[IO Islamic 3124] سندبادنامه

Sindbâdnâma.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 1236 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 3124 here with notations and hyperlinks].

1236

Sindbâdnâma (سندبادنامه).

The extremely rare poetical version of the book of Sindbâd, which closely agrees with the Greek Sintipas (see ‘Essai sur les fables indiennes,’ by Loiseleur de Longchamps, pp. 93-137) and the prose-version of Bahâ-aldin Muḥammad (see Rieu ii. p. 748 sq.), and has been fully described by F. Falconer in the Asiatic Journal, vols. 35, p. 169 sq., and 36, pp. 4 sq. and 99 sq. The present copy is undoubtedly the same which Falconer describes so minutely, and has on the second fly-leaf the following entry:

‘Purchased at an old bookstall for £1, June 1857, by me.’ Edwin Greenwood.

‘It is called Sindibad Namah. It is a collection of exceedingly interesting tales. At analysis, accompanied with extracts, appeared in the Asiatic Journal, vols. 35 and 36, 1841. Neither the East India House nor the British Museum possess a copy. I am told this is the only copy in Europe, therefore it is very valuable.’

To rectify Mr. Greenwood’s statement, H.H. Wilson has added, March 1859, to the above remarks the following of his own, proving that this copy originally belonged to the India House, and must have been stolen from there and sold:

‘A curious fiction-The MS. belongs to the Library of the East India House, as is evident from Mr. Falconer’s description.’

Mr. W.A. Clouston, who has based his ‘Book of Sindibâd from the Persian and Arabic, with introduction, notes, and appendix’ (privately printed, 1884), to a great extent on this copy, and given a description of it in the introduction, p. xi. sq., has added on the first fly-leaf, April 1884, a list of the lacunas and the misplaced leaves in this MS., according to the original Arabic paging. This Persian version was composed A.H. 776 (A.D. 1374, 1375), see fol. 8b, l. 5 (چو بر هفصد افزود هفتاد و شش), and begins, on fol. 2b:

بنام خداوند لوح و قلم – كه زو نام اوّل بنامش رقم

No date.

Lacunas after ff. 16, 26, 41, 44, 56, 61, 85, and 155.

No. 3124, ff. 166, 2 coll., each ll. 16; clear and distinct Nasta’lîḳ; illuminated frontispiece on fol. 2b; ff. 2b and 3a luxuriously adorned: excellent pictures (some of full size) on ff. 1b, 2a, 11b, 13b, 14b, 18b, 20b, 21b, 22a, 23b, 28b, 29b, 31a, 32b, 34b, 35a, 36b, 40b, 43a, 45a, 47b, 48a, 48b, 50b, 54b, 57b, 60b, 64b, 68a, 69a, 73a, 74b, 75a, 76a, 78a, 80a, 82a, 85b, 87b, 91b, 94b, 97a, 99a, 102a, 106a, 108a, 109b, 114b, 116b, 119b, 120a, 121b, 123b,125a, 126a, 128b, 129b, 132a, 134b, 135b, 137a, 138a, 138b, 142a, 143b, 149b, 151b, 154a, 158a, 163b, and 165b; size, 95/8 in. by 61/8 in.