1st Edition

The Ni'matnama Manuscript of the Sultans of Mandu The Sultan's Book of Delights

By Norah M. Titley Copyright 2005
    576 Pages 53 Color & 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    572 Pages 53 Color & 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    544 Pages 53 Color & 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The Ni'matnama is a late fifteenth-century book of the recipes of the eccentric Sultan of Mandu (Madhya Pradesh), Ghiyath Shahi, collected and added to by his son and successor, Nasir Shah. It contains recipes for cooking a variety of delicacies and epicurean delights, as well as providing remedies and aphrodisiacs for the Sultan and his court. It also includes important sections on the preparation of betel leaves as well as advice on the logistics of hunting expeditions and warfare. The text provides a remarkable and tantalizing account of rarified courtly life in a fifteenth-century Indian Sultanate region.

    1. Preface  2. Introduction  3. List and Description of the Manuscript's Illustrations  4. Facsimile of the Manuscript including Colour Inserts for Illustrations  5. Translation of the Manuscript  6. Bibliography  7. Glossary  8. Index

    Biography

    Norah M. Titley is one of the scholars in Britain specialising in the study of Persian language manuscripts and miniature paintings. She began her career in the British Museum's Department of Oriental Manuscripts in 1950 and retired as the British Library's curator of illustrated Persian manuscripts in 1983. Since retiring, she has worked intensively on translating the Ni'matnama.

    'This long awaited book will be of permanent value to an unusually wide range of students of Indian culture.' - South Asian Studies