<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>This ms. was evidently acquired by Lewis after the completion of Simsar's catalogue in 1937. It appears in a handwritten list at the back of the library's copy of Simsar's work, and was noticed by chance by ChM. in November 2008. The ms. is in fragile condition and needs conservation. Pagination of the text was carried out by ChM. on 25.11.2008.</p><p>The binding is modern (European) black leather, with a stamped ornament, and gold impress of Elphinstone's signet on the front. The spine is plain black leather, with five cord bands. Doublures are of marbled paper, followed by two flyleaves of thick European paper.</p><p>Unusually, the text is divided into nine books (daftars), in two halves (nisf). Each daftar begins under a illuminated unvan, and ends with a colophon. The numbering is faulty after daftar 6, which is erroneously called daftar 5, a mistake that is carried through to the end. Only the colophon at the end of 'daftar 5' (recte: daftar 6) contains a date, Sha'ban 992 (f. 339r),</p><p>The arrangement of the text is as follows:</p><p>Daftar 1, ff. 1v-72r</p><p>Daftar 2 (starts with the story of Suhrab), ff. 72v-134r</p><p>Daftar 3 (Farud), ff. 134v-199r</p><p>Daftar 4 (Davazdah Rukh), ff. 199v-229r (end of 'nisf-i avval')</p><p>Daftar 5 (The Great War), ff. 229v-264r</p><p>Daftar 6 (Luhrasp), ff. 264v-339r (with dated colophon)</p><p>Daftar 7 (Iskandar), ff. 339v-391r</p><p>Daftar 8 (Bahram Gur), ff. 391v-466r</p><p>Daftar 9 (Hurmuz) - entitled 'Dibacheh', ff. 467v (sic)-end.</p><p>The manuscript contains all but one of the combats of the 'Davazdah rukh', and many popular scenes. Nevertheless, in several other cases, the iconography of the paintings does not closely reflect the text at the point where the picture is located. Some further work is needed on refining the analysis of the subject of these paintings.</p></p>
