persian whose works Clavius cites.


Book 4 of Christoph Clavius, Gnomonices Libri Octo published in Rome in 1581 (533.k.2, pp. 442-43)  

Clavius is an excellent example of the many Jesuit scientists of his age who continued to teach Ptolemaic astronomy (i.e., a geocentric vision of the solar system, indeed the universe, in which the planets and stars orbited the earth in concentric circles), despite the rise of – and often despite their own familiarity with and endorsement of – Copernican astronomy. Christoph Clavius’ Gnomonices Libri Octo, on the art of gnomonics (timekeeping through the use of a sundial), was published in 1581. 

Mu‘tamid Khān's Arabic translation of the identical passage (IO Islamic 1308, ff. 289v-290)


This work also exists in a fascinating Arabic translation emanating from the Mughal empire that was purchased by Richard Johnson (1753-1807), a well-known collector of manuscripts and miniature paintings who worked for the East India Company. Johnson made an annotation on the flyleaf of the manuscript that the translator of Clavius’ work was sent to Portugal by Aurangzeb – presumably to study or in some diplomatic capacity. The full note reads, “Upon Dialling.  Work of Clavius in Latin translated into Arabic by Maatemed Khan who went to Portugal in the time of Aurungzebe. This is the original foul copy of the translation in the hand of the translator” (i.e., the ‘foul copy’ being the first draft, in contrast to the ‘fair copy’). 

Richard Johnson's explanatory note (IO Islamic 1308)

A further note, in Arabic, added by the translator’s son, reads: “Draft of the Book of Measures [Kitāb al-Maqāyīs] which was composed by Clavius the Frank [Kalāwīūs al-Firinjī] in the Latin language, and my father, God have mercy on him, translated it into the [clear - mubīn?] Arabic language, possessor of virtuous talents including the perfection of acquired knowledge, Rustam called Mu‘tamad Khān, the son of Qubād, gatherer of proofs of knowledge, perceiving the secrets of the spoken and the tacit, given the name Diyānat Khān al-Ḥārithī al-Badakhshī, may God be fair with both of them and elevate them.  Signed: I, who am a feeble slave begging for the mercy of the One and the intercession of the Prophet, Mīrzā Muḥammad, may God cause him to attain eternal happiness”.

Note by Muʻtamad Khān's son (IO Islamic 1308, f.1v)

This translation offers some fascinating possibilities – the first is the demonstration of how knowledge circulated in the early modern world.  Clavius’ work, which responded to and was inspired by Arabic mathematicians and scientists in Latin translation, here a generation after its publication is translated back into Arabic to be read, presumably by elites at the court of Aurangzeb, where the work’s translator and his son were courtiers.  This translation demonstrates the complexity of knowledge flows – that they were synchronic as well as diachronic, and also involved a process not just of translation, but of re-translation, re-interpretation and development as they travelled.  Furthermore, the inscriptions taken in tandem, one in English made by an East India official, the other in Arabic by a Mughal courtier, open the possibility that already in Aurangzeb’s reign, Mughal elites travelled to Europe perhaps to study.  In the case of Mu‘tamid Khan, the translator of this text, he mastered the technical idiom of geometry and mathematics in Latin, and then translated it into an equally complex scholarly language, Arabic.  Not an uncommon intellectual feat at the Mughal court, this process of scientific translation remains to be studied in depth. It is also possible that the presence of the Jesuits at Goa had an influence on the production of this translation, but firm evidence remains to be found.

Nur Sobers-Khan, Asian and African Studies

 

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Further reading:
Ali, Athar M.  The Mughal Nobility under Aurangzeb. Bombay, 1966, which is also available in Urdu: Aurangzeb ke ‘ahd men mughal umarā, translated by Amīn al-Dīn. Dehli, 1985
Knobloch, Eberhard. “La connaissance des mathématiques arabes par Clavius”, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 12/ 2 (2002), 257-84
Lattis, James M.  Between Copernicus and Galileo: Christoph Clavius and the Collapse of Ptolemaic Cosmology. Chicago and London, 1994