Asian and African studies blog

News from our curators and colleagues

Introduction

Our Asian and African Studies blog promotes the work of our curators, recent acquisitions, digitisation projects, and collaborative projects outside the Library. Our starting point was the British Library’s exhibition ‘Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire’, which ran 9 Nov 2012 to 2 Apr 2013. Read more

08 October 2024

Access restored to a number of digitised manuscripts

For the first time since the cyber-attack on the British Library in October 2023, access has been restored to 1,000 digitised manuscripts, via a new webpage. On this site the manuscripts are listed in shelfmark order, with brief titles and dates. The hyperlinked shelfmark leads to the manuscript viewer which provides basic metadata, thumbnail view options, and IIIF manifests.

This first stage of restoration includes 46 manuscripts from Asian and African collections, in Arabic, Chagatai, Persian, Ethiopian and Bugis, listed below. We hope to make more digitised manuscripts available soon. In the meantime, finding aids to Asian and African Collections are listed here, while this blog post gives information on alternative links to Asian and African materials in the British Library. 

ARABIC, CHAGATAI and PERSIAN (5 manuscripts)

Screenshot 2024-10-04 135720
Illuminated panel from the opening page of a Chagatai manuscript, [Muntakhab-i] Dīvān-i Navā'ī, copied by Sultan 'Ali Mashhadi, 15th-16th century. Or 3493, f. 2v (detail)

Add MS 7914 Majmu'a / مجموعه 914/1508-9
Or 3493 [Muntakhab-i] Dīvān-i Navā'ī / منتخب ديوان نوائي 15th-16th century
Or 11249 Dīvān-i Fānī / ديوان فانى 916/1510-11
Or 15877 Quran, from Madura, East Java 19th century
Or 16058 Quran, from Dagestan 1821

ETHIOPIAN (18 manuscripts)

0181_562950054654306_f_88r
Illuminated page from ኦሪት The Octateuch, ( Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth), 14th-15th century. Or 480, f. 88r 

Or 480 ኦሪት The Octateuch, ( Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth) 14th century -15th century
Or 481 ኦሪት Octateuch, አርባዕቱ ወንጌል Gospels and Ecclesiastical works. Late 17th century
Or 485 መጽሐፈ ኩፍሌ መጽሐፈ፡ ኩፋሌ፡ Maṣḥafa kufāle Book of Jubilees . and መጽሐፍ ሄኖክ the Book of Enoch. 16th century
Or 533 አብቀለምሲስ, The Revelation of St. John . 1700-1730
Or 544 ግብረ ሕማማት, Lectionaries for Palm Sunday and Passion Week. Early 18th century
Or 584 ድጓ Dēggwä. Hymnbook of the Ethiopian Church for the whole year, with musical notes. 1735
Or 607 ነገረ ፡ ማርያም Nagara Māryām The Story of Mary . 1730-1755
Or 614 ድርሳነ ሚካኤል Homiliary in Honor of the Archangel Michael. 18th century
Or 641 ታምረ ማርያም, The Miracles of Mary. The second third of the 17th century
Or 645 ታምረ ማርያም The Miracles of Mary. 1700-1750
Or 711 ገድለ ገብረ መንፈስ ቅዱስ The Acts of Gabra Manfas Kedus. 15th century
Or 714 ገድለ ጊዮርጊስ The Acts of St. George. 18th century
Or 718 ገደለ ላሊበላ Gädlä Lalibla (The Acts of Lalibla) or History of King Lalibala of Lasta. 19th century
Or 721 ገድለ ተክለ ሃይማኖት Act of St. Takla Haymanot. 1700-1750
Or 739 ዮሐንስ አፈ ወርቅ The Commentary of John Chrysostom. 18th century
Or 790 መጽሐፈ መድበል Mestira Zaman, vol.1 1721-1730
Or 791 መጽሐፈ መድበል Mashafa Madbal Vol II. 18th century
Or 818 ክብረ ነገሥት Kebra Nagast, or the Glory of the Kings”. 1700-1750

BUGIS (23 manuscripts)

Add_ms_12346_f002v-3r
Compendium of fourteen short Bugis poems, late 18th-early 19th century. Add MS 12346, ff. 2v-3r

