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A CATALOGUE

 FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;

UNIVERSITY LECTURER IN PERSIAN.

EDITED FOR THE SYNDICS OF THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

1896.

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CONTENTS

Introduction - p. IX
Addenda - p. XXXIV

Gospels and Christian Theology - p. 1
Islamo-Christian Controversy - p. 7
Qur'an and Commentaries - p. 13
Muhammadan Traditions, Law, Theology & Ethics - p. 46
Isma'ili Doctrine - p. 69
Sufiism - p. 87
Zoroastrianism - p. 91
Hinduism - p. 93

General History - p. 99
History of Creeds and Sects - p. 120
History of Imams - p. 122
History of Timur - p. 143
History of the Safavis - p. 145
History of Nadir Shah - p. 151
History of the Afghans - p. 152
General History of India - p. 154
Sultans of Dihli - p. 159
History of the Timurides - p. 160
Local Histories of India - p. 177
Biographies and Travels - p. 187
Letters, Official Papers, etc. - p. 195

Cosmography - p. 201-4 and 208-210
Ethics - p. 205-208
Medicine - p. 211
Farriery - p. 213
Geometry, Geomancy, and Magic - p. 215
Science of Swords - Physiognomy - p. 223
Agriculture - p. 226

Lexicography:
Persian Dictionaries - p. 227
Arabic-Persian Dictionaries - p. 236
Persian-Turkish Dictionaries - p. 243
Persian-Latin Dictionaries - p. 248
Persian-Hindustani Dictionaries - p. 250
Miscellaneous - p. 251

Arabic Grammar - p. 257
Prosody and Rhetoric - p. 265
Epistolary Models, etc. - p. 274
Calligraphy, etc. - p. 284

Poetry:
Firdawsi - p. 286
'Omar-i-Khayyam - Naziri - p. 292
Sana'i - p. 294
Anvari - p. 298
Khaqani - p. 300
Zahir-i-Faryabi - p. 302
Nizami - p. 303
Faridu'd-Din 'Attar - p. 310
Jalalu'd-Din Rumi - p. 313
Sa'di - p. 327
Mahmud Shabistari - p. 340
Amir Khusraw of Dihli - p. 341
Assar of Tabriz - p. 345
Hafiz - p. 346
Maghribi - p. 351
Shahi of Sabzawar - p. 353
Jami - p. 307, 354, 374
Hatifi - p. 361
'Arifi and Hilali - p. 365
Raha'i - p. 368
Akbari - p. 369
Fahmi - p. 370
'Urfi - p. 371
Feydi - p. 373
Abu Turab - p. 374
Qudsi - p. 376
Salim - p. 378
Masih - p. 379
Sa'ib - p. 380
Sani' of Balgram - p. 383
Tajalla - p. 385
Ghulam Rida - p. 385
Khaqan - p. 387

Anthologies - p. 388
Stories and Proverbs - p. 392
 

Manuscripts of Mixed Contents - p. 405

Recent Acquisitions - p. 415
Manuscript hitherto unclassed - p. 423

Index of Titles - p. 426
Index of Names - p. 436
Numerical Index - p. 463
Corrigenda - p. 472

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From the INTRODUCTION

     The total number of manuscripts written in the Arabic character which are preserved in the Cambridge University Library amounts to nearly fourteen hundred, of which some 340, or, roughly speaking, one quarter, are written wholly or partly in the Persian Language. These manuscripts, with the exception of a few comprised in a class called "Christian Oriental", are commingled together on the shelves without regard to language or subject, arranged according to size and class-mark only. When, therefore, I undertook to make a Catalogue of the Persian MSS., my first business was to submit the entire contents of these shelves, whether Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Pushtu , Hindustani, or Malay, to a preliminary examination, and to draw up, for my own use, a rough list of the whole collection. From this I next constructed a hand-catalogue (comprising more than 50 pages of 25 lines each), wherein the manuscripts were arranged according to class-marks. Each page of this hand-list I divided into six vertical columns, of which the first contained the class-marks in proper order; the second, an indication of the language or languages in which each manuscript was written; the third, notes of the source (where ascertainable) whence they came into our possession; the fourth and fifth, titles and authorship; and the sixth, the position of each volume on the shelves. Only when this preliminary labour was accomplished could I actually begin to prepare the work which I now, after four years of arduous though intermittent toil, submit, with no small diffidence, and a deep consciousness of imperfection, to the judgement of my fellow-Orientalists. If my task has taught me nothing else, it has at least taught me to appreciate at something like their true value the labours of my predecessors, who have smoothed my path and guided my steps, and whose works, constantly referred to in the following pages, were ever at my elbow.

