Page from the "Farhang-i Jahangiri"

Page from "Farhang-i Jahangiri" a Persian-language dictionary by Jamal al-Din Husayn b. Fakhr al-Din Hasan Inju Shirazi, from 1619 in Nasta'liq script Mughal and Safavid courts. Dimensions of Written Surface: 20.8 (w) x 21.5 (h) cm Marginal glosses cross-referenced to the main text with numbers appear on the left and outside the dark purple vertical text frame containing gold flowers and vines. These notes offer additional comments and poetical excerpts on the words listed in the main text. The author of this Persian-language farhang (dictionary) was Jamal al-Din Husayn b. Fakhr al-Din Hasan Inju Shirazi (d. 1035/1626), a learned man from an old Persian noble (sayyid) family who came from Persia to Akbar's court in India. There, he held high offices and began writing his dictionary in 1005/1596-7 at the ruler's request, basing himself on Persian poems and previous lexicographical works. Due to the scope of his farhang and continuous revisions, he did not complete the dictionary until after Akbar's (d. 1014/1605) death, presenting the work in 1608 to his successor Jahangir instead. For this reason, Jamal al-Din's Persian dictionary came to be known as the the "Farhang-i Jahangiri", or "Jahangir's dictionary." Along with the "Burhan-i Qati'" and the "Farhang-i Rashidi", it is one of the three most important Persian-language dictionaries produced in Mughal India (Rypka 1968, 431). The folio's recto margins are decorated with Mughal youths sitting in a landscape painted in gold ink. The folio's verso margins are decorated with various birds (including a phoenix) in a landscape painted in gold ink. During the early 20th century, a section of the "Farhang-i Jahangiri" was acquired by the French art dealer Demotte, who cut out its pages and used the decorative margins as mounts for Safavid and Mughal paintings (Sotheby's London, Arts of the Islamic World, 3 May 2001, lot 61). In some cases, paintings remounted on margins originally intended for the dictionary retain the marginal glosses accompanying the main text (see York Leach 1992: 64, and cat. nos. 16 and 20). The recto of this folio includes a number of words and expressions beginning with the last two letters of the Arabic alphabet, namely ha' and ya' (h and y). This list of words ends on the folio's verso, where a new series of expressions ("az") immediately follow (1-85-154-61b V). This fragment is the last folio of the "Farhang-i Jahangiri", a Persian lexicon purportedly executed in Agra in 1028/1618-19 (1-87-154.61d V). A total of four folios of this work are held in the collections of the Library of Congress (see 1-87-154.61a R & V, 1-85-154-61b V, 1-85-154-61c R & V, and 1-85-154-61d R & V). Script: nasta'liq 1-87-154.61b