Add MS 12346 Bugis poems 18th-early 19th century
Add MS 12348 La Galigo 18th-early 19th century
Add MS 12349 Bugis diary from Bone, 1780-5 1780-5
Add MS 12350 Bugis diary, 1808-1812 1813
Add MS 12353 Bugis poems 18th-early 19th century
Add MS 12355 Bugis diary from the court of Bone, 1774-1793 1774-1812
Add MS 12356 Copy of the Bugis diary of the Sultan of Bone, 1775-1795 1806-1814
Add MS 12357 Bugis diary from Bone, 1795-1812 1795-1814
Add MS 12358 Bugis treatises on fire-arms and gunnery 18th-early 19th century
Add MS 12359 Documents in Bugis and Malay Late 18th-early 19th century
Add MS 12360 Bugis notes on medicine, agriculture, etc. 18th-early 19th century
Add MS 12361 Bugis poem Early 19th century
Add MS 12362 Bugis version of Hikayat Cekel Wanengpati 18th-early 19th century
Add MS 12364 Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah Late 18th-early 19th century
Add MS 12365 Bugis treatises on firearms and gunnery Late 18th-early 19th century
Add MS 12367 Mystical treatises in Arabic, Makasar and Bugis Late 18th-early 19th century
Add MS 12369 A Volume in Bugis, apparently a European Calendar for the Years 1714-1718, adapted to the Arabic months. 1714-1718
Add MS 12370 Bugis translation of Tanbih al-Ghafilin Late 18th-early 19th century
Add MS 12371 Akhbar al-akhira 1764
Add MS 12373 Bugis diary from the court of Bone, 1793-1799 1793-1799
Add MS 12374 Verses from the Quran in Arabic, with Bugis translation Late 18th-early 19th century
MSS Bugis 1 Bugis diaries, 1660-1714 Late 18th-early 19th century
MSS Bugis 2 Bugis diary, 1776-1794 Late 18th-early 19th century

 

30 September 2024

Rustam's war attire in Firdawsi's Shahnamah

Rustam, the most important hero of Firdawsi’s twelfth century epic the Shāhnāmah has always inspired writers, poets and artists. Nevertheless, many aspects of his life remain disputable. In this blog, I will discuss different views around Rustam's war attire.

Combat of Rustam and Burzū. Isfahan (Iran)  1590-1600. British Library  IO Islamic 3254  f.182v
Combat of Rustam and Burzū. Isfahan (Iran), 1590-1600 (British Library, IO Islamic 3254, f.182v).
Public domain

In the images of Rustam in the manuscripts of Firdawsi’s Shāhnāmah, Rustam usually wears a helmet made from the head of a tiger or sometimes a leopard, together with brown striped war attire. This interpretation is based on the phrase babr-i bayān, the name given to Rustam’s war clothing in the Shāhnāmah where it is described as fire-proof, water-proof, weapon-proof, dark-coloured and made out of leopard skin.

Some verses in the Shāhnāmah indicate a magical nature for the babr-i bayān. These verses, however, are later additions and contradict other descriptions of the clothing. Elsewhere, Firdawsi describes it as normal attire under which Rustam sometimes wears chain mail, and most of the time two pieces of armour. The babr-i bayān does not even make Rustam invulnerable — as demonstrated by the life-threatening injuries he suffered in his fight with Isfandiyar.

The Sīmurgh heals Rustam after his fight with Isfandiyar. India  1719. British Library  Add. Ms 18804  f.71
The Sīmurgh heals Rustam after his fight with Isfandiyar. India, 1719 (British Library, Add. Ms 18804, f.71r)
Public domain

The word ‘babr’ is used to refer both to the animal ‘tiger’, and to Rustam’s dress, leading to the general assumption that ‘babr-i bayān’ means clothes made of tiger skin. Hence the decision by most illustrators of the Shahnāmah to depict Rustam in brown striped clothing resembling tiger skin.

Bizhan rescued by Rustam. Samarkand (Uzbekistan)  1600. British Library IO Islamic 301  f. 142r
Bizhan rescued by Rustam. Samarkand (Uzbekistan), 1600 (British Library IO Islamic 301, f. 142r)
Public domain

In addition to his tiger skin jacket, Rustam usually wears a leopard-headed helmet. However the leopard/panther skin was not used exclusively for depicting Rustam as is shown by the image below of the White Demon who is typically portrayed as leopard-skinned.

Rustam kills the White Demon. Isfahan (Iran)  1630-1640. British Library  IO Islamic 1256  f.79r
Rustam kills the White Demon. Isfahan (Iran), 1630-1640 (British Library, IO Islamic 1256, f.79r)
Public domain

In some traditions, not directly derived from the Shāhnāmah, after Rustam had killed the White Demon, he crafted a helmet from his severed head. This had the effect of making him seem even more terrifying.

