Storey Online

7.1 Arts and Crafts: Accountancy
(1,151 words)

In Volume 2: Mathematics; Weights, and Measures; Astronomy, and Astrology; Geography; Medicine; Encyclopaedias, and Miscellanies; Arts and Crafts, Science, Occult Arts

previous chapter: 6 Encyclopaedias and Miscellanies

§ 621. Apparently in the reign of S̲h̲āh-Jahān (ah 1037–69/1628–59) was composed: Risālah dar siyāq, which “may be called a treatise on higher arithmetic”1 treating of “various processes, used to facilitate multiplication with fractions by means of mnemonical words … rules for division with Rupees … Comparison of Akber’s weights with those of Sháh Jehán … Mensuration of fields … The Hesáb-i-sang or stone-reckoning; Hesáb-i-chúb or computation of wood … Memorial verses for remembering the pay of various officers … List of various departments in a royal household … Book-keeping”, etc.: Rehatsek p. 17 no. 29.

§ 622. Of unknown authorship is:

K̲h̲ulāṣat al-siyāq (beg. Niẓām-ārāy i dafātir i kaun u makān u ḍawābiṭ-pīrāy …), completed in 1115/1703, the forty-seventh year of Aurangzēb’s reign: Āṣafīyah i p. 810 no. 311 (4th year of M. S̲h̲ah [i.e. 1134–5/1722–3]), Berlin 493 (2) (ah 1209/ 1794–5?), Rieu ii 799a (18th cent.), iii 990a (title given as Dastūr al-ʿamal. ah 1259/1843), Lahore Panjāb Univ. (ah 1236/1820–1. See ocm. x/3 (May 1934) p. 99), Blochet iv 2168 (1) (defective), Browne Suppt. 439 (Corpus 54 (1)).

§ 623. bhyh (perhaps = Bhaiyah, usually spelt Bhaiyā i.e. Brother) Ānand-Rām, the nusk̲h̲ah-nawīs, a resident of Karā in the province of Allāhābād, probably wrote soon after 1142/1729–30, the date of most of the official accounts which he gives as specimens. Ethé’s suggestion that he was the same person as Ānand-Rām “Muk̲h̲liṣ” (for whom see pl. i § 780) seems improbable in spite of his frequent quotations from Mīrzā Bē-dil, “Muk̲h̲liṣ’s” teacher. Dastur al-ʿamal (beg. Intik̲h̲āb az kitāb i Siyāq-nāmah2 sāk̲h̲tah u pardāk̲h̲tah i bhyh Ānandrām n.-n. sākin i baldah i ḥawēlī i Karā), a treatise on nawīsandagī u ḥisāb-dānī dealing with the divisions of time, numerals, weights and measures, but chiefly with the numerical notation called siyāq, together with numerous specimens of official accounts: Ethé 2125 (n.d.).

§ 624. Rām Nārāyan describes himself as a resident (mutawaṭṭin) of the parganah of Sunārgām [i.e. Sonargaon] in the c̲h̲aklah [a district comprising several parganahs] of Jahāngīrnagar [i.e. Dacca in Eastern Bengal]. He is probably identical with the compiler of the Ins̲h̲āʾ i Majmūʿ al-qawāʿid (Ethé 2132), which was completed in 1190/1776 and of which the first of the four faṣls contains inter alia “a treatise on computation or keeping accounts” (dar ʿilm i nawīsandagī) in three bābs.

(Risālah i siyāq)3 (beg. C̲h̲ūn dar-īn aiyām i nā-qadrdān), an introduction to accountancy in seven faṣls written in 1186/ 1772–3: Berlin 78 (2)

§ 625. For Colonel Sir John Murray4 were written:—

(1)
Mak̲h̲zan al-iḥtisāb maʿrūf ba-Dastūr al-ʿamal (beg. Sḥādl K̲h̲ān Mhr Skār5 ba-mūjab), completed on 29 October 1796: Berlin 524 (2).
(2)
Nādir i siyāq (beg. Baʿd az maḥāmid i Īzad i Mutaʿāl bar ḍamīr i k̲h̲wurs̲h̲īd-naẓīr), on the administration of India, especially the system of accountancy used in connexion therewith, completed at Calcutta on 5 September 1796: Berlin 524 (1).

§ 626. Harsuk’h Rāy b. Jīwan-Dās b. Rāy Basant Rāy K’hatrī, known as (ʿurf) Sahgal[?], [Lāhaurī] has already been mentioned (pl. i § 176) as the author of the Majmaʿ al-ak̲h̲bār, completed in 1220/1805–6.

Zubdat al-qawānīn (beg. Siyāq i suk̲h̲an i zabān-āwarān), on arithmetic and accountancy, composed in 1211/1796–7 and divided into seventeen bābs: Rieu iii 995b (lacking Bāb xvii (on the ṣūbahs of India and their revenue). 184 foll. ah 1249/ 1834).

§ 627. Jān Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd K̲h̲ān.

Majmaʿ al-fawāʾid (beg. Ḥ. i bī-ḥ. u t̲h̲. i bī-ʿadd ba-dargāh i Sulṭān i Farmān-rawā-yi Ḥaqīqī), on arithmetic and siyāq in five faṣls written in the time of Ranjīt Sing’h [Ruler of the Panjāb, d. 1839]: Lahore Panjāb Univ. (ah 1270/1853–4. See ocm. x/3 (May 1934) p. 100).

