Page from the "Farhang-i Jahangiri"

This fragment is the third folio of the "Farhang-i Jahangiri", a Persian lexicon purportedly executed in Agra in 1028/1618-19. A total of four folios of this work are held in the collections of the Library of Congress.

The author of this Persian-language farhang (dictionary) was Jamal al-Din Husayn b. Fakhr al-Din Hasan Inju Shirazi (d. 1035/1626), a learned man from an old Persian noble (sayyid) family who came from Persia to Akbar's court in India. There, he held high offices and began writing his dictionary in 1005/1596-7 at the ruler's request, basing himself on Persian poems and previous lexicographical works. Due to the scope of his farhang and continuous revisions, he did not complete the dictionary until after Akbar's (d. 1014/1605) death, presenting the work in 1608 to his successor Jahangir instead. For this reason, Jamal al-Din's Persian dictionary came to be known as the the "Farhang-i Jahangiri", or "Jahangir's dictionary." Along with the "Burhan-i Qati'" and the "Farhang-i Rashidi", it is one of the three most important Persian-language dictionaries produced in Mughal India.

The recto of this folio provides a list of words starting with the letters "f-r" executed in red ink and followed by their definitions and sample usages in poetical excerpts. This list of "f-r" words continues in alphabetical order on the folio's verso.

A marginal gloss cross-referenced to the main text with the number 4 appears in the center and outside the right vertical purple frame. This gloss offers additional comments and poetical excerpts on one of the words listed in the main text.

The folio's margins are decorated with birds, storks, phoenixes, and mythical animals in a garden landscape painted in gold ink. During the early 20th century, a section of the "Farhang-i Jahangiri" was acquired by the French art dealer Demotte, who cut out its pages and used the decorative margins as mounts for Safavid and Mughal paintings (Sotheby's London, Arts of the Islamic World, 3 May 2001, lot 61). In some cases, paintings remounted on margins originally intended for the dictionary retain the marginal glosses accompanying the main text.

Source :
Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division, Washington, D.C.