Rustam sees the dungeon- 1604. British Library  I.O. ISLAMIC 966  f.64v  copy
Rustam sees the dungeon. Iran, 1604 (British Library, IO Islamic 966, f.64v)
Public domain

Most scholars, like the illustrators, agree that ‘babr’ is an animal but, unlike the illustrators, there is no consensus among them about what animal the word refers to. One group associates ‘babr-i bayān’ with animals such as otters, beavers, and even dragons. In narratives such as the Farāmarznāmah and Gurani epic stories, ‘babr-i bayān’ is a dragon which is killed by Rustam and its skin is used as war clothing. The interpretation linking ‘babr-i bayān’ with beavers or otters relates to the garment of Anahita, the goddess of water in the Avesta. According to the Zoroastrian Avestan hymn Ābān Yasht, Anahita wears a garment made from the shining skin of three hundred ‘bauuri/bawri’ - believed to mean beaver or otter in Avestan. Some scholars, notably Mahmud Omidsalar believe that ‘bauuri/bawri’ evolved to ‘babrag’ in Middle Persian, then to ‘babr’ in New Persian, a second meaning, alongside ‘tiger’, which has since been forgotten. Other scholars, however, prefer the straightforward meaning ‘tiger’ while noting that the tigerskin is not unique to Rustam but is worn by other characters in the Shāhnāmah and throughout world mythology.

As with ‘babr’, different roots and interpretations have been proposed for ‘bayān’. Khaleghi-Motlagh suggests that Bayān is a place in India while Māhyār Navābi proposes that it is the New Persian form of the Old Persian genitive plural ‘bagānām’ and Middle Persian ‘bayān’ meaning ‘of the gods.’ These, and other etymologies suggested at various times can be followed up in the reference sources cited below.

Last words

Considering Firdawsi’s description of the babr-i bayān in the Shāhnāmah and descriptions of Rustam’s clothes in other sources alongside the clothes of heroes, gods, and goddesses in world mythology, it seems clear that it is a tiger’s skin and its colour, as seen in many manuscripts, is red-brown. Elsewhere, the word ‘bawr/būr’ has been used in the Shāhnāmah as an adjective for red-brown horses. Rakhsh, Rustam’s horse, is also described as bawr/būr.

Rustam captures his hirse Rakhsh. Iran  1604. British Library  IO Islamic 966  f. 62r
Rustam captures his horse Rakhsh. Isfahan (Iran), 1604 (British Library, IO Islamic 966, f. 54v)
Public domain

It seems that in depicting Rustam's war attire, the artists of the Shāhnāmah were inspired by other narratives including folkloric stories, as well as Firdawsi's descriptions. This can be seen in illustrations in which Rustam wears a helmet made of a leopard or demon's head while he does not have such a helmet according to the text of the Shāhnāmah. Dressed in this war attire Rustam appears even more powerful and frightening.

 

Alireza Sedighi, Curator, Persian Collections, British Library
With thanks to my colleagues William Monk, Michael Erdman and Ursula Sims-Williams
CCBY


Further reading

Sajjād Āydinlū, “Rūykardī digar bih Babr-i Bayān dar Shāhnāmah”, Nāmah-i Pārsī 4.4 (1378/1998).
Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh, “Babr-e bayān”, in Encyclopaedia Iranica online, 1988, updated 2011.
Mahmoud Omidsalar. “The beast Babr-e Bayān: Contributions to Iranian folklore and etymology”, Studia Iranica 13.1(1984), 129–42.
Mukhtariyan, Bahar، “Babr-i bayān va jāmah-ʼi  bavrī-yi Ānāhīt”, Justār’hā-yi Adabī 186 (1393/2014).

23 September 2024

The Hidden Mughal Princess-Poet Zebunnisa 'Makhfi'

For over three centuries scholars have been intrigued with the life and poetry of the Mughal princess, Zebunnisa (1639-1702), the eldest daughter of Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707). True to her name which means ‘Ornament of Women’, she was learned, and an active patron of poets and scholars. She collected books and corresponded with prominent Sufis of the time.[1]  That she would have composed verses in Persian would have been natural since many elite women in Persianate societies did so, but the attribution to her of a substantial body of poetry in the form of a dīvān, comprising about five hundred ghazals and some other poems, actually dates to a few decades after her death and later. In keeping with the spirit of the spurious and suggestive portrait below that was meant to represent Zebunnisa, along with poems attributed to her, over time her biography was spiced up with the inclusion of scurrilous stories of romantic escapades.[2]

A Bejeweled Maiden with a Parakeet  2011.585  Metropolitan Museum of Art
A Bejeweled Maiden with a Parakeet (Metropolitan Museum of Art 2011.585)
Public domain

The corpus of poems known to be composed by Zebunnisa is known as the Dīvān-i Makhfī (makhfī means 'the hidden one'). This was thought to be an appropriate penname (takhallus), a common convention in premodern Persian and Persianate poetry, for a Mughal princess. It is true that female poets particularly used pennames such as makhfī, nihānī, and ‘ismat, and often there were multiple poets who wrote under the same name. Among Mughal women, Salima Begum (granddaughter of Humayun by his daughter Gulrukh Begum), Salima Sultan Begum (Akbar’s wife), Nur Jahan (Jahangir’s wife), and Zebunnisa are all said to have chosen the penname Makhfī, but there are only a few lines attributed to the first two. To complicate matters, there were also at least two male poets who also wrote as Makhfī: one was Makhfi Rashti, who flourished in Safavid Iran in the sixteenth century, and the other was Makhfi Khurasani, an Iranian émigré in Mughal India in the seventeenth century.[3]  A close examination of the poems would suggest that some or many of them were by the second of these two male Makhfis and not by Zebunnisa. This, however, is a complicated philological problem that cannot be solved here.

Writing a few decades after she lived, Mughal men of letters of the mid-eighteenth century such as Azad Bilgrami in his biographical dictionary, Yad-i bayz̤ā (IOL Islamic 3966, ff. 112-263), and Lachhmi Narayan Shafiq in his Gul-i ra‘nā (IO Islamic 3692 and 3693 and Or. 2044), only mentioned a few verses by Zebunnisa Begum.

Entry on Zebunnisa in Shafiq's Gul-i ra'na
Entry on Zebunnisa, Lachhmi Narayan Shafiq, Gul-i ra‘nā (British Library Or. 2044, ff. 79v-80r)
Public domain

Interestingly, it is in early nineteenth century Iran that a Qajar prince, Mahmud Mirza, who in his Nuql-i majlis, first mentions seeing a copy of Zebunnisa's dīvān that someone had brought to Iran from India. By the nineteenth century, anecdotes about her witty exchanges and dalliances with male poets appeared in works such as Muhammad Riza Abu’l-Qasim Tabataba’s miscellany, Naghmah-yi ‘andalīb (British Library Or. 1811), as well as in published anthologies of Persian and Urdu poetry composed by women. By the end of the century, several short biographies of her became popular which provided romanticized narratives of her as a learned but lonely princess who ended her life as a prisoner due to her father’s cruelty. As far as her poetry was concerned, serious scholars such as Shibli Numani and Abdul Muqtadir did not accept the attribution of the Dīvān-i Makhfī to Zebunnisa.

The British Library Or. 311, an eighteenth-century Mughal copy, is the oldest manuscript of the Dīvān-i Makhfī. The text of this manuscript forms the basis of the most recent edition of the poems.[4]

Zebunnisa's Divan, Or311, ff. 19v-20r-2
Dīvān-i Makhfī, 18th century (British Library Or. 311, ff. 19v–20)
Public domain


This manuscript includes these autobiographical verses from a ghazal:

garche man Layla-asasam dil chu Majnun dar nava-st
sar ba-sahra mizadam likan haya zanjir-i pa-st …
dukhtar-i shahim likan ru ba-faqr avarda’im
zeb o zinat sukhtim o nam-i ma Zebunnisa-st

Although I am Layla-like, my heart is plaintive Majnun-like,
I traverse the desert, but my feet are in chains of modesty.
I am a king’s daughter, but I am beset with poverty,
I discarded all ornaments—my name is Ornament of Women!

These verses do seem to be in Zebunnisa’s authentic voice.

The first printed edition of the Dīvān-i Makhfī appeared as a lithograph in 1268/1852 in Kanpur:

The Diwan of Zeb-un-Nissa
Dīvān-i Makhfī.
Kanpur, 1268/1852 (British Library VT138(g))
Public domain

The book was popular and was reprinted frequently in Kanpur, Lucknow and Lahore, most famously by the Naval Kishor Press in 1293/1876, in whose edition the author of the book is described as Makhfi Rashti, the Iranian émigré poet, an attribution that disappeared in subsequent editions.

Two small volumes of English translations of Zebunnisa’s poems appeared, astonishingly, in the same year, 1913. One of them was in the series, “Wisdom of the East”, translated by Magan Lal and Jessie Duncan Westbrook.

