[IO Islamic 2755] منتخب شاهنامه

Muntakhab-i-Shâhnâma.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 883 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 2755 here with notations and hyperlinks].

883

Muntakhab-i-Shâhnâma ( منتخب شاهنامه).

This is the oldest copy in the India Office Collection of the well-known extracts from the Shâhnâma, compiled with a connecting narrative in prose by Tawakkulbeg bin Tûlakbeg (according to one copy in the British Museum, Tawakkul Muḥammad bin Tûlak Muḥammad al-Ḥusainî), an officer of the prince Dârâ Shukûh, at the request of the governor of Ghazna, Shamshîrkhân, comp. Bodleian Cat., No. 504; Rieu ii. p. 539 sq.; W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 740; A. F. Mehren, p. 540; Mohl, Le livre des rois, vol. i, préface, p. lxxix, etc. Unfortunately this copy is very illegible in many places, as a great number of different hands have been engaged in transcribing the MS.

Beginning:حمد بيغايت و ثناى بينهايت مر حضرت كبرياء واجب الوجودى را كه جناب قدسئ هويّت جلالش را از ادراك افهام الخ.

The date of composition, viz. A.H. 1063 (26th year of Shâhjahân’s reign=A.D. 1653), appears here on fol. 1b, l. 3 ab infra; the name of the author on fol. 2a, l. 2, and that of the governor, Shamshîrkhân, on fol. 2a, l. 5.

As title is given here, besides the منتخب شاهنامه, both on fol. 2b, l. 6, and in the colophon, خلاصۀ شاهنامه (see Rieu, loc. cit.). The usual title, تأريخ دلگشاى شمشيرخانى, is not found in this copy. At the end of Ardashîr’s reign, on ff. 168a-171b, the usual additions, list of the Sâsânian kings, biography of Firdausî, and the satire against Sulṭân Maḥmûd. Dated the 25th of Ṣafar in the 46th year of ‘Âlamgîr’s reign (=A.H. 1114, A.D. 1702, July 21). Bibliotheca Leydeniana; a former owner was Robert Watherston.

This work was translated into English by J. Atkinson, in ‘The Shahnamah of Firdausi,’ London, 1832. An abridged translation of the same in rekhta verse, styled شاهنامۀ مولچند, was made by Mûlćand Munshî of Lakhnau, who lived in Dihlî, and dedicated his work to the Sulṭân of Dihlî, Shâh Abû Naṣr Akbarshâh (i. e. Akbar II, who reigned A.H. 1221-1253=A.D. 1806-1837), A.H. 1225 (A.D. 1810), according to the chronogram قصّۀ خسروان عجم ( in a copy of this book in No. 3128 of the India Office Collection, fol. 6b, ll. 7 and 8, and fol. 351a, ll. 5 and 6,comp. Garcin de Tassy, Histoire de la littérature Hindouie etc., 2nd ed., ii. p. 586 sq., and A. Sprenger, Catal., p. 627, where the wrong date, 1220, is given; printed Calcutta, 1846; lithographed at Dihlî and Kânpûr, A.H. 1268, also at Lakhnau).

No. 2755, ff. 171, ll. 14-21; written by at least half-a-dozen hands in various styles of careless Nasta’lîḳ and Shikasta; size, 91/8 in. by 51/8 in.