Baillie, John Baillie, of Leys, 1835-1890 (donor of the Oriental Manuscripts Collection)

Scope and Contents A monumental epic (or perhaps more correctly a ‘chronicle’) dated as a text to about 400 BCE – 400 CE, the Mahābhārata consists of dramatic narrative and sermonising didactic on ethics and moral law (dharma) as played out in the lives of two groups of dynastic cousins who fought over control of Bhāratavarṣa, present day central north India. It is one of the two major epics of ancient India, the...

Scope and Contents

A well-known commentary on the Qur'ān. The name of the author does not appear, but the commentary is known to have been compiled by Nāṣir al-Dīn 'Abd-allāh b. 'Umar al-Bayḍawī whose death date is commonly given as c. 1286 C.E. However, accordīng to the notice of his life in Kitāb al-Aqālīm, written at Tabriz 716 A.H. (1316 C.E.), Hamd-allāh Mustawfī, a contemporary, says he died in 710 A.H. (1310 C.E.).

The text of the Qur'ān is written in red ink.

Scope and Contents The famous Arabic work on ethics by the great Shafi'ite Imām Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad bin Muḥammad al-Ghazzālī of Ṭūs 450-505 A.H. (1058-1111 C.E.), whose honorific title was Ḥujjat-al-Islām "The Proof of Islam”, with a lacuna of six leaves (according to the Arabic pagination) between fols. 169 and 170. It is divided into four quarters or sections, each subdivided into ten books.The present copy is 30 cm by 18.5 cm and has 505 folios, it is written in excellent old Naskh, fully...

Scope and Contents

This is a commentary upon the Badi'iyyah of 'Alī Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Madanī b. Aḥmad Niẓam al-Dīn al-Ḥusaynī al-Ḥasanī by the author himself, who wrote it in India in 1077 A.H. (1666 C.E.).

Scope and Contents The title translating as "The Sea of Generations," this is the Persian version of a history of the families of the ancestors of Muḥammad from Adam downwards, of himself, of the first six Caliphs, and the Shi'i Imāms. The translator, Muḥammad Ja'far Ḥusaynī of Mecca, states in the preface that the Arabic original was the work of his own father. It is written in very simple style, illustrated with numerous family tables, and in the part dealing with the history of Muḥammad and his ancestors a...

Scope and Contents

The work is a short treatise intended for the instruction of princes and rulers, and consists of forty chapters, each containing four different pieces of advice. The author, whose name in this instance is not mentioned, was 'Abd-allāh Muḥammad al-Anṣarī of Herat (d. 481 A.H., 1088 C.E.). From the preface it would appear that the work is a compilation of the wise sayings of old philosophers and statesmen.

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Music: An album illuminated by thirty-four groups of figures in gouache painting in a variety of colours, attitudes, and surroundings, representing conventional symbols of Rāgs and Rāginīs (the well-known personifications of Indian pitches).

Scope and Contents

A celebrated collection of historical tales and anecdotes, by Mawlānā Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad 'Aufī, also known as Sadr al-Dīn, or Jamāl al-Dīn 'Aufī, who also compiled one of the earliest biographies of poets, called Lubāb al-Albāb. The present work was composed in 625 A.H. (1227 C.E.).

Scope and Contents

A famous zoological dictionary, but it is something more. The work contains chapters on the history of the Arab rulers, on religion and law, annotations on the Qur'ān and dissertations on science, poetry, diction, etc. The author was Kamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Mūsá b. 'Īsá b. 'Alī al-Damīrī (d. 808 A.H., 1406 C.E.), who compiled it in 773 A.H. (1371 C.E.).