Asian and African studies blog

Earlier this week, my colleague Nur Sobers Khan (Iran Heritage Foundation Curator of Persian Manuscripts) wrote about the emperor Aurangzeb pondering the afterlife.  She discussed a little known manuscript commissioned by the emperor entitled 'The Book of Traditions on the Hereafter'.  This blog and a previous one on Islamic jurisprudence refers to Aurangzeb's religious orthodoxy. This period in history was a great challenge for local artists. In fact, his views on Islam is one of the contributing factors that led to a decline in the Mughal painting tradition. Today's blog will look at depictions of Aurangzeb painted during his lifetime from 1619-1707.

Illustrated histories of the Mughal emperors are a starting point to look for portraits of the princes and the ruling elite. The Padshahnama, the official account of Aurangzeb's father Shah Jahan's reign, was written by the historian Muhammad Lahori. Shah Jahan ruled from 1627-58. The illustrated version in the royal collection at Windsor is the only surviving contemporary version. The manuscript, however, only corresponds to Lahori’s first volume and the first ten years of Shah Jahan’s reign. From a cursory overview, the manuscript casts light on the nuances of Shah Jahan’s relationship with Aurangzeb. As compared to his siblings, Aurangzeb was less frequently painted.

Shah Jahan receives his three eldest sons and Asaf Khan during his accession ceremonies on 8 March 1628. Painted by Bichitr, c. 1630-5. Royal Collection. Wikimedia Commons

In the Padshahnama, artists document the milestones and personal achievements of the princes. In the above scene, Shah Jahan embraces his eldest and favourite son Dara Shikoh. His two younger sons, Shah Shuja (dressed in yellow) and Aurangzeb (dressed in green) appear on the left waiting for their turns. They are accompanied by their grandfather Asaf Khan. In this scene, Aurangzeb is only 9 years old. Other key events featuring Aurangzeb include the prince facing a maddening elephant named Sudhakar in June 1633 and his father Shah Jahan honouring him at his wedding on 19 May 1637. 
Prince Aurangzeb reports to Shah Jahan in durbar at Lahore in 1649. Mughal, 1650-55. British Library, Add.Or.3853

Another painting which related to the official history written by Muhammad Lahori, but prepared for a later (now dispersed) illustrated volume of the Padshahnama, features Aurangzeb reporting to Shah Jahan in 1649 (above). In this imperial durbar (official assembly) scene, Shah Jahan is seated in the jharoka (balcony for official ceremonies) inside the Divan-i 'Am or Hall of Public Audiences. This building is located in the Mughal fortress and complex in Lahore. Aurangzeb is picture standing on the left, next to other courtiers, though with his arm raised in salute to his father. Less than ten years after this event, Aurangzeb imprisoned his father in the Agra Fort, outmanoeuvred his brothers and arranged for their deaths in order to become emperor. Aurangzeb's eldest brother Dara Shikoh was the heir-apparent and favourite son. Aurangzeb claimed the throne in 1658. His father died in prison in 1666.

An exceptional military commander, Aurangzeb drastically expanded the geographic boundaries of the empire to include the Deccan plateau in central India. State revenues prospered, but constant wars to retain control of his territories gravely damaged the state finances. During his lifetime, Aurangzeb was often represented in one of two ways: either as a warrior for Islam or as a devout Muslim ruler reading a Qu'ran. As compared to the lavish paintings of Shah Jahan's period, the artistic style radically changed. Artists tended to paint simple individual portrait studies. The paintings were often painted in the nim-qalam (tinted drawing) technique with hints of and gold. Artists seemed to steer away from the developed backgrounds landscape settings. In fact, it was exceptionally rare for artists to paint historic scenes. Contemporary accounts do not offer a precise explanation for the decline in the painting traditions. Contributing factors may have included Aurangzeb’s curtailing of state expenditure, banning histories in praise of the emperor, forbidding music and dancing for pleasure at the court, and increased religiosity.

Equestrian portrait of Aurangzeb. Mughal, c. 1660-70. British Library, Johnson Album, 3.4.

In this equestrian portrait, Aurangzeb is depicted symbolically as an austere ghazi or warrior for Islam. He is dressed in full armour and holds a gold lance. His rearing horse is ready for battle and covered with chain-mail. From his belt hang a quiver of arrows and a push dagger called a katar.

