Islamic manuscriptsin the British Royal Collection A concisecatalogue fu MahammadIsa Valel IxtnooucrroN exceptingthose to or from the Mahdi and the Khalifa of Sudan which bear Royal Library numbers.In the The manuscriptsdescribed in this catalogueform part Royal Archives at Windsor Castle are letters in Per- of the British Royal Collection. Most are preservedin sian. Arabic, Urdu. Ottoman Turkish, Malay. etc. the Royal Library at Windsor Castle,overlooking the which are not included since they do not fall within 'Old' River Thames in Berkshire.The Royal Library the scopeof the presentwork. was given to the British Museum by King George II, Notable strengthsof the collection here described and the Buckingham House Library of King George include miniature paintings and calligraphy of the III was givento the Museum by King GeorgeIV. Both Moghul period in India and the Safavid period in now form part of the British Library. The present Persia. Severalmanuscripts are authors' holographs. Royal Library was establishedat the Castle by King Subjectfields that are especiallywell representedinclude William IV. In addition to books and manuscripts,it religion, poetry, and history; also very valuabie and containsmany works of art, antiques,and mementoes. interestingare the two treatises- one of them copiously Researchershaving good reasonto study a particular illustrated horses. item may apply for permission to visit the Royal It has not been possible here to provide full and Library. There is also a valuable library at Sandring- exhaustivedescriptions. Omissions include severaldetails ham House, the Queen'scountry home in Norfolk. In found in most manuscript catalogues.For example, this catalogue.an annotation to the inventory number incipits(opening passages of texts)are quoted only for indicatesa volume from Sandringham. very rare works; no excipiÍsor colophons are quoted. The Islamic manuscriptsand albums in the Royal Physical details, too, are limited, excluding e.g. the Collectionwere all acquiredby gift. Where it has been presentcondition of most items and the dimensionsof traced,the provenanceof eachitem is indicatedin the the written area of folios. Concision was necessitated catalogue.Many were acquired in one of three ways: by two main factors.Other duties and projectsgreatly as a gift from one crowned head to another (e.g.from limited the time availableto the compiler for studying 'Ali 'Abd Fath Shah of Iran or Amir al-Rahmán of the material at Windsor Castle.Additionally, from the Aighanistan); as a trophy of war presentedby an inception of this project it was envisagedthat it would officer (e.g. manuscriptsof fip[ Sultan of Mysore or be publishedwithin the compassof a contribution to a the Mahdi of Sudan and his followers); or as a gift scholarly journal, Manusuipts of the Middle East, 'Ali from an author (e.g. Fath Shah again, and two rather than as a monograph. works in Urdu). Yet although the royal Islamic manu- Immediately following this introduction, the reader scriptsare a random, rather than a deliberately-formed, will find two tables. One shows the contents and collection, many are of substantial importance and arrangement of the catalogue; the manuscripts are interest; several may be regarded as exceptional by classifiedprimarily by language.then by subject,and any standards. finally by date. The secondtable provides a concord- The catalogue includes all Islamic volumes from ance of old and new referenceand inventory numbers Windsor and Sandringhamwhich are manuscriptsin for the manuscripts.(A few volumes previously had the sensethat their contentsconsist partly or wholly of no referencenumber.) The need for this arosebecause text and lslamic in the sensethat the text is in one or all primary referencesin this catalogueare to the new more of the following languages: Arabic, Persian, numbers assignedto the manuscripts by staff of the Turkish. and Urdu. One or two albums containing Royal Library as part of the processof assigningan only graphic material have been excluded although inventory number to every item, of whatever kind, someol the contentsare the work of Muslim artists. belonging to the Royal Collection. Each entry in this Also excludedare letters in the lansuasesconcerned. catalogueis therefore headed by a number preceded Manuscriptsofthe Middle East 6 (1992) (' Ter Lugt Press.Donkersteeg 19.2312 HA Leiden.Netherlands. 