Digital Access to Persian Manuscripts

From: Asian and African Studies Blog by Ursula Sims- Williams

(Click here to go straight to list of digitised manuscripts)

From the pocket encyclopaedia (Add.27261), with its exquisite miniature illuminations, written in 1410-11 for Timur's grandson Sultan Jalal al-Din Iskandar, ruler of Fars, to unique historical documents and literary manuscripts, the Persian Manuscripts collection at the British Library is one of the most significant collections in the world in terms of both its size and importance. Consisting of over 11,000 works in almost as many volumes, it combines the two world-class collections of the British Museum and the India Office Library. These manuscripts originate from the whole of the Persianate world, in particular Iran, Central Asia and India and range in time from the 12th century to recent years, representing most of the traditional fields of humanities and religious studies. Many of the Persian manuscripts are copies of rare texts, with examples of some of the finest illustrated Mughal, Timurid and Safavid paintings.

Scene from the Shāhnāmah (Book of Kings): Bath scene, illustrating the story in the preface of how Firdawsī scornfully gave away to a bath house attendant half the paltry reward Sultan Mahmud gave him for writing the Shāhnāmah (IO Islamic 3540, f. 10r)

Although printed catalogues exist for most of this material, only some of the catalogues are available online. Moreover, very little of the collection has been digitised. Our Persian manuscripts have, until recently, only been accessible onsite to those who can physically visit the British Library to study in the Asian and African Studies reading room. With limited access to  catalogue records, the collection has therefore been much underused.

The British Library is currently engaged in a program to enable digital access to the Persian collections and has now reached the end of the second year of a planned three-year partnership project with the Iran Heritage Foundation and other supporters. The project involves creating catalogue records for manuscripts which are uncatalogued, standardizing the existing print records and creating digital files to make them available online. At the same time we aim to digitise 50 of the most significant manuscripts within the three year period. By the end of the initial three-year partnership, records of nearly all acquisitions made after 1903 will be available online. Currently, details of over 2,500 works are searchable on Fihrist, a union catalogue of some of the major Arabic script manuscript collections in the UK, and will also be available within the Library's own manuscripts' catalogue.

At the present time we have digitised 27 manuscripts which are available in entirety at British Library's Digitised Manuscripts.

Our blog  '15000 images of Persian manuscripts online' gives a general description of the project with examples of the images, and several posts are about manuscripts digitised as part of the project (search for 'Persian digital manuscripts' in the search box).

We are currently seeking further funding to extend the project by another three years to include updated digital records for all the manuscripts described in the groundbreaking catalogues of the late 19th century and early 20th century by Charles Rieu and Hermann Ethé. We also aim to digitise further selected Persian manuscripts. If you would like to support us or can help in any way please look here for more information.

We are grateful to our sponsors and partners for the financial support that has enabled this project:

Iran Heritage Foundation

Bahari Foundation

Barakat Trust

Friends of the British Library

Soudavar Memorial Foundation

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute

Khayami Foundation

 

List of digitised Persian manuscripts

Below we have listed the Persian manuscripts in the British Library which have been digitised up to the present time.  Click on the manuscript number at the head of each description to go directly to the relevant entry on the British Library's digitised manuscripts site. Once there, click on the thumbnail image of the manuscript to get to the full digitised version which will open in a new window (please note that all subsequent digitised manuscripts that you view will appear in this same window). You can choose to view one page at a time or two together in book format (i.e. as if you were reading it). Make sure, however, that you select 'Right to Left' in the 'Direction' box.

Also included in the list below are links to catalogue descriptions, blog posts and other related documents for each manuscript, where available.  If a manuscript is illustrated, the description will contain direct links to the illustrations.

The list will be updated regularly to reflect ongoing work into 2014.

Note: These manuscripts are also available to read in our Asian and African Studies Reading Room (Registered readers only - see Registering for a Reader Pass) . Certain illustrated mss, however, are restricted, in which case special permission must be obtained first. Note also that there are some discrepancies between the numbering of the manuscripts and the form cited on the digitised manuscripts site. For example:

Add.6613 is Add MS 6613 in 'Search our Catalogue: Archives and Manuscripts' and in our Digitised Manuscripts Viewer, but Add.6613 is the way it is cited in our printed catalogues and the number by which it should be ordered in our Reading Room.

Reg.16.B.8 similarly becomes Royal MS 16 B viii in 'Search our Catalogue...' and in Digitised Manuscripts , but remains Reg.16.B.8 in our printed catalogeus and for requisitioning purposes.

If you would like to keep in touch with progress, please subscribe to our blog and follow us on twitter @BLAsia_Africa.

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Add.6613
Niẓāmī, Khamsah, dated 1665-7, containing 41 miniatures
Description of Add.6613
Link to Rieu p.572

Add.7628
Rashīd al-Dīn, Jāmi‘ al-Tavārīkh, Transcribed for Sulṭān Shāhrukh not later than 1433
Description of  Add.7628
Link to Rieu pp 74-8

Add.7735              
Farīd al-Dīn ʻAṭṭār, Manṭiq al-Ṭayr, ca. 1490, containing 9 miniatures, late Timurid/Herat style. Restricted
Description of Add.7735
Link to Rieu pp 577-8
Blogs: ‘The Speech of the Birds’: an illustrated Persian manuscript; Mantiq al-tayr ('the Speech of Birds'), part 2; Mantiq al-tayr ('the Speech of Birds'), part 3, part 4

Add.7801              
Qadrī. Jarūnnāmah, a masnavī on the taking of Jarūn (Hormuz) from the Portuguese by Imām Qulī Khān in 1622. 10 miniatures. Isfahan/Safavid style, 1697. RestrictedLink to Rieu p. 681

