Persian manuscript collections are held not just by major libraries but scattered in provincial collections, including those of stately homes. Here we investigate one of these little known collections, the Dunimarle Collection in Duff House, Banff.
The Dunimarle collection was assembled largely by a certain John Drummond Erskine (1776-1836), and is named after his family estate of Duminarle Castle in Fife. The Erksines of Torrie were important landowners in Fife, as well as being military family who had played a prominent role in Scottish military life since the sixteenth century at least. The baronetcy was created in 1791 for Lieut Gen Sir William Erskine. As his second son, John was not expected to inherit – although in due course he did in fact become fourth baronet – he was sent to India as a young man to work for the East India Company as a ‘writer’ or clerk. Arriving in 1795, he spent 17 years in India, mainly in Benares and Calcutta, and acquired a collection of manuscripts as well as objects such as brassware, an inkstand and a Buddha statue that are also preserved in Dunimarle collection at Duff House . John’s first post was as assistant to the Collector at Benares, and was subsequently posted to Chittagong – now in Bangladesh – Mirzapore, Bhagulpore, Bundelcund, and in 1808 was appointed Judge and Magistrate at Allahabad, receiving a final posting to Calcutta in 1811 before returning to Scotland in 1812.
As far as we can tell, no subsequent member of the Erskine of Torrie family had any dealings with Indi, and the baronetcy fell into abeyance after John Drummond’s death in 1836 in the lack of a male heir. Nonetheless, descendants of the family still inhabit the ancestral castle in Fife, and the manuscripts were preserved among the extensive library, which comprised some 2000 volumes, largely in English and European languages. The contents of the castle were however bequeathed separately to its fabric, and were inherited by John Drummond’s sister Magdalene, who founded the Dunimarle trust to preserve them and put them on display, on occasion to the public. In 1910, a certain Canon Harper was appointed curator of the collection, and produced a handwritten catalogue that provides our first evidence for the Persian manuscripts in the Dunimarle collection. Harper lists some 29 manuscripts and lithographs, including the most famous manuscript in the collection, a fifteenth century illustrated Shahnama, which was subsequently sold and entered the collection of the British Library (MS Or 12688). Of the 29 books and manuscripts listed by Harper 13 are still held in the Dunimarle collection, which has now been transferred to the care of Historic Scotland in Duff House in Banff.
The surviving manuscripts represent an eclectic collection of texts that reveal Erskine’s interests both literary and professional. Persian poetry is especially well represented, and we have diwans of Sa’ib and Anwari that belonged to John Drummond, while among the lost manuscripts were copies of works by Jami, Amir Khusraw and the important seventeenth century Mughal poet Ni’mat Khan.
It is evident that these books were not purely decorative. It seems likely that some of the extensive annotations in the Anwari ms are by Erskine’s Persian teacher, as they mainly aim to explain obscure vocabulary. In an early printed copy of Hafez published in Calcutta in 1791, we find in Eskine’s hand an attempt at the translation of Hafiz’s famous ode adir ka’san wa-nawilha. Erskine’s interest in Hafiz is also reflected in his ownership of the Khulasa-i Tarjuman-i Lisan al-Ghayb, an attempt to explain the verses of Hafiz in accordance with the theosophical school of wahdat al-wujud espoused by Ibn ‘Arabi, accompanied by quotations from Rumi’s Masnavi, but where we also seem to find distinctly Indian influences in the illustrations.
Khulasa-i Tarjuman-i Lisan al-Ghayb, Dunimarle collection DC. LIB 2169x
In addition to the poetry, we have a number of prose texts, most of them quite well known, such as Qazvini’s Aja’ib al-Makhluqat, and an important history of the reign of Aurengzeb, the Mir’at al-‘Alam. However, other texts owned by Erskine seem to have been written specifically for him. The Fatawa-i Siraj al-Shari’at by Amir al-Din al-mushtahir bi-Amr allah Khan, a compendium of legal rulings written in Persian, was written, the author tells us, because the rule of the Mughals and come to end and the English had taken their place. The introduction praises the English love of learning, but such a text, based on a variety of reputable fatwa collections would have served a practical purpose in giving a colonial administrator a convenient digest of law. This book was presented to Erskine by its author in 1810. Of a similar nature is a Persian work on the administration of justice in Bengal by a certain Mir Amir. Again, the explicit praise of the English and the East India company in the preface indicate that the author composed this at the behest of British officials, probably Erskine himself.
On the administration of justice in Bengal by Meer Ameer. DC. LIB 1751.
Only in an handful of instances can we confirm the earlier provenance of the manuscripts, which date from the fifteenth to the early nineteenth century. A number of manuscripts were evidently acquired by Erskine from British officials. Both the Mir’at al-Alam and the ‘Aja’ib al-Makhluqat have the Persian Seal of Henry Vansittart, governor of Bengal from 1759 to 1764. Vansittart’s manuscripts wee evidently acquired by another British official, Charles Boddam (d. 1811), whose father was a Company director, and from him they were acquired by Erskine.
Seals of Vansittart and Boddam on the ‘Aja’ib al-Makhluqat. DC.LIB 199x
While small in number, the manuscripts in the Dunimarle collections thus contain a couple of texts that are probably unique, and indicate the engagement of one British official with Persian culture.
Manuscripts of the Dunimarle collection
Poetry/Literature
Khulasa-i Tarjuman-i Asrar-i Divan-I Lisan al-Ghayb al-musamma bi-Sharh-i ṭūr-I mu’amma. Wujudi commentary on Hafiz. DC. LIB 2169x
Diwan-i Anwari. DC. LIB 235
Hafiz, Diwan (Calcutta printed edition of 1791) DC. LIB x 228
Tarikh-i Shamshirkhani (MS fragment of 8 folios) in DC. LIB x 228
Intikhab-i Diwan-I Sa’ib. DC. LIB 231
Sa‘di, Kulliyat (Calcutta printed edition of 1795). DC. LIB 837x.
Extracts from various different saqinamas by Zuhuri, Khwaju Kirmani and others. DC. LIB 2170x
Firdawsi, Shahnama (now British Library MS Or 12888).
History, Geography and administration
Bakhtawar Khan, Mir’at al-‘Alam, history of Aurangzeb’s reign. DC. LIB 2054
Amir al-Din al-mushtahir bi-Amr allah Khan, Fatawa-i Siraj al-Shari’at. DC. LIB 1989x. Presented by the author to Erskine
Qazvini, ‘Aja’ib al-Makhluqat. DC.LIB 199x
On the administration of justice in Bengal by Meer Ameer. (in Persian). DC. LIB 1751. Presented by the author to Erskine
Arabic grammar, primarily verb forms, with exegesis in Persian. DC. LIB 2101x
Bibliography
Anne Buddle, The Dunimarle Collection at Duff House (Edinburgh, 2018)