[IO Islamic 118] شاهنامه

• Shâhnâma.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 861 in the India Office collections.
• [metadata: Hermann Ethé, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, 2 vols. (Oxford: India Office, 1903): volume 1, number 118 here with notations and hyperlinks].

861

Another copy of the same.

Contents:

The older preface on fol. 1^b, beginning as in the preceding copy.

Genealogical index of all the Persian kings, quoted by Firdausî, on fol. 7^a.

Another genealogical index in verse ( فهرست منظوم شاهنامه), on fol. 9^a.

Alphabetical index of the Pahlawî (and other uncommon) words, used by Firdausî in his epopee, on fol. 10^b.

The poem itself is divided into two halves, viz.:

First half, on fol. 12^b, beginning: بنام خداوند جان و خرد الخ.

Second half, on fol. 318^b, beginning with Gushtâsp’s reign: چو گشتاسپ را داد لهراسپ تخت الخ.

The first half is dated by Ḥâfiż Aḥmad bin Muḥammad the 23rd of Ramaḍân, A.H. 1009 (A.D. 1601, March 28); the second is not dated.

No. 118, ff. 596, 4 coll., each ll. 25; Nasta’lîḳ; vignettes on ff. 1^a, 12^a, and 318^a; illuminated frontispieces on ff. 1^b, 12^b, and 318^b; pictures on ff. 338^a, 365^a, and 430^b. Part of ff. 58^a, 79^a, 102^b, and 180^b left blank; many headings and single verses missing or injured; ff. 487 and 556 supplied by a more modern hand; size, 13^3/8 in. by 9^3/8 in.