Four Centuries Later: Tracing Shah ʿAbbās’s Book Endowments to Ardabil in Istanbul

Abstract
Shah ʿAbbās I, known as “the Great,” was a pivotal figure in Iranian history, ruling from 1588 to 1629. His enduring legacy includes numerous endowed manuscripts, which reflect his charitable endeavors during his over forty-year reign. Between approximately 1600 and 1629, Shah ʿAbbās demonstrated his piety through donations of valuable items from his palace in Isfahan to prominent shrines across Iran, including those in Ardabil, Mashhad, Qom, and Ray. Many of these endowments consisted of rare volumes from the imperial collection. While the manuscripts bestowed upon Mashhad remain on site, others given to the shrine of Shaykh Ṣafī al-Dīn in Ardabil are now dispersed throughout institutions in Tehran, Saint Petersburg, Istanbul, and select European and North American locations. My study investigates the origins of a selection of these manuscripts by consulting manuscript notes, archival records, library catalogues, and drawing on fresh perspectives offered by recent studies by Tanındı (2024) and Vasilyeva/Yastrebova (2024). Specifically, it explores whether these works came directly from the royal library, the shah’s private holdings, or had been possessed by high-ranking officials prior to entering the Ardabil shrine library. Additionally, this inquiry seeks to enhance our understanding of the scope and diversity of endowed manuscripts underpinning Safavid cultural practices and intellectual currents around 1600. Due to practical considerations, the focus lies primarily on analyzing the Ardabil manuscripts currently housed in Istanbul repositories, particularly in the Süleymaniye Library, whose relatively small but hitherto understudied number offers a promising avenue for scholarly exploration.

Biography
Philip Bockholt is Junior Professor for the History of the Turco-Persian World at the Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Münster (since 2022). From 2022 to 2028, he will also lead the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group, “Inner- Islamic Knowledge Transfer in Arabic-Persian- Ottoman Translation Processes in the Eastern Mediterranean (1400–1750)”. He was formerly a research associate at the Institute of Oriental Studies at the University of Leipzig and received his PhD in Islamic Studies from Freie Universität Berlin in 2018. His PhD dissertation examined the historiography in Iran in the early Safavid period (sixteenth century) and provided an analysis of Khvāndamīr’s Ḥabīb al-Siyar (“Beloved of Careers”) and its readership. A series of research fellowships have taken him to Istanbul, Jerusalem, Madrid, Paris, Saint Petersburg, and Tokyo. His recent monograph publications include Weltgeschichtsschreibung zwischen Schia und Sunna (Brill, 2021), Ein Bestseller der islamischen Vormoderne (VÖAW, 2022), Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age (Cahiers de Studia Iranica, 2023, co-edited with Sacha Alsancakli) and Multilingualism, Translation, Transfer: Persian in the Ottoman Empire (Special Issue of Diyâr, 2024, co-edited with Hülya Çelik).

Shāh ʿAbbās I’s Manuscript Endowments and Shrine Practices: Early Kufic Qurʾāns Endowed to Mashhad and Ardabil

Abstract
This study examines the religious and cultural policies of Shāh ʿAbbās I (r. 1588–1629) in the aftermath of the decade-long Uzbek occupation of Mashhad (1589–1598) by analyzing Arabic, Persian, and Chagatai manuscripts that he endowed to Sufi and Shiʿite shrines in Ardabil, Mashhad, Qom, and Ray on various occasions from his royal library and their enduring legacy. Particular attention is given to a group of ninth- and twelfth-century Qurʾāns written in Kufic (angular) script on parchment, allegedly bearing the signatures of the Twelver Imāms (e.g., Imām ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib); These Qurʾāns were endowed to the mausoleum of Imām Riżā in Mashhad in 1599/1600 and 1600/1, likely during Shāh ʿAbbās’s pilgrimages, and later to the mausoleum of Shaykh Ṣafī al-Dīn in Ardabil in 1627/8.

While studies in Islamic art history have examined the Safavid adaptation of early Kufic Qurʾāns, as exemplified by this group, since the mid-2000s, research into their content, physical features, potential functions, placements within mausolea, hierarchy in comparison to other manuscripts, post-Safavid reception, and Shāh ʿAbbās I’s strategic decisions in selecting and endowing these and other manuscripts to specific destinations over time (e.g., the Ṣafvat al-Ṣafā, endowed to Ardabil in 1612/3) remains insufficiently explored.

