A descriptive catalogue of the Oriental mss. belonging to the late E. G. Browne / by Edward G. Browne, completed & edited with a memoir of the author and a bibliography of his writings by Reynold A. Nicholson.

Edward Granville Browne

Date:: 1932

Credit: A descriptive catalogue of the Oriental mss. belonging to the late E. G. Browne / by Edward G. Browne, completed & edited with a memoir of the author and a bibliography of his writings by Reynold A. Nicholson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

119/360 page 91

$91 G. 7 (10) and G. 8 (10). Two MSS. of that rare and valuable Persian chronicle entitled the Mujmal, or “Compendium,” concerning which see my Persian Literature under Tartar Dominion, pp. 426-428, and my article in the number of the Musdon brought out by the Belgian professors of Oriental Languages, temporarily resident in Cambridge in 1915, at the University Press. So far as I know, only three MSS. of this work exist, viz. the two now in my library ^ and a third in the Institute des Langues Orientales du Ministere des Affaires Iitrangeres de St P^tersbourg described by Dorn and Baron Victor Rosen. The author, Fasihi of Khwdf, is said by Baron Rosen to have been born in 777/ 1375-6, and spent most of his life in the service of ShAhrukh, for whose use he compiled and to whom he presented this book in 845/1442. It consists of an Introduction, containing a sketch of the history of the world from the Creation to the birth of the Prophet Muhammad ; two Discourses, of which the first continues the history down to the Flight {Hijra) of the Prophet from Mecca to al-Madina, and the second the history of the period after the Flight down to 845/1442 ; and a con¬ clusion (missing in all three copies) containing a monograph on HerAt, the author’s birthplace and home. The second Discourse constitutes by far the largest and most important part of the book, which is chiefly remarkable for the large amount of literary history which it contains. Both the MSS. in my possession are defective, the Raverty MS. (G. 7) lacking the years a.h. 718-840 (a.d. 1318-1437), and the Schindler MS. (G. 8) the years 834-844 (a.d. 1430-1440). The Raverty MS. (G. 7) was bought in a.d. 1907 from the widow of Colonel Raverty by the Trustees of the “ E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Fund” (to whom it really belongs) for ^18, together with two other MSS., one of the Haft Iand one of part of the Jdmi'u t-Tawdrikh, each for It comprises 506 £f. of 23’8 x i4’5 c. and 17 11., and is written in a fine, bold naskh, apparently of the fifteenth century, with rubrications and marginal captions, which greatly facilitate reference. The Introduction [Muqaddama) occupies ff. 6'^-2 5^; the first Discourse {Maqdla) ff. 2 5''-40^ and the second Discourse the remainder of the volume (ff 41^-506*’). There is no colophon, and the book is a good deal wormed. 1 [The Raverty MS., bearing the class-mark G. 7 in this Catalogue, is now preserved, together with the MSS. and photographic facsimiles belonging to the Trustees of the “ E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Fund,” in the Library of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London.] ^ [Numbered K. 4 in the present Catalogue. It was returned in June, 1927, to the India Office Library, from which, either directly or indirectly, it must have come into the hands of Colonel Raverty before its purchase by the Trustees of the “E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Fund.”] 12-2$