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MSS Avestan 23

Record Id:

032-003719700

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-003719700

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100110518312.0x000001

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100170849247.0x000001

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

MSS Avestan 23

Title:

Shikand Gumānīg Vizār

Scope & Content:

A copy of the Shikand Gumānīg Vizār (Doubt-dispelling exposition), a Zoroastrian apologetic treatise composed in the 9th century and attributed to Mardan Farrukh.

No colophon, but the manuscript is in the same hand as MSS Avestan 26 which was completed on the 17th day of the 10th month of 1106 AY (1737).

Persian title (f. 1r): Purshish pāsukh.

Former numbers: no. 374 of Samuel Guise's collection; Guise's catalogue 60; Z&P XXIII.

Collection Area:

Oriental Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

India Office Library

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "032-003719700", "parent" : "#", "text" : "MSS Avestan 23: Shikand Gumānīg Vizār" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-003719700

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-003719700

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

Codex; ff. 7+ii

Digitised Content:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100170849247.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Pahlavi

Scripts:

Avestan

Start Date:

1600

End Date:

1699

Date Range:

17th century

Era:

Place of Origin:

India, c. 1737

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: locally made paper

Dimensions: 204 x 135 mm.

Foliation: ff. 79, foliated in Gujarati, ff. 51-79 are incorrectly foliated 56-85; fragments of spine preserved as f. ii

Layout: 10-12 lines per page; catch words.

Script: Pazand.

Ink: black.

Condition: good.

Binding: leather islamic binding without flap; central polychrome floral-stamped medallion, two pendants, four corners and ruled patterned borders.

Custodial History:

This manuscript belonged previously to Samuel Guise (1751-1811), Head Surgeon at the East India Company's Factory in Surat 1788-95 and was acquired by him in India, possibly from the widow of the famous teacher Dastur Darab Kumana.

Source of Acquisition:

Samuel Guise collection, acquired by the East India Company Library at Sotheby's sale 3 July 1812.

Finding Aids:

M.N. Dhalla, “Iranian manuscripts in the Library of the India Office.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1912), p. 396.

Publications:

Samuel Guise. A Catalogue and Detailed Account of a Very Valuable and Curious Collection of Manuscripts, Collected in Hindostan. By Samuel Guise Esq. Late Head Surgeon to the General Hospital at Surat: Including All Those That Were Procured by Monsieur Anquetil du Perron, Relative to the Religion and History of the Parsis, and Many Which He Could Not Procure (London: Printed by John Nichols, 1800).

U. Sims-Williams, “Zoroastrian Manuscripts in the British Library, London,” in The Transmission of the Avesta, edited by A. Cantera (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2012), pp. 173-94.

U. Sims-Williams, “The Strange Story of Samuel Guise: An 18th-Century Collection of Zoroastrian Manuscripts,” Bulletin of the Asia Institute. New series, v. 19 (2005 [2009]), pp. 199-209.

J.M. Unvala, Collection of Colophons of Manuscripts Bearing on Zoroastrianism in Some Libraries of Europe (Bombay: Parsi Punchayet, 1940), p. 92

E.W. West, “Pahlavi Literature,” in Grundriss der Iranischen Philologie, edited by W. Geiger and E. Kuhn, vol 2 (Strassburg: Trübner, 1896-1904), pp. 106-7, §53.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)