To address these gaps, this study draws on a diverse range of sources, including paratextual elements of the manuscripts (e.g., inspection records), inventory records from the treasuries of mausolea spanning the Safavid to Qajar periods, the Ottoman land registry, and contemporaneous treatises on calligraphy, biographies of ʿulamāʾ, and dynastic chronicles. By analysing these materials, the study sheds new light on the strategic significance of Shāh ʿAbbās I’s manuscript endowments, their role in consolidating his religious and political authority, and their broader contributions to the practices of endowment, usage, and preservation of manuscripts in shrine treasuries over subsequent periods.

Biography
Yui Kanda is an Assistant Professor at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and an Associate Member of the Centre for Iranian Studies at SOAS, University of London. Her research focuses on Islamic art from the early modern Persianate world, including ceramics, metalwork, and manuscripts, and involves examining primary sources in Persian and Arabic. She primarily investigates the creators, patrons, and audiences of the poetic and religious texts inscribed on these artworks, their purposes and functions, and the material culture associated with Twelver Shīʿism. She received her MPhil in Islamic Art and Archaeology from the University of Oxford in 2015 and her PhD in the History of Art from the University of Tokyo in 2021. Her recent publications include “‘If I Circumambulate around Him, I Will Be Burnt’: A Brass Candlestick Endowed to the Mausoleum of Imam Musa al-Kazim, Kazimayn” in Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies (2023) and “Iranian Blue-and-White Ceramic Vessels and Tombstones Inscribed with Persian Verses, c. 1450–1725,” in The Routledge Companion to Global Renaissance Art (2024). Her ongoing research projects explore: 1) the pious endowments of Arabic and Persian manuscripts and artworks by Shāh ʿAbbās (r. 1588–1629) and the archival practices for these works in Iranian and Iraqi shrines, 2) the reception and circulation of Persian corpus of Kalīla va Dimna manuscripts in the Ottoman lands, 3) Chagatai and Persian poetry manuscripts in Pakistani collections, and 4) the library of Claudius James Rich (d. 1821).

Barrasī-yi kohan-tarīn fehrest-hā-ye bejāmande az Kitābkhāne-ye Astān-e Qods-e Rażavī (in Persian)

بررسی کهن‌ترین فهرست‌های بجامانده از کتابخانۀ آستان قدس رضوی

دو مجموعه سند بجا مانده از موجودی کتابخانۀ حرم امام رضا در مشهد (کتابخانۀ آستان قدس رضوی) مربوط به سال‌های 1007 تا 1011 از قدیمی‌ترین فهرست‌های کتابخانه‌های کهن ایران است. فهرست‌نویسی که به عنوان اقدام اساسی در جهت شناخت، حفاظت و مدیریت منابع هر کتابخانه تلقی می‌شود، در کتابخانۀ‌ آستان قدس زیر عنوان‌های «عرض»، «سند صاحب‌جمعي» و «فهرست» تعریف شده است. این اسناد که از اسناد تشکیلات اداری حرم به شمار می‌رود، شامل 142 برگه است که در یک مقطع تاریخی بسیار مهم تنظیم شده و از وضعیت کتابخانه پس از بحران بزرگ تسلط ده سالۀ ازبکان در خراسان و مشهد و آغاز دورۀ شکوفای عباس اول صفوی، اطلاعات ارزشمندی به ما می‌دهد. این فهرست‌ها موجودی قرآن‌ و کتاب‌ کتابخانه را به صورت طبقه‌بندی شده، به همراه برخی اطلاعات دیگر از نسخه‌ها گزارش می‌کند و علاوه بر آن، اطلاعاتی از وسایل کتابخانه نیز ارائه می‌دهد. مقالۀ حاضر به استخراج و بررسی داده‌های برآمده از این دو فهرست می‌پردازد و تلاش می‌کند از مجموع این داده‌ها، بر شناخت اندک ما از وضعیت کتابخانه در چهار سده قبل بیفزاید؛ ازجمله دربارۀ چگونگی تأمین منابع و اطلاعات مربوط به واقفان نسخه‌ها، روش نسخه‌شناسی و کتابداری، توصیف، دسته‌بندی و بازیابی اطلاعات و نگهداری و مرمّت کتاب‌ها. نیز نگاهی به گزارشهای تاریخی از وضعیت منابع پس از حملۀ ازبکان خواهد داشت و آن را با داده‌های این اسناد خواهد سنجید.