Aurangzeb in his old age. Mughal, c.1700. British Library Johnson Album 2,2.

Aurangzeb left northern India for the Deccan in 1681, never to return. An increasingly orthodox Muslim, he re-instated the poll-tax levied on non-Muslims, revived the power of Muslim clerics, and fostered a political and social divide based on religion. The last portrait of Aurangzeb pictures the devout Muslim ruler in profile, with a downward gaze at a manuscript held in his hands, most likely to be the Qur’an. Dressed in stark white garments, his appearance is in sharp contrast to the golden radiance of the halo, the floral patterned bolster and the luxurious carpet hung on the window ledge. For Aurangzeb, there was no greater personal accomplishment than to memorise every verse and chapter of the Qur’an. Having committed to memory the entire text, he wrote two copies of the Qur’an in perfect calligraphy. This style of portraiture, featuring Aurangzeb in his old age and hunched over a manuscript, was commonly produced and suggests that artists felt that this was the most appropriate type of pictorial format to depict the elderly ruler.

Further reading:

M. Beach, E. Koch and W. Thackston, King of the World: The Padshahnama, Azimuth, London, 1997

Saqi Mustaʻidd Khan, Maāsir-i-ʿĀlamgiri: A history of the Emperor Aurangzib-ʿĀlamgir (reign 1658-1707 A.D.), translated into English and annotated by Sir Jadunath Sarkar. Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1947

J.P. Losty and M. Roy, Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire, British Library, 2012

Malini Roy, Visual Arts Curator

Malini Roy, Visual Arts Curator - See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/asian-and-african/2013/07/book-of-affairs-of-love.html#sthash.5Ng6wrIM.dpuf

Picking up the thread of previous blogs examining the patronage of legal compendia and mathematical translations at the Mughal court under Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707), today’s entry deals with a little-known manuscript commissioned by the emperor himself. The manuscript in question is Delhi Persian 44, entitled Kitāb Akhbār al-Ma‘ād (The Book of Traditions on the Hereafter), which consists of a compilation of ḥadīth dealing with the topic of death and the afterlife, from funerals to the end of the world and the day of judgment. The ḥadīth (traditions spoken by the Prophet Muhammad and recorded by his companions and followers) are in Arabic, with a careful Persian-language exegesis that offers not only a translation and explanation of the content but also the correct pronunciation of the Arabic wording.
 

Aurangzeb in his old age reading the Qur’an.  Mughal, c.1700 (Johnson Album 2, 2)


The author, Ghulām Muḥammad al-Satirkhī, names himself in the preface. He appears to have been a minor scholar who also contributed to the monumental Fatāwā ‘Alamgiriyyah (Nadvī, 98). The Kitāb Akhbār al-Ma‘ād seems to be a unique selection of ḥadīth made by the author, rather than a Persian translation of a previously existing Arabic-language compilation. In fact, several compilations of ḥadīth on the afterlife exist, but none seem to closely resemble the work at hand. For instance, the famous 15th-century scholar of Islamic law, Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, compiled ḥadīth relating to the obligatory prayers and rituals surrounding death and the state of the body in the grave, in a work entitled Bushrā al-Ka’īb bi-Liqā’ al-Ḥabīb and in a further work, the Sharḥ al-Ṣudūr fī Sharḥ Ḥāl al-Mawtā fī al-Qubūr. Al-Suyūṭī authored a separate work that focused on eschatological concerns; however, these ḥadīth are gathered in a separate volume unconnected with the previous ones, called al-Budūr al-Sāfirah. We shall see that this approach to separating ḥadīth on funerary practice from ḥadīth on the apocalypse and day of judgement is entirely different to the approach taken by Ghulām Muḥammad al-Satirkhī in his work.
 

Part of the table of contents of the Kitāb Akhbār al-Ma‘ād by Ghulām Muḥammad al-Satirkhī (Delhi Persian 44, f 3r)

The Kitāb Akhbār al-Ma‘ād, in contrast to other ḥadīth compilations on similar topics, is much wider in scope. In addition to encompassing ḥadīth on rituals, funerary prayers, and the body in the grave, it also addresses questions on the apocalypse and last judgement. The author rarely cites the source of his ḥadīth, but when he does, it is typically one of the canonical Sunni ḥadīth collections (the six canonical ḥadīth collections and the musānid). While he gives the name of the first transmitter from among the companions of the prophet, he does not provide a full isnād (chain of tranmission). The work opens with the well-known ḥadīth that (among other things) it is obligatory for the Muslim to walk in the funeral procession of another Muslim, and continues to discuss how the body should be washed and wrapped in the shroud, along with similar issues of religious practice and legal requirement.

