[Persian treatise on orthography, pronunciation and penmanship]

This material is held atBritish Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Add MS 7691
  • Dates of Creation
    • Late 17th century
  • Language of Material
    • Arabic Azerbaijani Chagatai Persian Turkish
  • Physical Description
    • 1 text 111 ff Materials : PaperFoliation : European, 111 ff. Dimensions : 216 mm x 140 mm. Ruling : Gold-ruled text boxes, text area 80 mm long, 12 lines per page. Script : Nastaˁlīq.

Scope and Content

This volume contains a treatise on pronunciation and penmanship in Persian authored by Abu'l-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad Riz̤ā, Majlis-Navīs-i Naṣīrī (ابو القاسم بن محمد رضا مجلسنویس نصیری). The text begins:. الحمد للله الذي استنسخ لالواح قلوبنا نسخة عرفان وحدانيته. The author, who calls himself a born servant of the Shah, states that his grandfather, his paternal uncle, and his father have written books on surnames, on the rules of letter writing, and on poetry. He chose to write in the present work on orthography, the rules of correct diction, and on penmanship. The work is divided into a Muqaddimah and four maqālāt:. ff 2v-4r : Muqaddimah, Letters proper to Arabic, Persian, and Turkic languages;. ff 4v-38r : Maqālah I, in two abwāb, on orthography and the rules of correct speech in Persian;. ff 38v-49r : Maqālah II, Orthography and rules of correct speech in Turkic languages. Although the text deals primarily with Chagatai, there are frequent notes on the usage of both Azerbaijani and Ottoman Turkish;. ff 49v-86r : Maqālah III, in three abwāb: (1) Meanings of the single letters, according to the teachings of the Imams (ff 49v-61v); (2) Arabic orthography (ff 62r-75v); (3) Rules of correct speech in Arabic (ff 76r-86r);. ff 86v-11v : Maqālah IV, on penmanship in eight abwāb: (1) creation of the qalam (ff 86v-87r); (2) invention of the art of writing (ff 87v-89v); (3) writing implements (ff 90r-94v); (4) various writings and characters, in which the latest celebrated calligrapher mentioned is Mīr ˁimād (ff 95r-98v); (5) how to cut the qalam (ff 99r-102r); (6) how to teach and practice penmanship (ff 102v-105v); (7) ligature and proportion of the letters (ff 107r-109r); (8) how to correct writing (ff 109v-111v). The text features a single unvan and ornamental headings. A Persian note on the first page, dated 1117 AH (1705-06 CE) includes a potential title for this text as Risālah-i Davarān (رسالۀ دوران), to which the writer adds that the text might useful for the eminent scribes of the period. The manuscript is not dated, but was likely copied towards the close of the 17th century CE.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Bequeathed to the British Museum by Claudius Rich.

Other Finding Aids

Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1966), p. 519.