     To tell the history of our University Library, or even to attempt to trace the formation of the manuscript collections which it contains, is no part of my duty, and I need only refer those who seek for information on this subject to the admirable articles contributed by Henry Bradshaw to the Cambridge University Gazette in February and March, 1869, and reprinted at pp. 181-205 of his Collected Papers. Of the formation of our collection of Oriental manuscripts, or, more precisely, of that portion of it which is written in the Arabic character, it is, however, incumbent upon me to give such account as the meagre records available have enabled me to compile. It might seem that there should be no great difficulty in determining at least the immediate source of the various bequests and donations of MSS. which have entered the Library, but unfortunately the existing records are scanty, intermittent, and often lacking in the precision needed for the certain identification of the books enumerated in them. This, however, is a slight evil compared to the wholesale alteration of class-marks which took place about the middle of last century. "Nothing", says Henry Bradshaw (loc. laud., p. 203), "could be more disgraceful than the way the manuscripts were literally shovelled into their places. No regard was paid to subject, none to the collection from which they came, none even to the size of the volumes; they were all put upon the shelves just as they happened to have been brought into the room, and so stuffed away. When this was done, a catalogue was made which certainly does some credit to the compiler, though the Oriental manuscripts fared but badly; such descriptions as 'Thin, perhaps Turkish', or 'Liber mutilus' being allowed to pass without comment". The present class-marks of our Oriental manuscripts represent, therefore, not the careful, orderly arrangement of the seventeenth century, but the formless, fortuitous chaos of the eighteenth; and, worst of all, the older class-marks were in many cases erased or destroyed. Hence from the present class-marks of the older MSS. (Dd., Ee., Ff., etc., up to Oo.) nothing which is calculated to elucidate their history can be deduced. Thus the Erpenius MSS. bought for the Library by George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, in 1625, and presented to the University by his widow in 1632, are variously marked Dd., Ee., Ff., Gg., Ii, Ll, and Mm., each of which classes contains other MSS. from quite different sources, such as the collection presented by Nicolas Hobart in 1655, and the Royal Gift of Bishop Moore's books in 1715. The class-mark Qq. is assigned exclusively to the Burckhardt MSS. (300 in number, of which nearly all are Arabic), and it is only when we reach the Additional MSS. that the numbers begin to represent an approximately chronological sequence of acquisition. In the Numerical Index at the end of this volume I have indicated the Sources. whence the MSS. were derived, so far as I have been able to ascertain them; and I here note, in chronological order, the chief bequests and donations of which any record exists ...

     Of the reasons which led me to undertake the preparation of this Catalogue it is hardly necessary to speak. That our Muhammadan manuscripts should have remained so long unknown to the outer world ... was obviously regrettable, and I determined to do what I could to remedy this defect. On November 5, 1891, in accordance with a recommendation of the Library Syndicate, a Grace of the Senate was passed authorising me to borrow from the Library any number of Persian manuscripts not exceeding five at a time for examination and description, and during the four years which have elapsed since that date I have been constantly occupied during the leisure left me by other work with the preparation of this volume. That it may soon be followed by catalogues of the Arabic, Turkish, and other Muhammadan MSS. is my earnest desire; and, though I hope that these catalogues may be undertaken by others more competent than myself, I fully intend to continue the work which I have begun in case a worthier than myself should not be forthcoming. The classification which I have adopted is, in the main, copied from Dr. Rieu's monumental Catalogue of the Persian MSS. in the British Museum, but I have enlarged the descriptions of certain MSS. which appeared to me to be of special interest on the model of Baron Victor Rosen's Manuscrits Persans de l'Institut des Langues Orientales.

     Notwithstanding all my care, certain Persian MSS., including several bundles of miscellaneous papers, which were placed in parts of the Library other than those usually allotted to Oriental manuscripts, escaped my notice until the printing of the Index had been begun. The descriptions of these I have been obliged to relegate to the Addenda.

     Circumstances into which I need not enter rendered it impossible that this volume should be printed in Cambridge. The work was entrusted by the Syndics of the University Press (to whom I here offer my most sincere thanks for undertaking its publication) to Messrs E. J. Brill of Leyden, who have carried it out in a manner which meets with my fullest approval. Yet in spite of all their care, the difficulties which beset the superintendence of printing carried on abroad, at a distance from the author's abode, have inevitably led to the persistence in the text of a certain number of misprints which escaped my attention until it was too late to remedy them otherwise than by a note in the Errata. Another cause, however, is mainly responsible for these (as I hope slight and immaterial) errata. The proof-sheets of the books which I have previously published have had the advantage of revision by other eyes than mine, but of these proof-sheets I have been the sole reviser, for I hesitated to impose on any of my friends the arduous labour of reading through pages so unattractive as those of a catalogue must necessarily be. For such misprints as these pages contain, then, I must assume the entire responsibility. I cannot conclude without an expression of gratitude to the Librarian, Mr. Francis Jenkinson, for the constant help and sympathy which he has given me during the prosecution of my task, and to Mr. Alfred Rogers, Library Assistant, for his unvarying courtesy and readiness to assist me, even when most overwhelmed with other work.

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