@SOASLibrary has 15,000+ published items in/about Persian on its shelves.
@SOAS_SpecColl hold a very fine selection of manuscripts, rare books, periodicals and archives in Persian.
#SOASLangs
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Halt here and get's captivated by the history of that beautiful language recounted by Narguess Farzad for @SOAS Languages for Lockdown series, in 3 episodes:
1) bit.ly/2ZfSxTc
2) bit.ly/3gL6IFP
3) bit.ly/3217pqB
#SOASLangs #Persian #Manuscripts #Mughal
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In the late 15th century Ḥusayn Vāʻiẓ Kāshifī was commissioned by the Timurid court to produce another, simplified, version in Persian.
This version gained tremendous popularity.
#SOASLangs #Persian #Mughal
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SOAS Ms 10102 is one of those precious copies.
Feast your eyes on the 27 sumptuous miniatures of that regal copy at bit.ly/30aDSrH.
#SOASLangs #Persian #Mughal #fables
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...and discover the shocking scene right in the middle of the idyllic garden scenery and exquisite foliage!
#SOASLangs #Persian #Manuscripts #Mughal #whodunnit
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Hint: La Fontaine re-used and introduced this story from the انوار سهيلى to Western audiences in his fable "L'Ours et l'Amateur des Jardins"...
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None are digitised yet, so enjoy the sneak peeks we can offer here of our 16th c. Shāhnāmah (Ms25294),
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Here a victorious Kay Khosrow gives the Turanians safe conduct after their defeat, preferring benevolence over revenge...
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Divān-i Jāmī (Ms 25293) جامي ديوان
They are the collected poems of the famous poet and mystic Jāmī (1414-92).
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This copy is dated 941 AH (1535 CE) and was very likely produced in Herat, Afghanistan, where Jāmī spent the later part of his life.
See more of it here: bit.ly/30l9uuN
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You can find more @SOASLibrary to read on #Jāmī at bit.ly/2Oymd87, and on #Persian language, literature & poetry more generally at bit.ly/2CobUB5.
Or contact @SOAS Centre of Iranian Studies chaired by @Narguesssoas at bit.ly/2B6Es1d!
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Ms46458 (bit.ly/2WtZdLE) ظفر نامه Ẓafar′nāmah by Sharaf al-Dīn ʻAlī Yazdī (d. 1454) relates the history of #Timur, the Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the #Timurid dynasty.
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#SOASLangs
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Being a multilingual treatise on grammar, rhetoric and calligraphy in #Persian, #Arabic & #Turkish, it leads us to explore the latter of these #MECAC #SOASLangs.
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It was in effect mainly the language of the rulers, urban elite & lettered subjects of the Ottoman Empire between the 14th and 20th centuries
#SOASLangs
#OttomanTurkish #ArabicAlphabet
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#SOASLangs
Ottoman Turkish had an immense reach due to the intense political, commercial and intellectual activities and exchanges of the Ottoman Empire with the rest of the world.
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#SOASLangs #Ottoman #maps #atlases
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Ms381289 (see its record at bit.ly/3haTySP) gathers no less than 34 works by 11 authors on the various subjects such as sciences, linguistics, theology, #geography, cosmology, etc.
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See the digitised version at bit.ly/2DTklVj
#SOASLangs #OttomanTurkish
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#SOASLangs #OttomanTurkish
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It is fully digitised at bit.ly/2CODJ5e.
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#Müteferrika #SOASLangs #OttomanTurkish
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#SOASLangs #MECAC #Turkish
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Find some clues in our catalogue record: bit.ly/32JuFtt
#SOASLangs #Multilingualism
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It includes the Lord's Prayer in Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Greek and Armenian.
#SOASLangs
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#SOASLangs
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They refer to Western #Armenian (used by the Armenian diaspora), as opposed to the Eastern variant used in Armenia.
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As it happens, all of our dozen #Armenian manuscripts are liturgic texts, such as this imposing 15th century Armenian Lectionary (Ms41463) in bolorgir script.
See bit.ly/2OK4D15
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See it fully digitised at: bit.ly/2ZPSKga
#TreasuresofSOAS #SOASLangs #Armenian
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Hint: it was penned in Beirut in 1955 by Asmar Kas Georgius...
#TreasuresOfSOAS #SOASLangs #MECAC_languages
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It was presented in 1955 to HM Queen Elizabeth II, who donated it to Sir Ralph Turner, then director of @SOAS.
Note the cute dedicace of the proud father/copyist!
#SOASLangs #MECAC_languages #provenance
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It competed with Latin and Greek as one of the most important languages of Christianity in the early CE centuries and it spread as far as China.
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Syriac played a pivotal role in #translation of #Greek #philosophy texts into #Arabic in the 9th cent. Those were later translated into Latin, notably in multilingual Arab Spain.
#SOASLangs #Syriac
#SOASLangs #MECAC_Languages #Syriac
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#Syriac #MECAC_languages #SOASLangs
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What language(s) can you spot in this 1805 Gospel for example?
#SOASLangs #Multilingualism #MECAC_Languages
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Ms15568 is Bishārat Mattā al-Qiddīs, a copy of the Gospel according to St. Matthew copied in 1520 (Coptic)/1804 AD that shows signs of heavy use.
Check out the birds decorations on the first page: could those be hoopoes?
#SOASLangs
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The last work in this manuscript is an anonymous discourse on the Cross, followed by biblical passages.
#SOASLangs #TreasuresOfSOAS #Hoopoe
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- an homily on the invention of the Cross: Maymar ʻalá ẓuhūr al-ṣalīb al-muqaddas ميمر على ظهور الصليب المقدس by Saint Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem (ca. 315-386),
and
- Benedictions (Barakāt) to be recited on various occasions.
#Coptic
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#SOASLangs
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This is the case in Ms13996, a manuscript presumably dating from the 9th century: Fuṣūl min al-Anājīl
or Gospels for Good Friday, Saturday and Easter
Sunday, etc.
#SOASLangs
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There are hundreds of titles on our open-shelves collection in @SOASLibrary. Check out classmark 'QSB' in our catalogue bit.ly/2ZUP5Oc !
#SOASLangs #Coptic #MECAC_Languages
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