[IO Islamic 2409] بهجة العالم

• Bahjat-al’âlam.
• This manuscript is now IO Islamic 729 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 2409 here with notations and hyperlinks].

729

Bahjat-al’âlam (بهجة العالم).

A modern work on general geography, by Ḥakîm Mahâratkhân of Iṣfahân, styled بهجة العالم (see fol. 2^a, l. 2 and colophon). It is the first volume (مجلّد اول) of a larger work; a second volume, entitled روضة الافراح, and comprising Persian translations of several Arabic works, for instance, جريدة العجائب, تحفة الالباب, and others, is promised in the preface of this book. The author lived at the time of the emperor Bahâdurshâh, whose death in A.H. 1124 (A.D. 1712) appears as a recent event, and must have compiled this volume about A.H. 1130 (A.D. 1718), comp. the short extract from it described in Rieu iii. p. 992. The present MS. contains:

1.A general part, dealing with the seven climates, in an arrangement similar to the Haft Iḳlîm, but without any biographical notices. Iḳlîm I, on fol. 2^b; II, on fol. 7^a; III, on fol. 16^b; IV, on fol. 51^b; V, on fol. 87^b; VI, on fol. 93^b; VII, on fol. 102^a.

2.A special part, dealing with particular points of geographical interest in detail. The chief subdivisions of this part are:

(a) ذكر بعضى از بلاد متفرّقه, on fol. 104^b, beginning with a description of the countries of Rûm (ممالك روم), taken from the Hasht Bihisht (No. 571 above); followed by an account of India, according to the fourth volume of the Akbarnâma (see fol. 121^a, first line), i.e. the آئين اكبرى, which is usually called the third book (see Nos. 264-270 above), but which, on account of the usual division of the first book into two separate parts, may very well be called the fourth; miscellaneous notes on various towns and provinces (see fol. 126^b), extracted from a work styled انيس العارفين, etc.

(b)ذكر بعضى از عجائب جزائر, on fol. 144^b, taken chiefly from Ḳazwînî’s عجائب المخلوقات (Nos. 712-714 above).

(c) ذكر بعضى از عجائب جبال يعنى كوها, on fol. 151^b.

(d) ذكر بعضى از عجائب انهار, on fol. 156^a.

(e)ذكر بلاد مغرب زمين, on fol. 159^a, last line.

Beginning: الحمد لله .... و بعد چون دريافت غرائب مبرعات و عجائب مصبوعات حكيم قدير الخ.

Dated the 17th of Rajab, A.H. 1211 (A.D. 1797, Jan. 16). Bibliotheca Leydeniana.

No. 2409, ff. 171, ll. 19; distinct Nasta’lîḳ; size, 13^5/8 in. by 8^3/8 in.