scholarly journals The Illustration of Mīrkhwānd's Rauḍat al-ṣafā, RAS Ms. P. 38

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
CHARLES MELVILLE
Keyword(s):  
Universal History ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

Among the precious manuscripts belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society is a copy of volume four of the Tārīkh-i Rauḍat al-ṣafā (History of the Garden of Purity), a work of ‘universal history’ in six volumes, compiled by Muḥammad b. Khwāndshāh b. Maḥmūd (d. 903/1498), generally known as Mīrkhwānd. He composed his chronicle in Herat under the patronage of ‘Alī Shīr Navā’ī (d. 906/1501), the Naqshbandi Sufi, Chaghatay poet and statesman at the court of the last Timurid ruler, Sulṭān-Ḥusain-i Bāyqarā (r. 875-912/1469-1506), see Fig. 1.

scholarly journals An Illustrated Shiʿi Pilgrimage Scroll in the Collections of the Royal Asiatic Society

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
ULRICH MARZOLPH ◽  
MATHILDE RENAULD
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
Material Condition ◽  
Visual Dimension ◽  
History Of ◽  
Initial Survey ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

Abstract The collections of the Royal Asiatic Society hold an illustrated pilgrimage scroll apparently dating from the first half of the nineteenth century. The scroll's hand painted images relate to the journey that a pious Shiʿi Muslim would have undertaken after the performance of the pilgrimage to Mecca. Its visual narrative continues, first to Medina and then to the Shiʿi sanctuaries in present-day Iraq, concluding in the Iranian city of Mashhad at the sanctuary of the eighth imam of the Twelver-Shiʿi creed, imam Riḍā (d. 818). The scroll was likely prepared in the early nineteenth century and acquired by the Royal Asiatic Society from its unknown previous owner sometime after 1857. In terms of chronology the pilgrimage scroll fits neatly into the period between the Niebuhr scroll, bought in Karbala in 1765, and a lithographed item most likely dating from the latter half of the nineteenth century, both of which depict a corresponding journey. The present essay's initial survey of the scroll's visual dimension, by Ulrich Marzolph, adds hitherto unknown details to the history of similar objects. The concluding report, by Mathilde Renauld, sheds light on the scroll's material condition and the difficulties encountered during the object's conservation and their solution.

scholarly journals Art. XIV.—History of Tennasserim

1835 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 248-275
Author(s):  
James Low
Keyword(s):  
Asiatic Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

The following abstract is taken from Captain Low's history of the provinces wrested from the Burmese during the late war, which, through his friend in this country, was presented to the Royal Asiatic Society. Several portions of it have already been read at the general meetings of the society, and it is intended to continue to give abstracts from it in the successive numbers of this journal, in the confident hope that the British public will speedily call for the entire publication of a work containing the most authentic information respecting a country, our relations with which are daily increasing in value and importance.

Art. XVIII.—The Northern Frontagers of China. Part VI. Hia or Tangut

1883 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 438-482
Author(s):  
H. H. Howorth
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Early History ◽  
Eastern Asia ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
Abundant Evidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

In tracing out the very crooked story of the history of Central and Eastern Asia, in which we have to deal with a succession of empires founded by a number of races, which have necessarily overrun its more desirable areas, there is only one method of inquiry which seems to be at once safe and fertile. This is to commence with the latest revolutions. To gradually unravel the tangle into which the story has been twisted, by first understanding the latest changes, about which we have abundant evidence, and then to work back to that earlier and more obscure period which must always have a great interest and romance for those who speculate on the origin and early history of our race. This is the method I have ventured to adopt in the series of papers on the Northern Frontagers of China, which I have been permitted, by the favour of the Royal Asiatic Society, to commence in the pages of its Journal, and in which I hope, if allowed, to pass in review the different races who have dominated over Central Asia and China from the earliest times.