Biography

بهزاد نعمتی
وی تحصیلات خود را تا سطح کارشناسی ارشد در رشتۀ تاریخ و ایران‌شناسی در دانشگاه فردوسی مشهد و دانشگاه شهید بهشتی تهران گذرانده و از سال 1377 در آستان قدس رضوی کار می‌کند. ابتدا به عنوان کارشناس گروه تاریخ مرکز خراسان شناسی و سپس به عنوان پژوهشگر گروه دایرة‌المعارف آستان قدس رضوی با گرایش تاریخ و هنر و معماری در بنیاد پژوهشهای اسلامی فعالیت کرده و اکنون عضو گروه فرهنگ و هنر و رئیس ادارۀ همکاری‌های علمی این مؤسسۀ پژوهشی است. از وی مقالاتی دربارۀ مشهد و حرم رضوی منتشر شده و شمار زیادی از نوشته‌های او در این زمینه در دایرة‌المعارف آستان قدس به چاپ رسیده است. نیز 14 عنوان کتاب در این باره به صورت فردی یا گروهی منتشر کرده که آخرین آن کتابی با عنوان گلزار الفت دربارۀ استاد عیسی آلفته نگارگر و مذهب کتابخانۀ آستان قدس است که با همکاری استاد حسین رزاقی انجام شد و توسط کتابخانۀ مرکزی آستان قدس منتشر شده است.
الهه محبوب فریمانی
وی تحصیلات خود را در مقطع کارشناسی ارشد در دانشگاه تهران و دکتری را در دانشگاه پیام نور تهران گذرانید. در سال 1378 به استخدام مرکز اسناد کتابخانه آستان قدس رضوی در آمد و با سمت کارشناس پژوهش، کار با اسناد قدیمی را شروع کرد. اکنون ریاست اداره اسناد آستان قدس را بر عهده دارد. در طی این سال ها موفق به تالیف و گردآوری هفت اثر در حوزه اسناد شد. که از جمله آن می توان به تاریخچه کتابخانه آستان قدس رضوی از صفوی تا قاجار، اسناد حضور دولت های بیگانه در ایران، گزیده اسناد حضور زنان در آستان قدس رضوی از صفوی تا پهلوی، بررسی ساختار اسناد دفاتر مالی در عصر صفوی و غیره نام برد. هم چنین از ایشان مقالاتی در نشریات داخلی و خارجی در حوزه سند شناسی و سندپژوهی به چاپ رسیده است. تدریس درس اسناد و کتیبه ها در گروه تاریخ دانشگاه فردوسی مشهد و نیز برگزاری کارگاه های سند شناسی از جمله فعالیت های دیگر وی به شمار می رود.

The Library of the Eighteenth Century Mughal Prince Acchai Sahib

Abstract
Research on the central Islamic lands has lately emphasised the importance of studying library catalogues as a source for intellectual history, as shown by the recent contribution of Konrad Hirshler on medieval Syria and several recent publications devoted to the catalogue of the Ottoman palace library of the time of Beyazid II. Yet for other parts of the Islamic world such research remains underdeveloped. While no equivalent catalogue of the Mughal imperial library has survived, quite a number of library catalogues from Islamic South Asia have survived. In this presentation I focus on one neglected such catalogue, which is of particular interest as it predates the colonial environment in which most of the others were compiled, potentially affecting their contents. This is the catalogue of the library of the Mughal prince Acchai Sahib, also known as Buland Akhtar, brother of the emperor Muhammad Shah (r. 1718-1748), now preserved in the Bodleian Library as MS Ouseley Add 10, and compiled by one Sharaf ‘Ali in 1211/1797. The catalogue, presumably composed posthumously, sheds light on not simply on the contents and their classification, but also the linguistic diversity and hierarchy of mss, with not just Arabic and Persian but more surprisingly Pushto also represented, and individual mss picked out as being autographs or because of the prestige of their provenance. The catalogue is thus valuable as it offers an unprecedented insight into Mughal book collecting practices, and not previously been studied.

Biography
A.C.S. Peacock is Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Islamic History at the University of St. Andrews, UK, and was educated at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. His research specializes in the medieval and early modern history of the eastern Islamic world, with a particular focus on Islamic manuscripts. His major works include The Great Seljuk Empire (2015), Islam, Literature and Society in Mongol Anatolia (2019), and Arabic Literary Culture in Southeast Asia in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (2024) in addition to the edited volumes Islamisation: Comparative Perspectives from History (2017) and Iran and Persianate Culture in the Indian Ocean World (2025). He currently leads a research project titled “Persian Manuscripts between East and West” funded by the British Institute of Persian Studies. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.