Baillie, John, of Leys, 1772-1833 (Member of Parliament, and East India Company Official)
Dates
- Existence: 1772 - 1833
Biography
Hailing from Inverness, John Baillie of Leys entered the Bengal army of the East India Company in 1790 C.E., reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1814. His competence as a linguist led to his appointment as Professor of Arabic and Persian and of “Mohammedan Law” at Fort William College, Calcutta, from 1801-1807, during which time he published a Course of Lectures on Arabic Grammar (1801), and An Entire and Correct Edition of the Five Books upon Arabic Grammar (1802-1805). He also fought during the second Anglo-Maratha War 1803-1805, and held the position of Political Officer at Bundelkhand 1804-1806. In 1807 he was appointed British Resident (Political Agent) at the court of the Sa‘adat ‘Alī Khān, Nawwāb of Awadh (reigned 1798 – 1814), at Lucknow. He held this position for eight years.
On his retirement and return to Britain in 1816 he became a Member of Parliament, first for Heddon in England 1820-1830, and then for Inverness, Scotland, 1830-1833. He was also a Director of the East India Company at various times between 1823 and 1833. When Baillie died in London in 1833 his substantial manuscript collecion was overlooked. It was rediscovered there six years later by Duncan Forbes, Professor of Oriental Languages at King's College London, and subsequently returned to Baillie’s family in Scotland.
His grandson John B. Baillie of Leys bequeathed his grandfather's collection of 166 mainly Arabic and Persian manuscripts to the University Library in 1876. They are also listed in M. Hukk’s A descriptive catalogue of the Arabic and Persian manuscripts in Edinburgh University Library (1925).
Found in 167 Collections and/or Records:
کتاب مجمع الامثال Kitāb Majma' al-amthāl, undated copy (original text composed 12th cent. C.E.)
The large collection of more than 6,000 Arabic proverbs, arranged alphabetically, by Shaykh (Abū al-Faḍl) Aḥmad bin Muḥammad al-Maydānī al-Nīshāpūrī (died 518 A.H., 1124 C.E.), in two parts, the first beginning on fol.1a, the second beginning on fol.161b.
It bears seals with the date 1131 A.H. (1719 C.E.) on fols. 1a and 334a.
کشف الظنون عن أسامي الکتب والفنون Kashf al-ẓunūn 'an 'asāmī al-kutub wa-al-funūn, undated copy (original text composed 17th cent. C.E.)
An excellent MS. of an abridgement of the encyclopaedic and biographical dictionary of the famous Muṣṭafá b. 'Abd-allāh Kātib Chalabī, known as Ḥājjī Khalfah, who died (circ.) 1067 A.H. (1657 C.E.).
کلّیات خاقانی Kulliyyāt-i Khāqānī, undated copy (original text composed 12th cent. C.E.)
The poetical compositions of the celebrated Imām Afẓal al-Dīn Badil Ibrāhīm b. 'Alī Najjār "Khāqānī" of Shirvan, who originally wrote poetry under the name of Haqā'iqī d. 582 A.H. (1186 C.E.).
کلّیات سعدی Kulliyyāt-i Sa'dī, 964 A.H., 1556 C.E.
A magnificent copy of the complete collected works of pre-eminently the most popular of Persian poets Sa'dī of Shiraz.
کلّیات عرفی Kulliyyāt-i 'Urfī, 1065 A.H., 1655 C.E.
کنز الدقائق Kanz al-daqā'iq, undated copy (original text composed 13th or 14th cent. C.E.)
A work on Ḥanafī Law, by Abū al-Barakāt 'Abd-allāh b. Aḥmad b. Maḥmūd al-Nasafī (d. 710 A.H., 1310 C.E.). It is an abridgement of his al-Wāfī. This manuscript has been annotated in places in English. The annotations appear to be a reader's notes, translations and interpretations of the meanings of certain sections of the Arabic text. The hand appears to be that of John Baillie.
مآثر عالمگیری Maʻās̲ir-i ʻĀlamgīrī, 1161 A.H., 1748 C.E.
مثنوی نعمت خان عالی Mas̲navī Ni'mat Khān-i 'Alī, undated copy (original text composed 17th-18th cent. C.E.)
مجنون لیلی العامریه Majnūn Laylá al-'Āmiriyyah, undated
A much celebrated love story, it is in prose, probably written by Ḥabīb b. Rabboh; the numerous verses with which the composition is interspersed are attributed to Majnūn himself (as the story's eponymous hero is named after having fallen in love with Laylá).
مختلف الشیعه في احکام الشریعه Mukhtalif al-Shī'ah fī aḥkām al-sharī'ah, 958 A.H., 1551 C.E.
Sections of an important digest on Shi'i law by the celebrated al-'Allāmah, Jamāl al-Dīn Abū Manṣūr al-Ḥasan b. Yūsuf b. 'Alī b. al-Muṭahhar al-Ḥillī (d. aged 78, 726 A.H., 1325 C.E.).
The present incomplete copy consists of divisions 3 and 4 of the work, and is divided into six books. The topics treated among them include commerce, debts, trusts and deposits, rent, gifts, and marriage.