However, what is interesting about the Kitāb Akhbār al-Ma‘ād is that it expands into more esoteric topics in the second half of the work, attempting a universal scope when dealing with the hereafter. It addresses not just the obligatory actions and prayers of the Muslim surrounding death but also includes ḥadīth on barzakh, the liminal area between this world and the next, and numerous ḥadīth and tales associated with the apocalypse and end of days in the Islamic tradition. After the detailed description of the apocalypse - including the appearance of the anti-Christ (the Dajjāl) and Gog and Magog (Jūj and Mājūj) - the author presents several ḥadīth on how humans will be judged, and describes the characteristics of those who will dwell in heaven or hell.

Beyond its status as a manuscript of royal patronage that has previously not received scholarly attention, the work is of note for its wide selection of ḥadīth on all aspects of eschatology. It remains to be established whether the work represents a truly unique approach to the topic of the afterlife, or whether the author based his work in part on previous compilations. While it has been established that the author did not rely on al-Suyūṭī’s many compilations, a detailed study of the numerous ḥadīth collections on the afterlife would be required before drawing any firm conclusions (I am writing an article on this manuscript and its comparison with similar compilations – so watch this space for more information!). However, if we take the preface and conclusion of the manuscript at face value, in which the author claims that he was ordered by Aurangzeb to construct this compilation, we should ask why the emperor was interested in an all-embracing approach to everything dealing with death and the afterlife, from the wrapping of the corpse in the shroud until the final trumpet heralding the last judgement, and why, for that matter, he saw fit to order not only the compilation of this material, but also its translation and exegesis in Persian.
 

The Arabic introduction to Kitāb Akhbār al-Ma‘ād, mentioning the patronage of the Emperor Aurangzeb (Delhi Persian 44, f 2v)


The manuscript is dated 1089 AH/ 1678 AD, the same year that al-Satirkhī completed the work, so Aurangzeb (born in 1618 AD), would have been sixty years old when it was written. Based on pure speculation, could impending old age have spurred a greater interest in the afterlife, causing Aurangzeb to commission such a work? The author, in the preface, states that Aurangzeb's wish was to lead those who were negligent in their religion back to the staight path - so perhaps the extremely educated and pious emperor intended this work for a general audience rather than his own private reading.  Or perhaps he had a particular person in mind, a relative he viewed as 'straying from the path' and wanted to frighten back into line with a book about threats of torture in the afterlife. For the moment, it remains a mystery, but watch this blog for more akhbār of the ma‘ād.

Further reading
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī. Bushrā al-Ka’īb bi-Liqā al-Ḥabīb ed. Mashhūr Ḥasan Maḥmūd Sulaymān (Jordan: Maktabat al-Manār, 1988)
Jane Idleman Smith and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad. The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)
Mujībullāh Nadvī. Fatāva-yi ʻĀlamgīrī ke muʾallifīn (Lāhaur: Markaz-i Taḥqīq-i Diyāl Singh Ṭrasṭ Lāʾibrerī, [1988])

Nur Sobers-Khan, Asian and African Studies

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An exciting project I’ve been working on during the last few months is ‘The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination’ a new exhibition opening this autumn at the Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies London.

One of the world’s oldest religions, Zoroastrianism originated amongst the Iranian peoples in Central Asia during the second millennium BC spreading east along the Silk Road as far as China and south-west to Iran where it was the religion of the Achaemenid kings (550-330 BC) and their successors until the Arab conquest in the mid-seventh century AD. The Zoroastrian sacred texts were composed in the Avestan (Old Iranian) language, but were transmitted orally and were not written down until the late Sasanian period (c. 224-651 AD). Even after that Zoroastrianism remained essentially oral in character with the earliest surviving manuscripts dating from the late 13th century. Central to the religion is the belief in Ahura Mazda (‘wise lord’), his spokesman Zarathustra (Zoroaster) and the dichotomy between good and evil.


