[IO Islamic 453] شاهنامه

Shâhnâma.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 872 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Hermann Ethé, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, 2 vols. (Oxford: India Office, 1903): volume 1, number 453 here with notations and hyperlinks].

c. Copies of the Shâhnâma with another preface.

872

Shâhnâma.

This copy has the same preface as Add. 27,302 in the British Museum (Rieu ii. p. 536b) and No. 497 in The Bodleian Cat., which begins thus: حمد و ستايش مر خداى را عزّ و جلّ كه خداى هر دو جهان است الخ, and contains a legendary biography of Firdausî, with a short genealogical account at the end. The poem is, as in many of the preceding copies, divided into four books. Book I, on fol. 9b; II, on fol. 192b; III, on fol. 333b; IV, on fol. 452b. The first book goes down to Rustam’s slaying the dîw Akwân (see Bodleian Cat., No. 500), the second to Kuhram’s falling into the hand of Isfandiyâr, and the third to the beginning of Nûshirwân’s reign; the fourth comprises the rest. Many headings are left blank. Ff. 1 and 8 are supplied by another hand. This copy was finished in Ramaḍân, A.H. 991 (A.D. 1583, September-October).

No. 453, ff. 576, 4 coll. (except the last two pages which have only two), each ll. 25; small Nasta’lîḳ; illuminated frontispiece at the beginning of each book; size, 9 in. by 55/8 in.