Details

Subject(s)

• Manuscripts, Arabic—New Jersey—Princeton [Browse]

Translator

• Ibn al-Muqaffaʻ, -approximately 760 [Browse]

Related name

• ابن المقفع، -approximately 760 [Browse]
• محلي، محمود بن ابي الحسن، active 16th century [Browse]
• Princeton University. Library. Manuscript. Islamic Manuscripts, Garrett no. 169H [Browse]

Scribe

• Maḥallī, Maḥmūd ibn Abī al-Ḥasan, active 16th century [Browse]

Donor

• Garrett, Robert, 1875-1961 [Browse]

Rare books genre

• Autographs [Browse]
• Stamps [Browse]
• Watermarks (Paper) [Browse]

Summary note

The famous book Kalīlah wa-Dimnah, which is a translation, into Arabic from Pahlavi, of fables which are adaptations of the Indian tales of the Panchatantra originally brought from India in the time of Chosroes I.

Notes

• Collation: Paper ; fol. i + 96 + i ; catchwords ; quires signed 2-8 ; modern foliation in pencil using Western numerals.
• Description: Vowel signs ; rubricated ; watermarks ; MS in fair condition with some staining, some pages mended.
• Layout: 21 lines per page ; frame-ruled in gold (fol. 1b-2a), the rest frame-ruled in red.
• Marginal notes; marginal summaries in red. Table of contents on fol. 1b. On fol. 1a are two verses of poetry and a kabīkaj (invocation against bookworks).
• Ms. codex.
• Origin: According to colophon copied Tuesday 24 Muḥarram 997 by Maḥmūd ibn Abī al-Ḥasan ibn Shams al-Dīn al-Maḥallī al-Shāfiʻī (fol. 96b).
• Title from text (fol. 1b).
• Colophon: نجز في اليوم المبارك وهو يوم الثلاث المبارك رابع عشرين محرم الحرام افتتاح عام سنة سبع وتسعين وتسعماية على يد کاتبه فقير رحمة ربه المستنشق نسيم حضرة قربه محمود بن ابي الحسن بن شمس الدين المحلي الشافعي غفر الله له ولوالديه واحسن اليهم واليه امين
• Incipit: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم. وما توفيقي الا بالله عليه توکلت. هذا کتاب کليلة ودمنة

Binding note

Type II (with flap) binding in light brown leather and and paper with a block-printed design. Text block wrapped in later paper, not connected to cover.

Provenance

Obliterated ownership autograph along with a seal impression and the signature of ʻAbd Allāh ibn ʻAlī al-Fārisī (fol. 1a). Acquired from Brill, Leyden, 1900.

Source acquisition

Gift ; Robert Garrett, Class of 1897 ; 1942.

References

• Ḥājjī Khalīfah, Kashf al-ẓunūn (1835-58), V, p. 236/9.
• Hitti, P. Garrett Coll., 176.
• Rieu, Supplement of the catalogue of the Arabic Mss, 1155-7.

Other format(s)

Also available in an electronic version.

Other title(s)

Fables of Bidpai. Arabic.

OCLC

1289856999

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