l8 ACCOUNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



A volume of poems by James Crashaw. Autograph. 



Letters of Greneral Charles George Gordon, and papers connected with his service 

 ao-ainst the Tae-ping rebels in China. Presentedby Sir Henry Willium Gordon, K.C.B. 



Letter of General Gordon to his sister, Mary Augusta Gordon, from Khartoum, 27 Feb. 

 1884. Presented by Miss M. A. Gordon. 



Transcripts of unpublished operas, in full score, by Franz Joseph Haydn. Five 

 volumes. 



Original sketches of compositions by Michael William Balfe, from 1837 to 1857. Four 

 volumes. 



E. Maunde Thompson. 



Department of Oriental Manuscripts. 



I. — Arrangement and Cataloguing. 



The MSS. acquired in 1886, viz., Or. 3004-3480, have been added to the Descriptive 

 List of Oriental MSS., and fuller descriptions of most of them have been prepared for 

 the special catalogues. 



The revision of the Descriptive List has been carried on from Or. 301 to Or. 2090, and 

 corrections resulting from that revision have been entered into the Reading Room copy 

 of the List. 



Forty-two MSS. have been described in full for the Turkish Catalogue, and the Cata- 

 logue of the Biblical Hebrew MSS. has been completed. 



Recently acquired Arabic and Persian MSS. have been added to the Lidexes of the 

 printed c atalogues. 



The MSS. acquired in 1885 and 1886 have been entered into the Oriental Register 

 and the Oriental Inventory. 



The Descriptive List of the MSS. acquired in 1885 has been transcribed for the use 

 of readers. 



Two hundred and fifty-nine MSS. have been folio'd, labelled, and bound. 



IL — Acquisitions. 



The number of MSS. acquired during the year was 477, viz., six by donation and 

 471 by purchase, viz. : — 



Arabic --------- 220 



Persian __----. - 101 



Burmese __-_---- 69 



Turkish - - 27 



Sanskrit -_--,---23 



Pali -.-.--.-- 15 

 Hindustani .-------4 



Syriac ---------4 



Cingalese - - - -- - - - 3 



Chinese ..------3 



Bengali ___-----2 



Coptic ---------2 



Karshuni - - - - -- - - 1 



Oriya - - - - - - -- - I 



Lolo - - - 1 



Shan - - -■ - - - - - - 1 



Total - - - 477 



The most important acquisition of the year was the collection formed in Syria and 

 Egypt between the years 1849 and 1880 by Baron Alfred von Kremer. It consists of 

 218 MSS., viz., 196 Arabic, nine Persian, and 13 Turkish. The most valuable are : — 



A volume of the 'Uyun al-Tawarikh of Ibn Shakir, comprising a.h. 404-437 ; about 

 a.d. 1400. 



An abridgment of the chronicle of al-Dahabi by the historian Ibn Kadi Shuhbah (died 

 A.H. 851); in the handwriting of the abbreviator. 



The third volume of the great historical work of Ibn Furat ; 14th century. 



A fine copy of the history of dynasties by Abul-Faraj Barhebraeus ; 15th century. 



The 