One of the holiest Zoroastrian prayers, the Ashem Vohu, discovered at Dunhuang by Aurel Stein in 1917. Transcribed into Sogdian (a medieval Iranian language) script, this fragment dates from around the ninth century AD, about four centuries earlier than any other surviving Zoroastrian text (British Library Or.8212/84)

This exhibition will be the first to provide a visual narrative of the history of Zoroastrianism and its rich cultural heritage. It will include sections on the spread of Zoroastrianism along the Silk Road, the Judaeo-Christian heritage, and Zoroastrianism in Iran from the Achaemenid empire up to and including the Islamic period. Further sections are devoted to Zoroastrianism in India, the Parsis and the Parsi diaspora. In addition to texts, paintings and textiles the exhibition will include a walk-in fire temple and a 10-metre glass etching based on the cast of the western staircase from the palace of Darius at Persepolis from the British Museum.

The exhibition is being curated by Sarah Stewart (lead curator) together with Pheroza Godrej, Almut Hintze, Firoza Mistree  and myself. As you can imagine, we have been having a wonderful time sourcing material to include. Not surprisingly — since I have been involved  — the exhibition will include a large number of loans from the British Library, which is fortunate in posessing one of the most important collections of Zoroastrian manuscripts. It will run from 11 October to 15 December 2013. A catalogue will be published by IB Tauris and there will be a two-day conference associated with the exhibition, ‘Looking Back: The Formation of Zoroastrian Identity Through Rediscovery of the Past’, on 11 and 12 October 2013.

During the next few months I’ll be writing about several of the exhibits, but meanwhile here are a few select items:

An illustrated copy of the Avestan Videvdad Sadeh, the longest of all the Zoroastrian liturgies. Copied in Yazd, Iran, in 1647 (British Library RSPA 230, ff. 151v–152r)

The martyrdom of the lady Tarbo, her sister and her servant who died during the reign of the Sasanian ruler Shapur II (r. 309-379). While the historicity of martyrologies such as this is questionable, they nevertheless represent a literary tradition of the early Christian community which is based on the realities of intermittent persecution under Sasanian rule. This very early Syriac manuscript dates from the fifth or sixth century AD (British Library Add.14654, ff. 13v-14r)

Zoroaster, founder of the seven liberal arts, as portrayed in the French world chronicle, Le Trésor des histoires. Medieval Christian interpretations of Zoroastrianism, based on classical literature, often focussed on the figure Zoroaster who came to be regarded as a master of magic, a philosopher, and an astrologer, especially after the Renaissance, with its increased awareness of Greek and Hellenistic literature. Depicted here at his desk, Zoroaster is described as the founder of necromancy and the seven liberal arts. This copy dates from c.1475–80 (British Library Cotton Augustus V, f. 25v)




Parsis at prayer, the shoreline of Bombay in the distance. Early 19th-century oil painting by Horace Van Ruith (1839–1923) who visited Bombay between 1879 and 1884 and is known to have established a studio there (British Library Foster 953, detail) Images online

For more details, follow these links to the exhibition website and facebook page.

Ursula Sims-Williams, Asian and African Studies

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This volume, which opens with an ornate rococo illuminated heading, is the original handwritten handlist of the manuscripts of Mustafa Paşa, preserved in the Mosque of Hasan Paşa. Neither the former owner nor the mosque is more specifically identified. According to an inscription, in 1230/1814-15 the library’s holdings were scrutinized under the supervision of Devletlü (His Excellency) Haccı ‘Ali Paşa. Of the 230 volumes, 135 were found to be present and 95 on loan to students. Many are common textbooks on the religious sciences.

Defter-i kütüb-i Mustafa Paşa fī Cami‘ Hasan Paşa, undated (late 18th-early 19th c.).  Original hand (f. 2v-5v, 11v-19v) is clear nesih; later additions in untidy rıkʼa. Text frames: black, gold, black, red. Thick off-white laid paper; watermarks: stylized coronet above letters BVC (C below); smaller coronet above letters CSC; stylized lion rampant. 22 folios, plus 79 blank but for ruling. 271 x 157 mm; ruled area 224 x 116 mm (British Library Or.14878)

This defter is unusually concise. Each page has a grid of 18 squares, each entry stating only the short title (or a generic description such as ‘Treatise on Sufism’) or author (but rarely both) and the number of volumes; this is often insufficient to identify the text unequivocally. In some squares, the word mevcud (‘present’) has been added in red ink. The compilers exhibit a lower level of linguistic knowledge than one might expect. The defter contains entries on folios 2v-7v; blank ruled squares on 8r-10v; then 69 folios that are blank apart from the ruled gilt text frames (not counted in foliation, following British Library practice); then further entries from f. 11v to the top row of 20r; then ten more folios with only text frames.

It is curious that the written contents comprise two sequences, both with later additions, separated by so many blank pages. The handwriting of the best-written folios – 2v-5v and 11v-19v – is all by the same individual, although the contents of the two sequences differ. The volume may have been ordered to a fixed size and format, to accommodate future acquisitions.  There is an explanation. Examination of the second sequence shows that it represents the original writer’s attempt to re-order the entries by subject, beginning with Qur’anic literature before proceeding to Ḥadīth (Prophetic traditions), Fiqh (jurisprudence), and so on. Thus the Defter of the Mustafa Paşa Library, for all its deficiencies, reflects the care taken to maintain records of the holdings of a modest Ottoman mosque library.


Muhammad Isa Waley, Asian and African Studies

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Preparing a talk recently for the 'Africa Writes' festival at the British Library, I wrestled with how to cover a big chunk of history in half an hour. How to communicate the fascination of the manuscript cultures of West Africa – and just how large these collections are? The story is about so much more than Timbuktu – though that city was indeed a big player in the cultures of learning and literacy that developed south of the Sahara over the second millennium CE.

Cloth trader. P.D. Boilat, Esquisses sénégalaises (Paris, 1853). 10096.h.9

In a way, though, the story tells itself. The manuscript cultures of West Africa aren’t well-known, and they reveal something perhaps rather unexpected about the continent. Trans-Saharan links brought both Islamic learning and a culture of books to great swathes of West Africa, from Mauritania in the north-west to Nigeria and Cameroon in the south-east. Across the region, many collections still survive: around 80 libraries have contributed to the West African Arabic Manuscript Project.


Religious poem. (BL Or.6473)

This image, from the British Library’s small collection of West African manuscripts, is a religious poem. Islamic studies and religious literature were the top subjects of interest to West African scholars and students. The Arabic language and legal studies both also generated copious amounts of documents. Then there are manuscripts in other areas including history, astronomy and astrology, arithmetic and mathematics, numerology and amulets, politics, and health and medicine.


Work on grammar. (BL Or.6953)

Many West African manuscripts are not illuminated – the artistic interest lies in the calligraphy. But religious manuscripts, particularly Qur’ans, were often beautifully decorated. The image below is from a Qur’an in the British Library’s collections, in the artistic tradition of northern Nigeria / southern Niger.


Opening page of a Qur’an. (BL Or.13284)

The manuscript heritage of West Africa – and of other parts of the continent, where there were also strong cultures of scholarship – demonstrates conclusively that Africa south of the Sahara was not a continent without writing. Herein lies, I think, much of the reason for the new focus on this heritage – of which Timbuktu is the leading symbol. And in that regard, the news is not all bad: the majority of the manuscripts, we hear, survived the recent troubles and are relatively safe, at least for now.

I’m focusing here on manuscripts from West Africa specifically because the British Library will be holding an exhibition on ‘West Africa: Cultures of the Word’ in 2015. Over the coming months, I’ll be blogging more about manuscripts, and the exhibition. Watch this space (and follow us on Twitter).

Marion Wallace, Africa Curator, Asian and African Studies

Further reading

Graziano Krätli and Ghislaine Lydon (eds), The trans-Saharan book trade: manuscript culture, Arabic literacy, and intellectual history in Muslim Africa (Leiden: Brill, 2011)
UNESCO expert mission evaluates damage to Mali’s cultural heritage

Past blog entries have highlighted our recent acquisitions in the Visual Arts department. Two of the most recent paintings we have acquired include a portrait of Ikhlas Khan and scene featuring a reluctant maiden by the artist Faizallah. 

I am pleased to announce that earlier this year we also added this striking study of Rao Arjun Singh of Kotah (ruled 1720-23) worshipping Sri Brijnathji in a rose garden. Painted at the court of Kotah during the period 1720-25, this is the only identified portrait of Arjun Singh in a national collection in the United Kingdom. This work can be attributed to one the master painters of Kotah of the early eighteenth century. 

