Royal Asiatic Society : Shāhnāmah

Firdawsī

Royal Asiatic Society

<p style='text-align: justify;'> This manuscript was copied in Herat for the Timurid prince Muhammad Juki (1402-1445) whose name appears on a banner in a miniature on <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(591);return false;'>f. 296r</a>. It is written in nasta’liq with 536 folios and contains 29 miniatures with two further miniatures on <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(860);return false;'>f. 430v</a> and <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(1061);return false;'>f. 531r</a>, added during the Mughal period. It contains the impressions of seals of the Mughal emperors from Babur, Emperor of Hindustan, 1483-1530 to Aurangzeb, Emperor of Hindustan, 1618-1707, together with a note written by Shahjahan, Emperor of India, 1592-1666 on <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(1072);return false;'>f. 536v</a>. At the beginning of the manuscript we find <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(5);return false;'>an inscription</a> by the same on gold ground. It was presented by Lieutenant Colonel Doyle, 1787-1848 to the Society in 1834 (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(3);return false;'>2r</a>) and it is thought to have been given to him as a parting gift by the Marquess of Hastings, Governor General of Bengal, 1813-1823.</p>