No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
A Notice on the Library attached to the Shrine of Imam Riza at Meshed
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
It is very difficult to say how long the library attached to the shrine of Imam Riza at Meshed has been in existence. It is impossible to believe that it dates back to the beginning of the shrine itself. Those great calamities which befell Persia, such as the invasions of the Moghuls and Tamerlane, were accompanied by destruction everywhere, and this holy place did not escape. One can, however, reasonably believe that the library as it now stands has existed since the time of the first heirs of Timur, who bestowed many favours on the shrine. The blue dome of Gauhar-i-Shād, which from afar attracts the attention of a pilgrim approaching Meshed, was built at the beginning of the ninth century of Hijra by the wife of Shāhrokh Mirzā. It seems probable that the library was started at that time and has existed down to the present time without any further disasters. Indeed, it must have been greatly enriched after the triumph of the Shia religion under the Safawy kings. The invasions of Nadir Shah and the Uzbeks probably did not affect the library greatly. Nadir Shah was a generous donor to the shrine and the golden dome and minarets were rebuilt and embellished by him. Therefore it may be concluded that the period during which the library could develop must be close on five hundred years.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1920
References
page 535 note 2 This mosque was completed in a.h. 821 (a.d. 1418).
page 535 note 3 So called waqf.
page 536 note 1 Some information about this library can be found in de Khanikoff's, N.Mémoire sur la partie Meridionale de l' Asie Centrale, Paris, 1861 (pp. 100–2)Google Scholar, and I'Timad-us-Sultaneh's, (Seni-ud-Dowleh) Matlaush-Shams, vol. ii, Teheran, 1303Google Scholar. Unfortunately neither of these books is available to me at present.
page 538 note 1 Its full title is as follows:
[sic] 
page 540 note 1 Persians who have seen the library tell me that the number of volumes now reaches ten thousand, the increase being due to recent donations. At this very time (August, 1919) a new revision is said to be going on in order to make a list of the recent acquisitions. Of course, all stories of this sort should be received with caution owing to the Persians' love of extreme exaggeration.
page 540 note 2 I must warn the reader that having no reference books here in Persia at hand and being forced to rely only upon my memory, I may have missed some interesting titles or quoted some that are familiar. For this reason I am giving in the more interesting cases as many quotations as possible.
page 543 note 1 It has been lithographed at Tehran, so I have been told. In European libraries copies of this work are scarce. (As far as I can remember there are some copies mentioned in C. Brockelmann's Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur.) A new but good copy is in the possession of the Asiatic Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences at Petrograd.
page 543 note 2 Lithographed at Tehran a.h. 1285. I know of only one manuscript copy in Western libraries—that in the library of the University at Petrograd.
page 543 note 3 This book has also been lithographed at Tehran.
page 545 note 1 There are also included books on Sufism and its refutation. There is also a copy of 
(No. 217). It is a very concise biographical treatise and its copies (all defective) are to be found in the library of the India Office (mentioned in H. Ethé's Catalogue amongst the books of. uncertain date) and also in the Asiatic Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Petrograd.
page 548 note 1 It will be described later.
page 548 note 2 Seemingly not the ancient book name, quoted by Tabari, but the so-called Pseudo-Waqidi of later origin.
page 550 note 1 This seems to be a very interesting document.
page 552 note 1 
page 552 note 2 
(?)
page 553 note 1 New, but good and complete copy.
page 553 note 2 This will be described later.
page 560 note 1 Certainly a Bengali king who ruled a.h. 896–9, i.e. a.d. 1490–3 (see Stanley Lane Poole's Mohammedan Dynasties, para. 106).
page 562 note 1 Unfortunately, as I have no books of reference at hand, I cannot say here in which series this book was published. Another, much better copy of the same fifth volume, found by me in Turkestan is at present in possession of the Asiatic Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences.