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Baillie, John, of Leys, 1772-1833 (Member of Parliament, and East India Company Official)

 Person

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 teh 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:

مثنوی نعمت خان عالی Mas̲navī Ni'mat Khān-i 'Alī, undated copy (original text composed 17th-18th cent. C.E.)

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 109
Scope and Contents A collection of short stories of a mystical and didactic character, written in verse in the mas̲navī form by the same Ni'mat Khān-i 'Alī. Also known as Mīrzā Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad, the poet was descended from a Persian family of physicians in Dehli. He was Comptroller of the Royal Kitchen, and received the title of Ni'mat Khān from the same Emperor 'Alamgīr and near the end of the reign, on account of his constant attendance upon that monarch, he received the...
Dates: undated copy (original text composed 17th-18th cent. C.E.)
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

مجنون لیلی العامریه Majnūn Laylá al-'Āmiriyyah, undated

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 57
Scope and Contents

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).

Dates: undated
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

مختلف الشیعه في احکام الشریعه Mukhtalif al-Shī'ah fī aḥkām al-sharī'ah, 958 A.H., 1551 C.E.

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 13
Scope and Contents

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.

Dates: 958 A.H.; 1551 C.E.
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

مختلف الشیعه في احکام الشریعه Mukhtalif al Shī'ah fī aḥkām al-sharī'ah, 1087 A.H., 1676 C.E.

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 14
Scope and Contents

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.).

Dates: 1087 A.H.; 1676 C.E.
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

مخروطاط ابلونیوس Makhrūṭāṭ Iblawniyūs, early 12th cent. A.H. at latest, early 18th cent. C.E. at latest

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 28
Scope and Contents The treatise on conic sections by Apollonius of Perga, who was born in the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes, and died during that of Ptolemy Philopater, who ruled 222-205 B.C. It is stated on fol. 52b that Apollonius dedicated the first three books of his conic sections to Eudemus. The treatise was originally in eight books, of which only the first four were known in Europe. About the middle of the seventeenth century the next three books were translated from an Arabic MS. dated 1250 C.E. The...
Dates: early 12th cent. A.H. at latest; early 18th cent. C.E. at latest
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

مخزن الاسرار Makhzan al-Asrār, undated copy (original text composed 12th cent. C.E.)

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 102
Scope and Contents An allegorical Sufī mas̲navī by the famous Shaykh Jamal al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyas b. Mu'ayyad Niẓām al-Dīn, "Niẓāmī" of Ganjah, who was born at Qum, 535 A.H. (1140 C.E.), and probably died 599 A.H. (1203 C.E.), though the dates of his death are variously described, 576-607 A.H. (1180-1210 C.E.). It is divided into twenty maqalahs (chapters), and illustrated by means of short instructive anecdotes. Various manuscripts of this poem bear different...
Dates: undated copy (original text composed 12th cent. C.E.)
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

مرآة الجنان و عبرة اليقظان في معرفة حوادث الزمان Mirʼāt al-janān wa-ʻibrat al-yaqẓān fī maʻrifat ḥawādith al-zamān, undated copy (original text composed 14th cent. C.E.)

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 391
Scope and Contents Annals of Islam from years 1 to 750 A.H. (622-1349 C.E.) by ʻAbd Allāh ibn Asʻad Yāfiʻī, d.1367. The first year of the Hijrah begins on fol. 2a, the 750th on fol. 421 b. On the back of the binding it is called Ta'rīkh Yāfiʻī.Fols. 428, illuminated frontispiece; each page bordered by a small gilt stripe; headings in red; slightly injured in some places; various readings, glosses, and additions on the margin and occasional corrections in the text....
Dates: undated copy (original text composed 14th cent. C.E.)
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

مسیر طالبی Masīr-i Ṭālibī, [1219 A.H.], [1804 C.E.]

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 90
Scope and Contents An account of the travels in Europe, 1213-1218 A.H. (1798-1803 C.E.), of Mīrzā Abū Ṭalib Khān b. Hājjī Muḥammad Beg Khān Hindī Isfahānī (d. 1220 or 1221 A.H., 1805-1806 C.E.) written by himself. The author, who was a Turk by descent, was born and brought up at Lucknow. Mukhtar al-Dawlah, the Prime Minister of Nawwāb Āṣif al-Dawlah, had appointed him 'Amal-dār of Etāwah and several other districts, but after the death of his patron he was superseded in his military command and pensioned....
Dates: [1219 A.H.]; [1804 C.E.]
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia
[Please click twice to see the full manuscript]
[Please click twice to see the full manusc...

معراج التوحید Mi'rāj al-Tawḥīd, 1222 A.H., 1807 C.E.

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 93
Scope and Contents A treatise in verse on the knowledge of the stars with a commentary upon the same in prose, by Mīrzā Abū Ṭalib Khān b. Ḥājjī Muḥammad Beg Khān Hindī Isfahānī (d. 1220 or 1221 A.H., 1805-1806 C.E.) The author in the introduction states that he was requested on his return from Europe by a friend to write his latest observations in the science of astronomy; the present treatise was accordingly compiled after a labour of two months in 1219 A.H. (1804 C.E.), and dedicated to Abū al-Fatḥ Sulṭān...
Dates: 1222 A.H.; 1807 C.E.
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

مغنی اللبیب عن کتب الاعاریب Mughnī al-labīb 'an kutub al-a'ārīb, undated copy (original text composed 14th cent. C.E.)

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 34
Scope and Contents

A famous treatise on grammar, by Jamāl al-Dīn 'Abd-allāh b. Yūsuf b. Hishām al-Anṣārī (d. 761 A.H., 1359 C.E.).

Dates: undated copy (original text composed 14th cent. C.E.)
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

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