[IO Islamic 2547] سَيْر البلاد

Sair-albilâd.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 715 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 2547 here with notations and hyperlinks].

715

Sair-albilâd ( سَيْر البلاد ).

A literal Persian translation of the second part of Ḳazwînî’s great cosmographical work, the آثار البلاد و اخبار العباد or geographical section, by Muḥammad Murâd bin ‘Abd-alraḥmân, who dedicated it to Nawwâb Mûsawîkhân (with his original name Mîr ‘Alî Aṣghar, who died A.H. 1054= A.D. 1644, 1645, see Rieu iii. p.991b, where extracts from this work are noticed), see fol. 10b, ll. 1, 3, and 14. It must have been composed between A.H. 1037, the year of Shâhjahân’s accession, who is mentioned as reigning sovereign, and A.H. 1054 (A.D. 1628-1645, see Rieu, loc. cit.)

Beginning, on fol. 9b: حمد عالى اساس و سپاس بيرون از حدّ و قياس مالك الملكى را درخور و سزاست الخ.

The translation begins with first muḳaddimah, on fol.10b, corresponding to the Arabic text, ed. Wüstenfeld , p.٤٠ First IḲlîm, on fol. 14b; second on fol. 52b; third, on fol.98b; fourth, on fol.188a; fifth, on fol. 314a; sixth, on fol.368a ; seventh, on fol. 387a. On ff. 1b-8b an index of the whole work, divided into two sections, the first of which gives all the geographical names, the second, beginning on fol.6a, lin. penult., and incomplete at the end, the names of Imâms, Shaikhs, etc., mentioned in the book. Another complete copy of this translation is in the Bodleian Library, see Bodleian Cat., No. 400.

No date. The original part of the MS. comprises ff. 53-372, all the leaves before and after that have been supplied by the same later hand.

No. 2547, ff.394, ll. 21; large Nasta’lîḳ, by two different hands; size, 11 in. by 63/4 in.