Abu al-Qasim Ahmad, Fragment

Type: Fragment

Date: 18th century?

Setting: Iran?

Produced By/For: Abu al-Qasim Ahmad?

Contents: leaf from a copy of Shahnama?

Shelf Mark: MS Victoria 1998-034

Location: Shelf 02/J/24 (Acc. 1998-034)

Description by Jan Just Witkam, Professor of Paleography and Codicology of the Islamic World, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands (2010)

MS Victoria 1998-034

Persian, indigenous Persian paper, one single leaf, 34.5 × 22.2 cm, expert nastaʿlīq script from Iran, text on either side of the leaf, written in four columns, and these columns set within a composite frame (blue, dark red, black, gold, green, gold within black outline, red), 25 lines to the column, held in passe-partout on which is written as an estimate dating: 18th century, which may very well be accurate.

A leaf from a copy of the Shāhnāma by Abu al-Qāsim Aḥmad b. Mansụ̄r Firdawsī (c. 935-1020), coming from the Bahrām Gūr cycle. On the recto side is a chapter heading written in gold within a panel with floral design (brownred ink): Dāstān-i Bahrām bā Keshāwarz, ‘the story of Bahrām with the farmer’.

The text of the fragment corresponds to the Moscow edition by E.E. Bertel’s, vol. 7 (Moscow 1968), pp. 377-383, distiches 1273-1369.

Earlier registration: On the recto side is an ex-libris label from University of Victoria Library. Also on that page is a sticker with typewritten text in three lines: ‘(sc) PK6456 A2’. SC stands for ‘Special Collections’.

Taken from The Islamic Manuscripts in the McPherson Library, University of Victoria, Victoria B.C. by Jan Just Witkam, Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 1 (2010), pp 101-142.

Description and Transcription by Sohrab Mosahebi (2022)

Description and Transcription by Sohrab Mosahebi as part of coursework for a manuscript studies class with Dr. Adrienne Williams Boyarin, June 2022.

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Recto

Verso