Rao Arjun Singh worshipping Sri Brijnathji in a rose garden  (BL Add.Or.5722)
Kotah (India), 1720-25
Opaque watercolour and gold on paper
Painting: 30.5 x 32.5 cm

In this lavish scene, Rao Arjun Singh is featured worshipping Sri Brijnathji. Sri Brijnathji, the tutelary deity of the state of Kotah, is enthroned under a rose-bedecked chhatri. The setting is a garden which is divided by water channels into quarters that are filled with rosebushes. Standing directly behind Sri Brijnathji is an attendant. The painting reveals how Hindu rulers in Rajasthan treated deities not as idols but as living deities. More importantly, this work demonstrates how the ruler instructed the artist to personify the deity using his own physiognomy. Rao Arjun Singh’s distinctive sharp-nosed profile is the model for Shri Brijnathji (deity), the worshipper, as well as attendant. Arjun Singh features both the worshipper as well as the subservient attendant holding a peacock feather flywhisk. In regards to its research potential, this complex painting casts light on the intricate relationship between state and religion in one of the important Rajput kingdoms. Of course artists did also paint straighforward portraits of Rao Arjun Singh as well. For a study of Rao Arjun Singh of Kotah admiring a horse, see this study at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

On the reverse it is inscribed in Rajasthani in nagari:  Sri Braijainathai ji gulabai bagai ma birajai cha (which can be interpreted as 'Sri Brijnath Ji is in the Rose Garden in Braj').

Material held in the Visual Arts department at the British Library can be viewed by appointment in the Print Room. Please email [email protected] for an appointment.

Malini Roy, Visual Arts Curator 
Follow us on Twitter @BL_Visual Arts

Further reading:

W.G. Archer, Bundi and Kotah Painting, 1959

M.C. Beach, 'Masters of Early Kota Painting' in Beach, M.C., Fischer, E., and Goswamy, B.N., Masters of Indian Painting, Artibus Asiae, Zurich, 2011, pp. 459-78

S.C. Welch, et. al., Gods, Kings and Tigers: the Art of Kotah, Prestel, Munich, New York, 1997.

Published in Bombay from 1856 to 1866, the serial Doresh tov le-‘amo takes its Hebrew title from a biblical verse (Esther 10:3) which roughly translates as  'Seeking good for one’s people', a fitting name for a journal purporting to inform and educate the community.  The English subtitle The Hebrew Gazette was only added with the eleventh issue.  In the first two years of circulation the journal appeared fortnightly, then weekly until 1866 when publication finally ceased.

Printed by lithography, the language used throughout is the Judeo-Arabic dialect of the Baghdadi Jews penned in their distinctive Hebrew cursive script. Due to these peculiarities, the journal’s readership was obviously limited to the Baghdadi Jewish community.  The first two issues were lithographed on blue paper by Sason ben David Sason who, as acting editor, set out the main goals of the journal in an opening essay.  Thereafter, editorial responsibility passed on to David Hayim David, Doresh tov le-‘amo  being subsequently printed on white paper, except from  numbers 8, 9 and 16 for which blue paper was again used.


The title page for vol. 3. no. 35 of Doresh tov le-‘amo, published in Bombay in June 1858. Acquired  from the Valmadonna Trust, 2005 (ORB 40/595)


The serial’s most salient features are undoubtedly its unique calligraphy and decorated front pages of individual issues, particularly those printed in the years 1857-1858.  As seen– in issue no.35, vol.3, June 1858 – the ornamentation is fairly simple consisting mainly of floral embellishments flanking the title panel and a pair of sketchy steamboats serving as text markers.   

Each issue imparts a wealth of information, ranging from general news such as the movement of ships in and out of Bombay harbour, to notices relating to the local Baghdadi Jewish community, such as for example weddings and philanthropic acts.  Historical articles and short accounts on overseas Jewish communities were published only occasionally. 

The front pages are excellent sources of information in their own right, the one shown here being no exception.  Not only does it provide details of the weekly Torah portion and prophetical readings for the Sabbath service, but it also shows the tidal periods and even the exact timing of the cannon firing at the Fort of Bombay.  The first steamboat, marked 'London' in Hebrew script, announces the sailing of a ship to England via Aden and Suez on June 4th 1858.  The ship, which was serviced by the Peninsular and Oriental Company, ran a postal collection the day before sailing. 

