ACCOUNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. I5 



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Department of Oriental Manuscripts. 

 I. — Arrangement and Cataloguing. 



The descriptive list of tlie Oriental MSS. acquired in 1879 has been completed and 

 transcribed for the Reading Room. 



The same Manuscripts have been entered into the Oriental Register and the Classed 

 Inventory. 



The revision and transcription for press of the Persian Catalogue has been carried on 

 from the beginning of the class of " Poetry," to the middle of the class headed " Manu- 

 scripts of mixed contents." 



Thirty-four sheets, signed N-3 A, of the second volume of the same catalogue have 

 been carried through the press, and a numerical index to the printed portion has been 

 compiled. 



A descriptive list of the Manuscripts acquired in 1880 has been prepared. 



A catalogue of the Pali M SS. has been compiled, and a slip-index made to the Sanskrit 

 and Pali collections. 



A descriptive list has been drawn up of the Oriental MSS. included in the old col- 

 lections. 



Two hundred and twenty-six Manuscripts have been labelled, folio'd, bound, and placed 

 on the shelves. 



II. — Acquisitions. 



■ The number of Oriental MSS. acquired during the year amounts to 111, viz., 60 by 

 purchase, and 51 by donation, as follows : — 



Syriac and Carshunic ------ 42 



Pali 32 



Hebrew -------_8 



Mongolian - - - - - - -.- 7 



Arabic ---------7 



Chinese ------_ 5 



Persian ---------4 



Japanese -----_. -2 



Armenian --------1 



Ethiopic -------- X 



Sanskrit ------. _i 



Cingalese ------_-j 



Total - - - in 



Among the most remarkable are the following, — 



A Pali collection formed in Ceylon by the late Robert C. Childers, Esq., consisting 

 of 29 manuscripts written mostly in the Cingalese character, partly on palm leaves, and 

 partly on paper. They contain several books of the Buddhistic Canon, with commentaries; 

 two historical works relating to the Southern Buddhists, the DTpavansa and the Maha- 

 vansa, with Mr. Childers' collation of several copies of the latter, and some treatises of 

 Pali grammar. 



Seven Mongolian MSS. of large size, collected in Siberia from 1817 to 1841, by the 

 Rev. Edward Stallybrass. They include Mani Gambom, a Buddhistic work in two 

 folios, Uliger-un Dalai or tales of Sakyamuni, Altan Gerel or history of Geser Khan, the 

 legendary hero of Tibet, the collection of tales called Sidhi Kur, and a large number of 

 Buddhistic legends and treatises. 



A collection of 48 manuscripts, viz. : — Thirty-one Syriac, eleven Carshunic, and six 

 Arabic, presented by Capt. S. B. Miles, Political Agent in Muscat. It is specially rich in 

 the literature of the Nestorian Church, and contains portions of the Syriac Bible, anaphoras 

 and service-books, lives of saints and martyrs, accounts of the councils, ecclesiastical 

 chronicles, and treatises of theology. It includes also the following rare works : a Syriac 

 and Arabic lexicon, by Jesus Bar Ali ; a Syriac grammar, by John Bar Zu'bi ; the 

 " Book of Paradise," by Ebed Yeshua, Metropolitan of Nisibis ; and the Arabic Synax- 

 arium, or Lives of Saints. 



The " Khamsah," or five poems, of Nizami, Persian ; written A.D. 1539-42, by a cele- 

 brated penman. Shah Mahmud, and richly ornamented with illuminated titles and borders, 

 gold designs in the margins, and 17 whole- page miniatures of a high degree of finish. 



A volume, containing portraits of 86 Emperors of China, with historical notices. 



A collection of 99 coloured drawings by Chinese artists, representing men and women 

 of various classes and trades. 



Raihan ul-Kuttab, a collection of letters by Lisan ad-DTn Ibn al-Khatlb, vizier of the 

 King of Granada ; Arabic; 15th century. 



0.65. B 4 Anguttara 



