Two Orphaned Envelopes from Alim Beg to G.G. Ducarel
Name:
Alim Beg; Gerard Gustavus Ducarel
Date:
1788; 1783/1784
Description:
Two orphaned envelopes with the seal of Alim Beg, Sharaf un-Nisa’s brother, with both English and Persian writing. The first envelope was addressed to Exmouth in English. The envelope has the seal in wax. The date is given as '1195 Bangla,' corresponding to 1788 in the Gregorian calendar. The date is given as the 27th of the month but the name of the month is unclear. The envelope says it was sent from Calcutta. The second envelope was addressed in Persian only. The envelope has the seal in ink only. The seal gives the year 1198, but given that people did not always update their seal every year, this only dates the envelope to sometime after that date. If this is a hijri date, as seems likely since it would be strange for the seal to postdate the letter by 3 Bengali years, it would correspond to 1783-4 Gregorian. Persian shikastah script; cursive English script.
The Penn Libraries makes materials accessible to improve information equity and enhance teaching, research,
and learning. See our Sensitive Materials Statement
for more information.