Biography and History [IO Islamic 1113]

Biography and History. 

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1113 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 710 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

710.

1311. Size 101/4 in. by 61/2 in.; foll. 367. Seventeen and twenty-one lines in a page.

العقود اللؤلؤية فى اخبار الدولة الرسولية

Annals of al-Yaman under the Rasûlî Dynasty, by ‘ALî B. AL-ḤASAN KHAZRAJÎ (d. A.H. 812).

See regarding the dynasty in question, Johannsen, Hist. Jemanae, p.156. No other copy of the present history is known. The author is not named at the beginning, but often in the course of the work. Cf. on him and his other works, Ḥ. Kh. ii. 159, and Catal. Lugd. ii. 173, 196.

Begins: الحمد لله الذى اذا اراد شيا قدّره تقديرا .

In eight chapters. The first is introductory, فى ذكر انساب الملوك بنى الرسول و كيف كان السبب فى دخولهم اليمن و استقلالهم فيها , and treats of the ancient kings of al-Yaman , and of the Ghassânides of Syria, from whom the founder of the Rasûlî dynasty traced his descent. Each of the following chapters comprises the reign (دولة) of one of the Rasûlî kings ; viz., II. (fol. 24) al-Mansûr; III. (fol.48) al-Muẓaffar; IV. (fol.155) al-Ashraf I. ( الدولة الاشرفية الصغرى , in opposition to the longer reign of the second al-Ashraf); V. (fol. 161) al-Mu’aiyad; VI. (fol.226) al-Mujâhid; VII. (fol.282) al-Afḍal; VIII. (fol. 298) al-Ashraf II. (الدولة الاشرفية الكبرى ) . The account of the last reign, with which the author was contemporary, is said to be only partial

(فى .. بعض ايامه ) . He, however, relates the death of al-Ashraf, which happened on 19th Rabî’I., 803, and concludes with an elegy on that prince.

An elegant and accurate copy, with vowel-points.

Headings in larger characters, and often in red. Red dots mark stops. Ornaments have been added on the title-page and over the last lines, which latter have thereby become illegible. Slightly injured by damp and insects, especially in the latter portion. The end seems to be wanting.

This MS. was once in the possession of Mu’tamad Khân ‘Âlamgîrî, and passed from him to Ḳamar al-dîn Khân, Wazîr to Muḥammad Shâh.

[Hastings.]