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W.596, Memoirs of Babur

Abstract

Recognized as one of the world’s great autobiographical memoirs, the Bāburnāmah is the story of Ẓahīr al-Dīn Muḥammad Bābur (866 AH / 1483 CE -- 937 AH / 1530 CE), who conquered northern India and established the Mughal Empire (or Timurid-Mughal empire). Born in Fergana (Central Asia), Babur was a patrilineal Timurid and matrilineal Chingizid. Babur wrote his memoir in Chaghatay Turkish, which he referred to as Turkic, and it was later translated into Persian and repeatedly copied and illustrated under his Mughal successors. The present copy in Persian, written in nastaʿlīq script, is a fragment of a dispersed manuscript that was executed in the late tenth century AH / sixteenth CE. The ordering of the folios as found here does not follow the narrative of the text. The Walters' fragment contains thirty mostly full-page paintings that are representative of the Mughal court style under the Mughal Emperor Akbar (r. 963 AH / 1556 CE -- 1014 AH / 1605 CE). Another major fragment of this work containing fifty-seven folios is in the State Museum of Eastern Cultures, Moscow. The dark green leather binding, which is not original to the manuscript, dates to the late thirteenth century AH / nineteenth CE or early fourteenth century AH / twentieth CE.

Manuscript Description (in a new window) | TEI (XML format) | View at art.thewalters.org

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    1. Upper board outside

      W.596, Upper board outside
    2. Upper board inside

      W.596, Upper board inside
    3. fol. 1a

      W.596, fol. 1a
    4. fol. 1b

      W.596, fol. 1b
    5. fol. 2a

      W.596, fol. 2a
    6. fol. 2b

      W.596, fol. 2b
    7. fol. 3a

      W.596, fol. 3a
    8. fol. 3b

      W.596, fol. 3b
    9. fol. 4a

      W.596, fol. 4a
    10. fol. 4b

      W.596, fol. 4b
    11. fol. 5a

      W.596, fol. 5a
    12. fol. 5b

      W.596, fol. 5b
    13. fol. 6a

      W.596, fol. 6a
    14. fol. 6b

      W.596, fol. 6b
    15. fol. 7a

      W.596, fol. 7a
    16. fol. 7b

      W.596, fol. 7b
    17. fol. 8a

      W.596, fol. 8a
    18. fol. 8b

      W.596, fol. 8b
    19. fol. 9a

      W.596, fol. 9a
    20. fol. 9b

      W.596, fol. 9b
    21. fol. 10a

      W.596, fol. 10a
    22. fol. 10b

      W.596, fol. 10b
    23. fol. 11a

      W.596, fol. 11a
    24. fol. 11b

      W.596, fol. 11b
    25. fol. 12a

      W.596, fol. 12a
    26. fol. 12b

      W.596, fol. 12b
    27. fol. 13a

      W.596, fol. 13a
    28. fol. 13b

      W.596, fol. 13b
    29. fol. 14a

      W.596, fol. 14a
    30. fol. 14b

      W.596, fol. 14b
    31. fol. 15a

      W.596, fol. 15a
    32. fol. 15b

      W.596, fol. 15b
    33. fol. 16a

      W.596, fol. 16a
    34. fol. 16b

      W.596, fol. 16b
    35. fol. 17a

      W.596, fol. 17a
    36. fol. 17b

      W.596, fol. 17b
    37. fol. 18a

      W.596, fol. 18a
    38. fol. 18b

      W.596, fol. 18b
    39. fol. 19a

      W.596, fol. 19a
    40. fol. 19b

      W.596, fol. 19b
    41. fol. 20a

      W.596, fol. 20a
    42. fol. 20b

      W.596, fol. 20b
    43. fol. 21a

      W.596, fol. 21a
    44. fol. 21b

      W.596, fol. 21b
    45. fol. 22a

      W.596, fol. 22a
    46. fol. 22b

      W.596, fol. 22b
    47. fol. 23a

      W.596, fol. 23a
    48. fol. 23b

      W.596, fol. 23b
    49. fol. 24a

      W.596, fol. 24a
    50. fol. 24b

      W.596, fol. 24b
    51. fol. 25a

      W.596, fol. 25a
    52. fol. 25b

      W.596, fol. 25b
    53. fol. 26a

      W.596, fol. 26a
    54. fol. 26b

      W.596, fol. 26b
    55. fol. 27a

      W.596, fol. 27a
    56. fol. 27b

      W.596, fol. 27b
    57. fol. 28a

      W.596, fol. 28a
    58. fol. 28b

      W.596, fol. 28b
    59. fol. 29a

      W.596, fol. 29a
    60. fol. 29b

      W.596, fol. 29b
    61. fol. 30a

      W.596, fol. 30a
    62. fol. 30b

      W.596, fol. 30b
    63. fol. 31a

      W.596, fol. 31a
    64. fol. 31b

      W.596, fol. 31b
    65. fol. 32a

      W.596, fol. 32a
    66. fol. 32b

      W.596, fol. 32b
    67. fol. 33a

      W.596, fol. 33a
    68. fol. 33b

      W.596, fol. 33b
    69. fol. 34a

      W.596, fol. 34a
    70. fol. 34b

      W.596, fol. 34b
    71. fol. 35a

      W.596, fol. 35a
    72. fol. 35b

      W.596, fol. 35b
    73. Lower board inside

      W.596, Lower board inside
    74. Lower board outside

      W.596, Lower board outside
    75. Spine

      W.596, Spine
    76. Fore-edge

      W.596, Fore-edge
    77. Head

      W.596, Head
    78. Tail

      W.596, Tail

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