[IO Islamic 118] شاهنامه

Shâhnâma.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 861 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 118 here with notations and hyperlinks].

861

Another copy of the same.

Contents:

The older preface on fol. 1b, beginning as in the preceding copy.

Genealogical index of all the Persian kings, quoted by Firdausî, on fol. 7a.

Another genealogical index in verse ( فهرست منظوم شاهنامه), on fol. 9a.

Alphabetical index of the Pahlawî (and other uncommon) words, used by Firdausî in his epopee, on fol. 10b.

The poem itself is divided into two halves, viz.:

First half, on fol. 12b, beginning: بنام خداوند جان و خرد الخ.

Second half, on fol. 318b, beginning with Gushtâsp’s reign: چو گشتاسپ را داد لهراسپ تخت الخ.

The first half is dated by Ḥâfiż Aḥmad bin Muḥammad the 23rd of Ramaḍân, A.H. 1009 (A.D. 1601, March 28); the second is not dated.

No. 118, ff. 596, 4 coll., each ll. 25; Nasta’lîḳ; vignettes on ff. 1a, 12a, and 318a; illuminated frontispieces on ff. 1b, 12b, and 318b; pictures on ff. 338a, 365a, and 430b. Part of ff. 58a, 79a, 102b, and 180b left blank; many headings and single verses missing or injured; ff. 487 and 556 supplied by a more modern hand; size, 133/8 in. by 93/8 in.