Add.16688           
Rashīd al-Dīn, Jāmi‘ al-Tavārīkh. Possibly 14th century
Link to Rieu p. 78

Add.18113           
Khvājū-i Kirmānī. Khamsah, dated 798/1396. 9 miniatures, 3 illuminations. Restricted
Blog: An illustrated 14th century Khamsah by Khvājū Kirmānī
Link to Rieu pp. 620-22

Add.18579            
Ḥusayn Vaʻiẓ Kāshifī.  Anvār-i Suhaylī.  1019/1610-11.  36 miniatures , 1 illumination, Mughal. RestrictedLink to Rieu pp. 755-6

Add.27261            
Miscellany containing 23 works, compiled for Jalāl al-Dīn Iskandar ibn ʻUmar Shaykh, a grandson of Timur.  S. Iran 813-14/1410-11. 42 miniatures. RestrictedDescription of Add.27261
Link to Rieu pp. 868-71Blog: The Miscellany of Iskandar Sultan (Add. 27261)

Add.27268            
Two Zoroastrian works dated 1677:
Kay Kaʼūs ibn Kay Khusraw ibn Dārā. Zarātusht nāmah 
Bahmān ibn Kaiqubād. Qiṣṣah-’i Sanjān.     

Grenville XLI      
Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ. Mughal, probably dating from 1600-05 and commissioned for Prince Salim (Jahangir)
Link to Rieu p. 629
Blog: What were the Mughals favourite books?

IO Islamic 132     
Anthology of Divans. Dated 713-14/1314-15, containing 53 miniatures in a simplified Mongol style. From the library of the Safavid ruler Shah Ismāʻīl
Link to Ethé 903, 911-913, 1028-1030

IO Islamic 843     
Kullīyāt-i Saʻdī , containing 18 miniatures. Shiraz/Safavid style. 1624
Link to Ethé 1120        

IO Islamic 1026
Tarjumah-i Masālik va Mamālik, 14th century copy of the Persian adaptation of Istakhrī's geography, containing  18 maps
Link to Ethé 707  

IO Islamic 3043    
Sad dar. 100 Zoroastrian rules in Persian prose, transcribed in Avestan script with an interlinear translation in Gujarati. 1575

IO Islamic 3442  
Fatḥ ʻAlī Khān Kāshānī Ṣabā. Shāhinshāhnāmah. Qajar. 1225/1810. 38 miniatures, 4 illuminations
Link to Ethé 901

IO Islamic 3540 
Firdawsi. Shāhnāmah. Shiraz, 10th/16th c. 57 miniatures, 4 illuminations.
Description of IO Islamic 3540
Link to Ethé 2992

Or.1362         
Jāmī. Nafaḥāt al-Uns copied for Akbar at Agra in 1603. Mughal, with 17 miniatures, some with attributions. Restricted Link to Rieu p. 350

Or.2265Nizami. Khamsah. Shah Tahmasb's copy. 1535-43, with additions. 17 miniatures, 6 illuminations, 2 cover illustrations. Restricted
Description of Or.2265
Link to Rieu p. 1072
Blog: Some paintings by the 17th century Safavid artist Muhammad Zaman

Or.2780A collection of epic poems:         
Asadī Ṭūsī. Garshāsbnāmah
Aḥmad Tabrīzī. Shāhanshāhnāmah
Bahmānnāmah
Kūshnāmah.  Shiraz?/Timurid style, 800/1397-8. 11 miniatures, 3 illuminations. RestrictedLink to Rieu Suppl no. 201

Or.2933 
Niẓāmī. Khusraw Shirin. An abbreviated copy dated 1726, with 63 paintings. Mughal
Link to Rieu Suppl no. 231

Or.4110         
An anonymous 15th century anthology of Persian poets (including Indian poets) assembled in the reign of the Sharqi Sultan Mubārak Shāh of Jaunpur (1399-1402)
Link to Rieu Suppl no. 374

Or.4615         
Abū Ṭāhir Ṭarsūsī. Dārābnāmah. An imperial copy containing 157 miniatures, mostly attributed. Mughal. c. 1580-1585. Restricted 
Description of Or.4615
Index of artists in Or.4615
Link to Rieu Suppl no. 385
Blog: The tales of Darab: a medieval Persian prose romance

Or.6525         
Khvājah Mas’ūd-i Bek. Mir’āt al-‘ārifīn. 18th century

Or.6810Nizami. Khamsah. Late 15th century copy containing one double and 20 single miniatures ascribed to Bihzād, Mīrak and others. Restricted
Description of Or.6810
Blog: The Khamsah of Nizami: A Timurid Masterpiece

Or.12985               
Asadī Ṭūsī. Garshāsbnāmah.  981/1573. Safavid/Qazvin style. 8 miniatures, 1 illumination. Restricted

Or.13506       
Naṣr Allāh. Kalīlah va Dimnah.  Persian translation of the Tales of Bidpai. Shiraz (?), 707/1307. 67 miniatures, 3 illuminations. Restricted 

Reg.16.B.1    
Two Zoroastrian works:
Zartusht Bahrām Pazhdū. Ardā Virāf nāmah. The story of Arda the Just's visit to Heaven and Hell.
Blog: Zoroastrian visions of heaven and hell
Īrānshāh ibn Malikshāh. Sad dar. A Zoroastrian book of 100 rules in Persian verse by. In Persian with interlinear Avestan script, dating from the 17th century. Belonged previously to Thomas Hyde
Description of Reg.16.B.1
Link to Rieu p. 49

Reg.16.B.8    
Kay Kāʼus ibn Kay Khusraw ibn Dārā. Zarātusht nāmah. A life of Zoroaster in Persian verse. 17th century. Thomas Hyde's copy
Description of Reg.16.B.8Link to Rieu pp. 46-7    

Posted by Ursula Sims-Williams

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