Art. XIV.—Ten Ancient Inscriptions on Stone and Copper found on the Western side of India, and translated by William Henry Wathen, Esq. &C. &C. Secretary to Government, Bombay

1835 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 378-399
Keyword(s):  
Ancient India ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Side ◽  
The Many ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

The object in collecting and translating the many inscriptions to be met with in India, is, as Mr. Wathen very justly observes in his letter to the Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, to elucidate the history of India previous to the Muhammedan conquest. Of that history, but little is yet known: that little to the few only who have devoted the greater part of their lives to this research, and each of those few possessing perhaps a part only of that information which, if combined and moulded into a whole, might, at no distant day, supply this desideratum in our knowledge of the East, without which no accurate notion can be formed of the true character of ancient India, as to its modes of government, laws, and usages

Art. XXV. — Account of a rare manuscript History of Iṣfahán, presented to the Royal Asiatic Society on May 19, 1827, by Sir John Malcolm, and now described by Edward G. Browne, M.A., M.R.A.S

1901 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-704
Author(s):  
Edward G. Browne
Keyword(s):  
Asiatic Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

This chapter is described as being in praise of Iṣfahán, and of the excellence of its inhabitants, their obedience to constituted authority, and their talents, and as showing that the schemes of all such as have intended ill to them, or endeavoured to do them injury, have recoiled on their own heads.

scholarly journals Art. I.—On the Dynasty of the Sáh Kings of Suráshtra

1849 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 1-77
Author(s):  
Edward Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Asiatic Society ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

Among the many objects of Indian antiquarian research which possess general claims upon the attention of the Royal Asiatic Society, none perhaps can be cited as more peculiarly entitled to its fostering care than the History of the Suráshtran Kings, as illustrated by their Coins. The pages of the Journal of this Society contain the earliest systematic notice of these beautiful medals; and though much has been written, and much additional information gained in other places, little or nothing has since been done by our Association to forward this particular enquiry. Having presided over the first introduction of this investigation into the world of literature, it is but fit the Society should watch over its accepted offspring; and if as yet unable to conduct it to a safe and satisfactory resting-place, it may at the least prove useful in advancing it some stages ou its way.

scholarly journals Art. III.—Five Hundred Questions on the Social Condition of the Natives of Bengal

1866 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Long
Keyword(s):  
Social Condition ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Domestic Relations ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
Corporate Associations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Material Interests ◽  
History Of ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

Desiderata and Inquiries connected with the Presidency of Madras and Bombay were issued by the Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1827, on points relating to the language, literature, ancient history of families, antiquities, coins, people, architecture, landed tenures, arts and manufactures, of India.The British Admiralty has published a Manual of Scientific Enquiry, so have the Statistical and other Societies.Haxthausen, in his work on the Caucasus, remarks: “My travels and observations during more than twenty years, have convinced me that an acquaintance with the manners of a people, their moral and material interests, domestic relations, corporate associations, and specially the commercial relations of the lower classes, is indispensable to a real knowledge of the history and constitution of peoples and states.”

scholarly journals The Siege of Madras in 1746 and the action of La Bourdonnais

1908 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 189-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. W. Forrest
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Indian History ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
The World ◽  
Great Responsibility ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
Satisfactory Manner ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

When I was invited to read a paper on Indian history at a meeting of the Royal Historical Society I felt not only honoured by the request, but also gratified to learn that the Society intended to bring within its scope the encouragement of the study of the history of our Indian Empire, an empire whose progress and growth is a wondrous fact in the history of the world. The history of the Hindu kingdoms and the history of the government of the Mahomedans should be the special province of the Royal Asiatic Society, for no Englishman can deal with them in a satisfactory manner without a knowledge of the classical languages of the East. He must study and compare the original historians of India. The systematic study of the history of British dominion in India must be the most effectual agency in removing that ignorance (so strange and so discreditable) which prevails among all classes in England regarding the history of our Indian Empire. The responsibility for a just, impartial and stable government of India has been committed for good or evil into the hands of Parliament, and through Parliament to the electoral body of Great Britain; but the electoral body must fail to discharge that great responsibility if the reading multitude remain ignorant of the history of English government in India. It is also the duty and the interest of England that the young men who are sent from our universities to be the main instruments of administering the government of our Indian Empire in all its extensive and complicated branches should be trained to pursue the study of history in a scientific spirit, so that they may be able to apply scientific methods of inquiry to an examination in detail of the development of our administration in India. Many years spent in examining the musty documents in the Indian archives has brought home to me the value of the light which history may shed on practical problems. In India there is no problem which is old, there is no problem which is new. Measures which were supposed to be new would never have been passed if they had been studied by the dry light of history. In the Record Office under his charge the Indian civilian will generally find some material which will reward the labour of research.

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