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:
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سلافة العصر في محاسن اعیان العصر Sulāfat al-'aṣr fī maḥāsin a'yān al-'aṣr, 1082 A.H., 1671 C.E.
A collection of verses. The author is 'Alī Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Madanī b. Aḥmad Niẓām al-Dīn al-Ḥusaynī al-Ḥasanī, (also known as ʻAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Maʻṣūm), who accompanied his father to Hyderabad, and died at Shiraz in 1117 A.H., 1705 C.E..
شاهمانه Shāh-nāmah, 1226 A.H., 1811 C.E.
The Persian "Book of Kings" and national epic, the rendition in verse by Abū'l-Qāsim Firdowsī ca. 329-410 A.H. (940-1019 C.E.).
شرح الاشارات والتّنبیهات Sharḥ al-Ishārāt wa-al-tanbīhāt, undated copy (original text composed 13th cent. C.E.)
The second and third part of an Arabic commentary on al-Ishārāt wa-al-Tanbīhāt, a work on logic, physics, and metaphysics by Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) d. 428 A.H. (1037 C.E.), by the famous philosopher and astronomer Khwājah Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 672 A.H., 1274 C.E.) completed 644 A.H. (1246-1247 C.E.).
شرح الالفیّة Sharḥ al-alfiyyah, 735 A.H., 1334 C.E.
A very old and venerable copy of the Arabic commentary of Badr al-Dīn (Abū 'Abdallāh) Muḥammad bin Muḥammad bin 'Abdallāh Ibn Malik al-Ṭūsī (died 686 A.H., 1287 C.E.) on his father, Abū 'Abdallāh Muḥammad bin 'Abdallah, commonly called Ibn Malik's (died 672 A.H., 1273-1274 C.E.) famous grammatical poem Khulaṣat fī al-naḥū.
شرح الحماسة Sharḥ al-Ḥamāsah, undated copy (original text composed 11th cent. C.E.)
A very defective copy of Imām Abū 'Alī Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin al-Ḥasan al-Marzūqī's (died 421 A.H., 1030 C.E.) commentary on the famous al-Ḥamāsah of Abū Tammām Ḥabīb bin Aws Ṭā'ī (died 231 A.H., 845-846 C.E.).
شرح الشّافیّة Sharḥ al-Shāfiyyah, undated copy
شرح الشافیه Sharḥ al-Shāfiyah, undated copy (original text composed 13th cent. C.E.)
A commentary upon al-Shāfiyah fī al-Ṣarf, a well-known treatise on inflection by Ibn Ḥājib (d. 646 A.H., 1248 C.E.). The author of the commentary is Raḍī al-Dīn Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Raḍī al-Astarābādī (d. 686 A.H., 1287 C.E.), who also wrote a commentary upon al-Kāfiyah (see OR MS 33 for another such commentary).
شرح قصائد عرفی Sharḥ-i Qaṣā'id-i 'Urfī, undated
شرح قصیده برده Sharḥ-i qaṣīdah-i Burdah, undated copy (original text composed 16th cent. C.E.)
A commentary upon the Persian version of the Qaṣīdah-i Burdah of Muḥammad b. Sa'īd al Būṣīrī (d. 694, 696, or 697 A.H., 1294, 1296, or 1297 C.E.), for which see Or Ms 45 (with which this commentary is bound). It is by Faz̤l-allāh b. Rūzbahān, better known as Khwājah Mawlānā, Isfahānī. It was compiled in 921 A.H. (1515 C.E.).
The last folio is missing, but the commentary otherwise is complete.
شرح لامیة العجم Sharḥ lāmiyat al-'ajam, 979 A.H., 1571 C.E.
This is an elaborate commentary by Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khalīl ibn Aybak Ṣafadī, upon the Lāmiyat al-'Ajam of the celebrated poet Abū Ismā'il al-Ḥusain b. 'Alī b. Muḥammad b. 'Abd al-Ṣamad al-Iṣfahānī al-Madanī, commonly known as "al-Tughrā'ī " (d. 515 A.H., 1121 C.E.).