§ 628. Appendix

(1)
Ādāb u qawāʿid i ʿilm i siyāq, a tract, derived from a treatise by “S̲h̲ams” (az risālah i S̲h̲ams, as stated in the heading) on the technical terms and the numerical symbols of the ʿilm i siyāq: Ivanow 2nd Suppt. 1096 (2) (mid-19th cent.).
(2)
Āʾīn i siyāq, by Nand-Rām b. Hīrānand (cf. no. 14 below): Āṣafīyah i p. 806 no. 316.
(3)
Daftar-dārī, by Bahman S̲h̲aidānī: printed Tihrān (168 pp. D̲h̲arīʿah viii p. 225 no. 926).
(4)
Daftar-dārī, by Dr. Mihrān: printed Tihrān (D̲h̲arīʿah viii p. 225 no. 924).
(5)
Daftar-dārī, by Ṣadīq Ḥaḍrat Muẓāhir, Professor in Tihrān University: printed Tihrān a.h.s. 1321/1942–3 (187 pp. D̲h̲arīʿah viii p. 225 no. 925).
(6)
Dastūr al-ʿamal i ʿilm i siyāq: Āṣafīyah i p. 810 no. 315.
(7)
Dastūr al-ʿamal i nawīsandagī, in three bābs ((1) numerals, weights, measures, divisions of time, (2) names of the signs of the zodiac and constellations, of the rāginīs and of the Hindu sciences and s̲h̲āstras, (3) the siyāq notation and models of official accounts): Rieu ii 804a (foll. 150–95. 18th cent.).
(8)
Haiʾat i siyāq (beg. Sp. i afzūn az qiyās i ḥisāb), on arithmetical operations, account-keeping, measurements, zamīndārī transactions, etc., etc., by K̲h̲alīfah G̲h̲ulām-Rasūl:6 Bānkīpūr Suppt. ii 2042 (18th cent.), Lahore Panjāb Univ. (ah 1268/1851–2. See ocm. x/3 (May 1934) p. 101).
(9)
Majmūʿah i siyāq, by Madan La‘l: Āṣafīyah i p.820 no. 314.
(10)
Risālah i siyāq: by Jagpat7 Rāy: Āṣafīyah i p. 812 no. 313.
(11)
(Risālah i siyāq), not all the same work presumably: Āṣafīyah i p. 812 nos. 317–20.
(12)
al-Risālat al-ʿImādīyah fī fann al-siyāqah (beg. Iftitāḥ i maqāl ba-imtidāḥ i Malik i D̲h̲ī ’l-Jalāl), in a muqaddimah, two maqālahs and a k̲h̲ātimah, by ʿImād Sarāwī: Leyden iii p. 77 no. 1039 (foll. 137–59. Undated, but transcribed in author’s lifetime).
(13)
Sirāj al-siyāq, metrical, by Med̤ū Lāl called Zār: Lucknow 1880° (48 pp.).
(14)
Siyāq-nāmah, possibly identical with the Āʾīn i siyāq (no. 2 above), by Nand-Rām b. Hīrānand.

Edition: Lucknow 1879° (309 pp.).

next chapter: 7.2 Agriculture

Notes

^ Back to text1. ʿIlm i siyāqat (cf. Dozy), ʿilm i siyāq or ʿilm i istīfā. For this subject see Die Resālä-ye Falakiyyë des ʿAbdollāh ibn Moḥammad ibn Kiyā al-Māzandarānī. Ein persischer Leitfaden des staatlichen Rechnungswesens (um 1363). Herausgegeben von W. Hinz (Wiesbaden 1952) and the works referred to in the editor’s Einführung (e.g. A. Zeki Velidi Togan’s Istānbūl facsimile of the Saʿādat-nāmah [Āyā Ṣōfyah 4190] of Falak i ʿAlā-yi Tabrīzī (ad 1307), the Risālah i Falakīyah [Ā.Ṣ. 2756], the S̲h̲ams al-siyāq composed at Harāt circ. ad 1441 by ʿAlī S̲h̲īrāzī [ms. at Istānbūl] and the Jāmiʿ al-ḥisāb of ad 1337–8 [ms. at Qōnyah]).

^ Back to text2. Possibly the Risālah dar siyāq mentioned on p. 312 supra.

^ Back to text3. Pertsch mentions no title or quasi-title, but describes the work as “Eine … Anleitung zum praktischen Rechnen, wie es hauptsächlich für Beamte nöthig ist”.

^ Back to text4. Cf. pl. i § 1599.

^ Back to text5. Perhaps Sak̲h̲ā-dil K̲h̲ān Mīr-S̲h̲ikār, presumably the name of the compiler.

^ Back to text6. K̲h̲.G̲h̲.-R.; so in the ocm. and in the colophon of the Bānkīpūr ms. The author calls himself G̲h̲ulām-Rasūl kih bain al-muk̲h̲liṣīn maʿrūf ba-K̲h̲alīfah hast.

^ Back to text7. C̲h̲gpt in the catalogue.

Cite this page
“7.1 Arts and Crafts: Accountancy”, in: Storey Online, Charles Ambrose Storey. Consulted online on 30 November 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2772-7696_SPLO_COM_20701000>
First published online: 2021



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