metadata [IO Islamic 149] کتاب نعمتنامۀ ناصرشاهی

Kitâb-i-Ni’matnâma-i-Nâṣirshâhî (کتاب نعمتنامۀ ناصرشاهی).

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 149 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 2775 here with notations and hyperlinks].

e. Cookery.

2775

Kitâb-i-Ni’matnâma-i-Nâṣirshâhî (کتاب نعمتنامۀ ناصرشاهی).

A large and curious, but unfortunately defective work on Indian cookery, preparation of sweetmeats, spices, etc., without author’s name and date of composition. It seems to begin on fol. 162b, where a frontispiece appears together with a kind of title or beading, which runs thus:

کتاب نعمتنامۀ ناصرشاهی و عطرنامه و ترکیب خوشبوئیها و ترکیب چووه  

(i.e. چَوا or چَو۠وَا)

و ترکیب تیلهای

(a fragrant paste of four ingredients  خوشبوی و ترکیب پختن کافور الخ and goes down to fol. 194, after which must be added ff. 1b-161b; there are some leaves missing between fol. 194 and fol. I, the latter opening abruptly thus: a wide-mouthed cauldron)

پاتیلى  بیارند خواه از زر یا از نقره یا از برنج الخ....

The proper place of ff. 195b and 196a is doubtful; they evidently belong to the same work, but are detached from it by an intervening blank page. Besides the lacuna already mentioned, there are several others, for instance, one leaf is missing after ff. 16, 17, 19, 37, 46, 56, 60, and 67; two leaves after ff. 80 and 151; several pages are moreover badly injured. According to a note on fol. 1a this copy must have been written before A.H. 1044 (A.D. 1634, 1635).

No. 149, ff. 196, II. 10; very large Naskhî; illuminated frontispiece on fol. 162b; illustrations on ff. 4b, 5a, 6b, 8b, 11a, 14a, 18a, 23a, 25b, 29a, 32a, 35b, 40b, 44b, 51a, 54a, 66a, 71b, 76a, 79b, 83b, 88b, 91b, 94a, 98a, 100b, 103b, 111b, 115b, 118b, 121b, 124b, 129b, 133b, 136b, 144b, 147a, 153b, 157a, 159b, 165b, 168b, 171b, 174b, 177b, 180b, 183b, 186b, 189b, and 192b; size, 123/8 in. by 8 in.