The title page for vol. 1. no. 16 of Doresh tov le-‘amo (The Hebrew Gazette), published in Bombay in the spring of 1856, lithographed on blue paper (ORB 40/595)


This journal provides a fascinating insight into the social and cultural habits of the Baghdadi Jews of Bombay, as well as glimpses of Indian life in the early second half of the 19th century.   

Ilana Tahan, Lead Curator Hebrew and Christian Orient Studies


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Among the collection of 40,000 or so books and manuscripts discovered in 1907 by Sir Aurel Stein in cave 17 of the ‘Caves of a Thousand Buddhas’ near the city of Dunhuang in China,  were large numbers of scrolls including 31 written in Khotanese, a Middle Iranian language which was used between the 5th and 10th centuries in the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan on the southern branch of the Silk Route (present-day Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China). Of them, the Buddhist scroll Ch.c.001 (IOL Khot S.46) is by far the largest, measuring over 21 metres. It was copied in Dunhuang in the mid 10th century for a Buddhist patron Śāṃ Khīṅä Hvāṃ’ Saṃgakä who, in return, requested long life for himself and his family.

 
Ch.c.001 photographed by Stein in Serindia (Oxford, 1921), vol 4, plate CXLVI


The scroll is dated in four colophons written over a period of six months in the year of the Hare (AD 943) and includes Buddhist esoteric Mahāyāna and Tantric works written in Sanskrit and Khotanese. The first two are Sanskrit dhāraṇīs (incantations): Buddhoṣṇīṣa-vijaya and Sitātapatra (ll. 1-198), and these are followed by further texts in Khotanese: Bhadrakalpika-sūtra, a list of the names of the Buddha (ll.199-754); two almost identical deśanā (confession) texts on the same subject (ll. 755-851 and 1062-1101); and the Mahāyāna Sumukha-sūtra (ll. 852-1061), in which the Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi and several other deities promise to protect anyone who recites and learns the sūtra.


Lines 795-803 of Ch.c.001 (IOL Khot S 46), part of a confession text written in calligraphic formal Brahmi script. 10th century. Image from IDP


To judge from its size and the care taken to preserve it, the patron, Śāṃ Khīṅä Hvāṃ’, must have been an important person. Almost certainly he can be identified with Hvāṃ’ Śāṃ Khīṅä (i.e., 王上卿  Wang Shangqing) described as a donor in both Khotanese and Chinese on a Dunhuang painting of Vaiśravana (also completed in the year of the Hare), which is preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale Paris (Pelliot Tib 0821). The importance of the patron is also suggested by the quality of the silk painting, which was originally glued to the back of the scroll and served as a cover, secured by ties.

Painted silk sūtra wrapper from Ch.c.001 (IOL Khot S 47). 10th century. Image from IDP


The painting shows a pair of birds, possibly swan geese, standing on lotus flowers and holding budding branches in their beaks. The motif of the wild goose, frequently mentioned in Dunhuang literature, is well attested in Tang painting, lacquerware, silver and ceramics, appearing, for example, on the Dunhuang banner headings MAS 876 and 877 (Ch.00304.a and b), both preserved in the British Museum.


British Museum MAS.876: one of two square-shaped fragments of plain woven silk patterned with the clamp-resist dyeing technique. The pattern consists of two motifs: a dominant large roundel with encircled rosettes and a narrower inner roundel, enclosing four paired geese; and a four-petalled flower in the centre, and the other secondary quatrefoil. The repeat in the warp direction is about 56.6 cm but it is unclear in the weft direction. Another fragment from the same textile (but without geese) is in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (Дх51). Image from IDP

To find out more about the Stein collection and finds from Central Asia, visit our International Dunhuang Project Database website at idp.bl.uk. This collaborative database holds over 400,000 images from the major Central Asian collections worldwide. 

Ursula Sims-Williams, Asian and African Studies


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Further reading

P. O. Skjærvø, Khotanese manuscripts from Chinese Turkestan in the British Library:  a complete catalogue with texts and translation. London, 2002, p 541-50
Sh. Takubo, Tonkō Shutsudo Utengo Himitsu Kyōtenshū no Kenkyū [= Studies on the Khotanese “Collection of the esoteric sūtras” found in Tunhuang]. Tokyo, 1975
G. Dudbridge and R. E. Emmerick, “Pelliot tibétain 0821,” Studia Iranica 7/2 (1978), pp. 283-85

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