Elite Folktales: An Exquisite Sixteenth-Century Illustrated Kitāb-i Dāstān in the Ouseley Collection of the Bodleian Libraries

What is in a folktale that makes commissioning a high quality illustrated manuscript of it worthwhile? The themes and linguistic styles of folktales were generally pleasing to the common folks, and not to the members of the elite, who often presented themselves as advocates of high culture. What could have been the purpose of those who sponsored magnificent copies of folktales? If these works were used for pure entertainment, why do we not find more copies of them in the court collections, given that entertainment was an important activity for the elite? Aside from the enormous investment of the Mughal emperor Akbar in making a fine copy of the Hamzanāma (The Adventures of Hamza), the production of which lasted more than a decade (ca. 1562–77), very few works of popular nature made it to the elite libraries. One of these few works is the Kitāb-i Dāstān (MS. Ouseley Add. 1), dated 28 March 1565, preserved at the Bodleian Libraries. The manuscript has been described as a collection of “anonymous romances, or tales of love and adventure,” a work of excellent quality, which, despite water damage, “still conveys an impression of sumptuousness.” However, aside from brief descriptions of its ten illustrations, no detailed account of its text and the possible intention of those who commissioned it seem to have been provided anywhere. This paper aims to present the result of a close textual and/or contextual study of this important manuscript, which seems to occupy the borderland of the elite and the folk zones, in order to reveal its significance for its anonymous sponsor.