Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels Ivanhoe (1819), Rob Roy (1817), Waverley (1814), Old Mortality (1816), The Heart of Mid-Lothian (1818), and The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), along with the narrative poems Marmion (1808) and The Lady of the Lake (1810). He had a major impact on European and American literature.
One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English-language edition, which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment.
The Mabinogion are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created c. 1350–1410, as well as a few earlier fragments. The title covers a collection of eleven prose stories of widely different types, offering drama, philosophy, romance, tragedy, fantasy and humour, and created by various narrators over time. There is a classic hero quest, "Culhwch and Olwen"; a historic legend in "Lludd and Llefelys", complete with glimpses of a far off age; and other tales portray a very different King Arthur from the later popular versions. The highly sophisticated complexity of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi defies categorisation. The stories are so diverse that it has been argued that they are not even a true collection.
The Tale of Genji, also known as Genji Monogatari is a classic work of Japanese literature written in the early 11th century by the noblewoman, poet, and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu. The original manuscript, created around the peak of the Heian period, no longer exists. It was made in "concertina" or orihon style: several sheets of paper pasted together and folded alternately in one direction then the other.
The Chester Beatty Library, now known as the Chester Beatty, is a museum and library in Dublin. It was established in Ireland in 1953, to house the collections of mining magnate, Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. The present museum, on the grounds of Dublin Castle, opened on 7 February 2000, the 125th anniversary of Beatty's birth and was named European Museum of the Year in 2002.
The Book of Fixed Stars is an astronomical text written by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi) around 964. Following the translation movement in the 9th century AD, the book was written in Arabic, the common language for scholars across the vast Islamic territories, although the author himself was Persian. It was an attempt to create a synthesis of the comprehensive star catalogue in Ptolemy’s Almagest with the indigenous Arabic astronomical traditions on the constellations. The original manuscript no longer survives as an autograph, however, the importance of tradition and the practice of diligence central to Islamic manuscript tradition have ensured the survival of the Book of Stars in later-made copies.
The House of Wisdom, also known as the Grand Library of Baghdad, was believed to be a major Abbasid-era public academy and intellectual center in Baghdad. In popular reference, it acted as one of the world's largest public libraries during the Islamic Golden Age, and was founded either as a library for the collections of the fifth Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid in the late 8th century or as a private collection of the second Abbasid caliph al-Mansur to house rare books and collections of poetry in the Arabic and Persian language. During the reign of the seventh Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun, it was turned into a public academy and a library.
Arabic epic literature encompasses epic poetry and epic fantasy in Arabic literature. Virtually all societies have developed folk tales encompassing tales of heroes. Although many of these are legends, many are based on real events and historical figures.
Louisa Stuart Costello was an Anglo-Irish author on travel and French history, said to have been born either in Ireland or Sussex.
George Sale (1697–1736) was a British Orientalist scholar and practising solicitor, best known for his 1734 translation of the Quran into English. In 1748, after having read Sale's translation, Voltaire wrote his own essay "De l'Alcoran et de Mahomet".
Ziya' al-Din Nakhshabi was a 14th-century Persian physician and Sufi living in India. He died in 1350.
Mughal painting is a South Asian style of painting on paper confined to miniatures either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums (muraqqa), originating from the territory of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. It emerged from Persian miniature painting and developed in the court of the Mughal Empire of the 16th to 18th centuries. Battles, legendary stories, hunting scenes, wildlife, royal life, mythology, as well as other subjects have all been frequently depicted in paintings.
Padshahnama or Badshah Nama is a group of works written as the official history of the reign of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan I. Unillustrated texts are known as Shahjahannama, with Padshahnama used for the illustrated manuscript versions. These works are among the major sources of information about Shah Jahan's reign. Lavishly illustrated copies were produced in the imperial workshops, with many Mughal miniatures. Although military campaigns are given the most prominence, the illustrations and paintings in the manuscripts of these works illuminate life in the imperial court, depicting weddings and other activities.
The Rosenbach is a Philadelphia museum and library located within two 19th-century townhouses. Established as a testamentary gift in 1954. The historic houses contain the donated collections of Philip Rosenbach and his younger brother Dr. Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach.
Muhammad Saleh Kamboh Lahori was a noted Punjabi Muslim calligraphist and official biographer of Emperor Shah Jahan and the teacher of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. Though a widely read person, little is known of the life of Muhammad Saleh Kamboh other than the works he composed. He was son of Mir Abdu-lla, Mushkin Kalam, whose title shows him to also have been a fine writer. He is believed to be younger brother of Inayat-Allah Kamboh and worked as a Shahi Dewan (Minister) with the governor of Lahore. He held the title of Sipahsalar.
Shaikh Inayat-Allah Kamboh (1608–1671) was a Punjabi Muslim scholar, writer and historian during the Mughal era. He was son of Mir Abdu-lla, Mushkin Kalam, whose title shows him to also have been a fine writer. Shaikh Inayat-Allah Kamboh was the elder brother and teacher of Muhammad Saleh Kamboh, the famous historian of Shah Jahan's court and the teacher of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. He died in 1671 AD in Delhi, and his Maqbara is located in Guband Kambohan wala on Empress Road near Railways Headquarters, Lahore.
Kalīla wa-Dimna or Kelileh o Demneh is a collection of fables. The book consists of fifteen chapters containing a lot of fables whose heroes are animals. A remarkable animal character is the lion, who plays the role of the king; he has a servant ox Shetrebah, while the two jackals of the title, Kalila and Dimna, appear both as narrators and as protagonists. Its likely origin is the Sanskrit Panchatantra. The book has been translated into many languages, with surviving illustrations in manuscripts from the 13th century onwards.
Jonathan Scott (1754–1829) was an English orientalist, best known for his translation of the Arabian Nights.
Bahar Banu Begum, meaning "The Blooming Lady", was a Mughal princess, the daughter of Mughal emperor Jahangir.
The Garden of Knowledge is an illustrated manuscript of the collection of stories in the Persian about the love between the fictional Mughal Prince Jahandar Shah and his queen Bahrewar Banu, originally written by Inayatullah Kambu in the 17th-century and titled the Bahar-i Danish, that was published in 1784.
