[IO Islamic 2454] انتخاب شاهنامه

Intikhâb-i-Shâhnâma.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 882 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 2454 here with notations and hyperlinks].

e. Abridgements of the Shâhnâma and other works relating to the poem.

882

Intikhâb-i-Shâhnâma (انتخاب شاهنامه).

A kind of abridgement of the Shâhnâma, with the above title given to it in the colophon on fol. 207a; it may perhaps be identical with the اختيارات or ‘selections from the Shâhnâma,’ made by the poet Khwâjah Mas’ûd bin Sa’d bin Salmân, who died A.H. 525 (A.D. 1131), see A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 406, and No. 908 in this Cat.; but this copy is unfortunately in such an extremely bad state, defective at the beginning, with a very large lacuna after fol. 8, and so severely injured throughout, that it is impossible to give any more detailed account of its character or purpose. There is scarcely one leaf undamaged, whole portions of many pages are torn away (particularly in the beginning), and where catch-words are found, they seldom agree with the initial verse of the following page. On fol. 207a, where the title occurs, the copy apparently concludes and is dated by Asad-allâh, A.H. 945, month of Rabî’-alawwal (A.D. 1538, August); but on ff. 207b and 208a again some extracts from the Shâhnâma are found, and on the latter page, written by another hand, is another colophon, dated A.H. 966, 18th of Jumâdâ-alawwal (A.D. 1559, February 26).

No. 2454, ff. 208, 4 coll., each ll. 28; Nasta’lîḳ; ff. 33 and 208 written by other hands; size, 10¼ in. by 6 ¾ in.