University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections

Scope and Contents A travelogue written for the British traveler, Claudius James Rich (1787-1821), by Sayyid Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Ḥasanī al-Munshī al-Baghdādī.The journey described was made in 1235/1820, beginning in Baghdad after Rich was forced to leave the city by the Ottoman governor Davud Pasha. It mostly occurs in western Iran and Kurdistan, including Kermanshah, Sanandaj (Sana), Mosul, Karkuk and Erbel, and then gives more succinct information about Mesopotamia, ending in...

Scope and Contents This chronicle was compiled by Maḥmūd b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥusaynī al-Jāmī for Aḥmad Shāh Durrānī (also known as Abdālī, r. 1747-73), a commander under Nādir Shāh Afshār (1688 - 1747 C.E) and his successor as ruler, and who is often considered to be the founder of Afghanistan.The work is styled to be reminiscent of Mīrzā Mahdī Astarābādī’s Durrah-yi Nādirah while referring to the Shāhnāmah. The work combines both verse...

Scope and Contents An autobiography by Shāh Shujāʿ al-Mulk, the last Durrānī ruler of Afghanistan (r.1803-09 C.E.), including the events from his ascension to throne at the age of 17, in 1216 AH. (1800 C.E.) to 1241 A.H. (1825-6 C.E.) when from his exile he wrote this work for Mountstuart Elphinstone. The work was published first in 1899 in Ludianah, India, and several times in Afghanistan.The present manuscript appears to be a holograph copy. Folio 1b. bears an annotation in English reading, "The...