The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
Recognized as one of the world’s great autobiographical memoirs, the Bāburnāmah is the story of Ẓahīr al-Dīn Muḥammad Bābur (866 AH / 1483 CE -- 937 AH / 1530 CE), who conquered northern India and established the Mughal Empire (or Timurid-Mughal empire). Born in Fergana (Central Asia), Babur was a patrilineal Timurid and matrilineal Chingizid. Babur penned his memoir in Chaghatay Turkish, which he referred to as Turkic, and it was later translated into Persian and repeatedly copied and illustrated under his Mughal successors. The present copy in Persian written in nastaʿlīq script is a fragment of a dispersed manuscript that was executed in the late 10th century AH / 16th CE. The ordering of the leaves as found here does not follow the narrative of the text. The Walters' fragment contains thirty mostly full-page paintings that are representative of the Mughal court style under the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 963-1014 AH/ 1556-1605). Another major fragment of this work, containing fifty-seven folios, is in the State Museum of Eastern Cultures, Moscow. The dark green leather binding, which is not original to the textblock, dates to the late 13th AH/ 19th century or early 14th AH/ 20th century CE
Two different but clear nastaʿlīq hands.
Principal cataloger: Gacek, Adam
Cataloger: Landau, Amy
Cataloger: Smith, Sita
Editor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Barrera, Christina
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Simpson, Shreve
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Contributor: Valle, Chiara
Conservator: Jewell, Stephanie
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Smart, Ellen, “Paintings from the Baburnama: A Study of Sixteenth-Century Mughal Historical Manuscript Illustrations” (Ph.D. diss. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1977): 29, 109-129, 165-171, 173, 191, 206, 210, 212, 214, 219, 223. 226-228, 233-235, 257, 259, 260, 272, 303, 305, 349.
Information about the manuscripts of the Baburnamah can be found in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (JRAS) for the years 1900, 1902, 1905, 1906, 1907, and 1908.
Smart, Ellen S. “Yet another illustrated Akbari Baburnama manuscript”. Facets of Indian art, 1986: 105-115.
S I Ti︠u︡li︠a︡ev, Miniati︠u︡ry rukopisy "Babur-Namė" (Moscow, 1960).
Randhawa, M.S., Paintings of the Baburnama (New Delhi, 1983)
The Baburnama : memoirs of Babur, prince and emperor / translated, edited, and annotated by Wheeler M. Thackston (Washington, DC, 1996)
Bâburnâma : Chaghatay Turkish text with Abdul-Rahim Khankhanan's Persian translation / Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur Mirza ; Turkish transcription, Persian edition and English translation by W.M. Thackston, Jr./ 3 vols. (Harvard, 1993).
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
India
10th century AH / 16th CE
book
Non-original Binding
Limp dark green morocco (without flap), late 13th AH/ 19th century or early 14th AH/ 20th century CE
The primary language in this manuscript is Persian.
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest
India
10th century AH / 16th CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Persian.
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest
Recognized as one of the world’s great autobiographical memoirs, the Bāburnāmah is the story of Ẓahīr al-Dīn Muḥammad Bābur (866 AH / 1483 CE -- 937 AH / 1530 CE), who conquered northern India and established the Mughal Empire (or Timurid-Mughal empire). Born in Fergana (Central Asia), Babur was a patrilineal Timurid and matrilineal Chingizid. Babur penned his memoir in Chaghatay Turkish, which he referred to as Turkic, and it was later translated into Persian and repeatedly copied and illustrated under his Mughal successors. The present copy in Persian written in nastaʿlīq script is a fragment of a dispersed manuscript that was executed in the late 10th century AH / 16th CE. The ordering of the leaves as found here does not follow the narrative of the text. The Walters' fragment contains thirty mostly full-page paintings that are representative of the Mughal court style under the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 963-1014 AH/ 1556-1605). Another major fragment of this work, containing fifty-seven folios, is in the State Museum of Eastern Cultures, Moscow. The dark green leather binding, which is not original to the textblock, dates to the late 13th AH/ 19th century or early 14th AH/ 20th century CE
Two different but clear nastaʿlīq hands.
Principal cataloger: Gacek, Adam
Cataloger: Landau, Amy
Cataloger: Smith, Sita
Editor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Barrera, Christina
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Simpson, Shreve
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Contributor: Valle, Chiara
Conservator: Jewell, Stephanie
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Smart, Ellen, “Paintings from the Baburnama: A Study of Sixteenth-Century Mughal Historical Manuscript Illustrations” (Ph.D. diss. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1977): 29, 109-129, 165-171, 173, 191, 206, 210, 212, 214, 219, 223. 226-228, 233-235, 257, 259, 260, 272, 303, 305, 349.
Information about the manuscripts of the Baburnamah can be found in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (JRAS) for the years 1900, 1902, 1905, 1906, 1907, and 1908.
Smart, Ellen S. “Yet another illustrated Akbari Baburnama manuscript”. Facets of Indian art, 1986: 105-115.
S I Ti︠u︡li︠a︡ev, Miniati︠u︡ry rukopisy "Babur-Namė" (Moscow, 1960).
Randhawa, M.S., Paintings of the Baburnama (New Delhi, 1983)
The Baburnama : memoirs of Babur, prince and emperor / translated, edited, and annotated by Wheeler M. Thackston (Washington, DC, 1996)
Bâburnâma : Chaghatay Turkish text with Abdul-Rahim Khankhanan's Persian translation / Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur Mirza ; Turkish transcription, Persian edition and English translation by W.M. Thackston, Jr./ 3 vols. (Harvard, 1993).
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
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