Lot 100
£252
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 21 June 2023 at 11:00 BST
Lucknow or Kanpur: Nawal Kishore, 1870s. 4 works in one volume, tall 8vo (27 x 17cm), contemporary red sheep with marbled paper onlays to sides, each work with decorative floral title-page, edges dyed yellow, ownership inscription dated 1294 AH to front free endpaper, worming to spine, loss to marbled paper on rear board. Titles comprise:
1) Risalat-i Lamiyah wa-Fusul-i Akbari wa-Guhar-i Manzum ['The Epistle on the letter "L", The Chapters of Akbar, and the Versified Jewel'], [no date, c.1875]. In 3 parts, [1] 8, 94, 14 pp., in Persian, very light worming to upper fore corners, very small worm-hole in text never affecting legibility;
2) Shafiyah [by Ibn al-Hajib, active c.1200-1250 CE], 1291 AH [1874/5 CE]. 184 pp., main text in Arabic;
3) Kafiyah [by Ibn al-Hajib], 1875 CE [dated in colophon]. 110 pp., main text in Arabic;
4) Sharh Kafiyah Manzum ['Explanation of the Kafiyah, in verse'], 1872 CE. 50 pp., in Persian, decorative floral title-page, browning to title-page, variable worming to margins, small repair to foot of last 3 leaves, final leaf tipped to endpaper with consequent paper disruption to gutter, and with additional repair to top edge
Note: The Nawal Kishore Press, founded at Lucknow in 1858 by Hindu entrepreneur Nawal Kishore (1836-1895), 'grew into the largest Indian-owned printing and publishing firm in South Asia. Supported by colonial patronage, the firm published an estimated 5,000 titles in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Sanskrit and Hindi during Nawal Kishore's lifetime, while it also served as an intellectual hub for scholars, poets and literati. As one observer noted: "No other press in India was fortunate to have such a large number of huffaz, scholars, historians, writers and poets as were gathered simultaneously at this press"' (Ulrike Stark, 'Calligraphic Masterpiece, Mass-Produced Scripture: Early Qur'an Printing in Colonial India', in Reese, ed., Manuscript and Print in the Islamic Tradition, 2002, p. 158).