1994 ISSN0920-0401 MANUSCRIPTSOF THE MIDDLE EAST6 (I992) 'Royal by the letters RCIN, which stand for Collec- Turkish tion Inventory Number'. The third table givesan exact Poetry:1005032 Hamse of Nevá'ï,1005033 Dívan of or approximatedate of copying for eachmanuscript. Nevá'T. A note regarding transliteration is called for here. Language:1005072 Milnrehabat-t lugat-i'O;mantye. The Royal Collection includesIslamic manuscriptsin Biography:1005034 Siinbtilname. five languages:Arabic, Persian,Urdu, Ottoman, and Chaghatay. This has precluded the adoption of a LIrdu single systemof transliterationthroughout. For Arabic, 'Ishqnamalr, Persian and Urdu, the Library of Congressromaniza- Poetry: 1005035 1005036Sulh-i kull, tions have been followed. For the two Turkic languages, 1005037Haí't roz. the systemused is that of the British Library, which employs the modern Turkish orthography with the Albums addition of diacritical marks on consonants and 1005038 and calligraphy],1005039-1005067 macrons on vowels. [Portraits and miniatures],1005068 The compiler of this catalogueis much indebted to ICalligraphy [Calligraphy and Indianminiaturesl. those scholars on whose expertise he has drawn, although he himself remains responsiblefor any errors. Publishedsources are cited in the text: here the autho- CoxcoRoeNCE oF NEw (RCIN AND oLD MANUSCRTpT ritative descriptionsof some of the illustrated manu- NUMBERS scriptsby Mr. Basil Robinson must be mentioned.In cataloguing the Urdu texts, the writer has greatly Arabic depended on the expertise of Mr. Qazi Mahmudul Haq of the British Library. l005000Koran:B21 The researchand publication of the text and illustra- 1005001Koran : B 1l : HB 146 tions have been made possibleby graciouspermission 1005002Koran:84 of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Many thanks are 1005003Koran:Bl0 also due to Mr. Oliver Everett, Librarian at Windsor 1005004Koran : S 53 F Castle. and his staff, and especiallyMr. StephenPatter- 1005005Du'a:B14 son. for their unstinting help and advice. 1005006Nasíhar al-ummah: B 13b 1005007Sharh al-Tasrlf : D l0 'Abbás 1005008[Diary of Bey] : B 13a CoNrsxrs By LANGUAGE,SUBJECT, DATE oF coMposrrroN. 1005009[Letter from Mahdi of Sudanto Gordon] : DATE OF TEXT [unnumbered] 'Iqd 1005010 al-ajyad: B 15 Arobic Religion:1005000 Koran, 1005001Koran, 1005002Persian Koran, 1005003Koran. 1005004Koran. l 0050051005011llahï'namah : A 13 Du'a. 1005006Nssïhat al-ummah. 1005013Shahnamah: A5 Grammar:1005007 Sharh al-Tasrrf. 1005014Shàhnamah: A6: HB 151 'Abbás Brography:1005008 [Diary of Bey]. 1005015Bustan: B 8 Letters: 1005009[Letter from Mahdi of Sudan to 1005017Drvan-i HAfz : A 3 GeneralGordon]. 1005018Dívon-i Hafiz : 'Iqd [unnumbered] Naturalhistory: 1005010 al-ajyad. 1005019Tullfat al-ahrar : B 28 1005020Dïvan-i Khaqan : A 4 Per.sian 1005021Kulltyat-i Sa'dt : [unnumbered] j Religion:100501 | Ilahí'namah. 1005022Gu|ístan:A 1005023KftAb-i : Poetry: 1005013Shahnamah, 1005014 Shahnamah, Zarb al-mas.al B 2'l : 1005015Bustan, 1005017 Drvan-i Hafz, 1005018Dívan-i 1005024+ 1005071Akbarnamah S 47 H : Hafr:, 1005019Tulfat al-ahrar,1005020 Dívan-i Khaqan. 1005025Padshahnamah HB 149 : Proseand collectedbelles lettres: 1005021 Kullïyat-i 1005026Taríkh-i lradat Khan [unnumbered] 1005027Nishan-i : Sa'dt. 1005022Gulistan, 1005023 Kirab-i Zarb al- Haydarí A 12 : masal. 1005028Sirai al-tavaríkh S 53 D : History:1005024 and 1005071Akbarnamah, 1005025 1005029Zindaganí-'i ma dar kuhistan B 12 : Pcldshahnàmuh,1005026 Tarrkh-i lradat Khan, 1005027 1005031Faras'namah and Daw,latnamah A l0 Nishan-iHurdari, 1005028Siraj al-tavarrkh. Turkish Biography:1005029 Zindaganr-'i ma dar Kuhistan. Naturalhistory: 1005031 Faras'namah, Dawlatnamah. 1005032Hamse of Nevá'r : A 8 MUHAMMAD ISA WALEY. ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPTSIN THE BRITISHROYAL COLLECTION 1005033Dtvan of Nevá'r: A l1 Anestc MANUSCRTpTsIN THE RoyAL coLLECTToN 1005034Síinbtilname: D ll 1005072MiintehabaH lugat-i'Osmaní1,s: S 3l H Religion LIrdu RCIN 1005000 'Ishqnamah: 1005035 [unnumbered] ,zr' .1 -r,t [HolyKoran. JPrJ 1005036$uft-i kull : [unnumbered] 6r-^!r 1005037Haft roz : S 52 F A Mamluk ms., now incompleteand damaged,formeriy 'Abd owned by Allàh (reg. 1885-99).the Khalifa or Albunts successorof the Mahdi of Sudan.The ms. containsthe text from Surah I. al-Fatihall.to the Basmalahof al- 1005038: A 9 Duklrun(XLIII). There are somelacunae, including in 1005039-1005067: B 20 Sfu'ahll the text from razaqnahtunin verse3 to verse99. 1005068: HB r47tr48 Damaged illuminated frontispiece,f. lr, and mar- N.B. In this list, former SandringhamHouse shelf- gins of text opening,lv; illuminatedSurah headings. marksare preceded by the letterS. roundelsas text divisionmarkers. etc.. throughout. Two folios from an l8th or lgth century African Koran are bound in at the end of the volume. The first MaNuscRrprsBy DATE(ExcrulrNc ar-nuns) containsXXXVIII (5tí0. from 48 to ntin al-mundhirtn in 65: the second.XXI (al-Anbi-ta'),from verse39 to 897 1492. 1005032 fHantse-'iNera'r Turkish the penultimateword of verse50. ca.1501-1510 1005033 fDrt'àn-iNeva'l Turkish Egvptian: Mamhlk. l5th century.Large ntultaqqaq 9371531 1005007 Shorh al-Tasrrf Arabic of varying quality,:headings