Indo-Persian and Persianate Manuscripts in Britain: Provenance and Collection: BIPS workshop held at the Ancient India and Iran Trust, Cambridge
Ursula Sims-Williams
On Friday 3rd November, the British Institute of Persian Studies’ Flagship Research Project, held an informal workshop, “Persian Manuscripts between East and West: Britain, India and the Circulation of the Persianate Literary Heritage,” hosted by the Ancient India and Iran Trust, Cambridge.
Collections of Persian manuscripts in Britain date back to the seventeenth century and include many unpublished and little-known works. These were originally copied for and collected by earlier owners in India, Iran and Central Asia, who can often be identified by ownership statements, seals, and dedications. The workshop explored the rationale and motivation behind these collections, examining not only the role of colonial administrators as collectors and patrons, but the wider circulation of manuscripts as an indicator of intellectual activity.
The programme included a lively and stimulating series of talks, covering several collections in Cambridge as well as somer further afield, in Manchester, London and Scotland.
In addition, participants were able to see a selection of the Trust’s own collection of 70 Persian manuscripts, acquired during the 1930s by founding Trustee, Sir Harold Bailey, professor of Sanskrit at the University of Cambridge from 1936 to 1967. A more comprehensive description of this little-known collection will be published in a future post, so watch this space!
The workshop was financed by BIPS with the support of the Sufi Manuscript Cultures research project.