The Diwan of Zeb-un-Nissa
The Diwan of  Zeb-un-Nissa, translated by Magan Lal and Jessie Duncan Westbrook. New York, 1913
Photograph from the author’s library

In the introduction, Westbrook provides some enigmatic information about the Dīvān-i Makhfī’s transmission history that is not corroborated by  other sources: “In 1724, thirty-five years after her death, what could be found of her scattered writings were collected … [The book] contained four hundred and twenty-one ghazals and several rubais. In 1730 other ghazals were added.” A contemporary reviewer wrote in appreciation of the translations: “The book is particularly valuable at the moment when a great movement is drawing the women of the nations into closer touch and fuller understanding.”[5]  Another reviewer emphasized the mystical quality of the poems: “Miss Westbrook supplies an interesting biographical sketch and some useful remarks on the poetry. She is mistaken, however, in saying that the poems have a special Indian flavor of their own, derived from ‘the Akbar tradition of the unification of religions.’  The doctrine that, notwithstanding the difference of rites and objects of worship, all religions are essentially one occurs repeatedly in Sūfī literature of a much earlier period.”[6]  Given the ambiguity with regard to the object of devotion inherent in the premodern Persian ghazal, it is not surprising that the poems were read in a predetermined mystical way.

The second book, The Tears of Zebunnisa, was published in the same year and had translations by Paul Whalley, a retired Indian civil servant who also translated some quatrains of Omar Khayyam.

The Diwan of Zeb-un-Nissa
The Tears of Zebunnisa
, translated by Paul Whalley. London, 1913 (British Library 757.aa.9)
Public domain

In a poetic invocation, Whalley addresses the Mughal princess, who “belonged to the mystical school of which the most eminent exponents were Fariduddin Attar and Jalaluddin Rumi”:

INVOCATION
Rise from the far dim East and the mouldered pomp of the Moguls,
Daughter of Aurangzeb, priestess and martyr of Love!
Dawn as a lone bright star in the infinite gloom of the heavens,
Throbbing with love and shedding around thee the music of night.
Sweet as the voice of the bulbul that whispers its woes to the twilight
Come to us out of the ages the echoes of songs thou hast sung.

Like other translators of his time Whalley also preferred a romantic pseudo-mystical reading of Persian poetry. In addition to forty-nine translated poems, he also included five “imitations” and seven “examples of Persian metres”, showing his deep engagement with Persian poetry. His translation of the entire Dīvān-i Makhfī, whose unpublished manuscript is a typescript held by the British Library (IO Islamic 4587), was an immense project that included his fascination with the metres of Persian poetry. Below is his rendering of Zebunnisa’s autobiographical poem discussed above:
Paul Whalley's translation of Makhfi's divan
Typescript copy of Paul Whalley's translation (British Library IO Islamic 4587, f. 94)
Public domain

Whalley’s translations were literal and furnished with extensive notes. He also prepared a detailed concordance of metaphors and allusions to people and places in the Dīvān-i Makhfī. He considered Zebunnisa to be an important poet of the Persian tradition because of  “her sex and rank and social environment” as well as “the intrinsic beauty” of her poems.

Even if Zebunnisa did not compose all the poems in the Dīvān-i Makhfī, her persona as a poet has been crucial to bolstering the existence of a female textual tradition that is ephemeral at best until the twentieth century. In an interesting parallel with her poetry, the site of her final resting place has also been a matter of uncertainty. Although in the mid-nineteenth century Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan recorded in his Ās̱ār al-sanādīd that a railway line was built over her grave near the Kabuli Gate in Old Delhi, there is also a small memorial tomb in Lahore, tucked away in a bustling commercial part of the city near Chauburji, that has been connected to her name. It seems as if Zebunnisa is fated to remain a mystery in more ways than one.

Zebunnisa's tomb, Lahore
Zebunnisa's supposed tomb in Lahore.
Photograph by the author

 

Sunil Sharma, Professor of Persianate and Comparative Literature, Boston University
CCBY Image


Notes

[1] Muzaffar Alam, The Mughals and the Sufis (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2021), 301-3.
[2] See my article, “Forbidden Love, Persianate Style: Re-reading Tales of Iranian Poets and Mughal Patrons,” Iranian Studies 42 (2009): 765-79.
[3] Ahmad Gulchin-Ma‘ani, Kārvān-i Hind (Mashhad: Astan-i Quds-i Razavi, 1369/1990), 1263-64.
[4] Divan-i Zebunnisa, ed. Mahindokht Seddiqiyan and Sayyed Abu Taleb Mir ‘Abedini (Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1381/2002).
[5] The Indian Magazine and Review (January 1915), 62.
[6] The Athenaeum (August 9, 1913), 131.