Indian Drawings 6 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
The second of two albums, with Indian Drawings 18, of disparate South Asian paintings, portraits, and calligraphy specimens.
Contents
Folio: 332 × 230 mm. Illustration: 160 × 111 mm.
Mounted on the same blue paper as the endleaves. The first of three leaves detached from the same album, together with folios 2a and 3a.
Folio: 335 × 235 mm. Illustration: 163 × 108 mm.
Mounted on the same blue paper as the endleaves.
Folio: 333 × 233 mm. Illustration: 162 × 109 mm.
Mounted on the same blue paper as the endleaves.
"چون زخم تازه دوخته ز خون لبالبم * ای وای اگر به شکوهٔ شود آشنا لبم | عمری گذشت و گفت و شنو با تو رو نداد * ای بی نصیب گوشم و ای بی نوا لبم | "
"Carrying a freshly stitched wound, bloody to the brim, Alas, if my lips learned to lament. A life passed, yet no occurrence of hearing and talking to you. O, deprived ears and miserable lips."
Folio: 335 × 218 mm. Interior Margin: 185 × 113 mm. Illustration: 158 × 85 mm.
Translation by Prof Iván Szántó. If the colophon indicates a chronogram, the value would equal 116, hence 1116 AH (1704–1705 CE). The first of two folios detached from the same album, together with 5a and 5b.
Folio: 335 × 218 mm. Exterior Margin: 174 × 152 mm. Interior Margin: 150 × 128 mm. Illustration: 111 × 85 mm.
Caption: ‘اکبر پادشاه’
‘Akbar Pādishāh’.
Folio: 335 × 218 mm. Exterior Margin: 173 × 148 mm. Interior Margin: 150 × 126 mm. Illustration: 113 × 84 mm.
Caption: ‘جهانگیر پادشاه’
‘Jahāngīr Pādishāh’.
" سحرم هاتف میخانه به دولت‌خواهی * گفت بازآی که دیرینهٔ این درگاهی | همچو جم جرعهٔ در کش که ز سرّ ملکوت * پرتو جام جهان‌بین دهدت آگاهی "
"In the morning, the invisible speaker of the wine-house with fortune wishing, Said: “Come back; for an old friend of this court, thou art.” Like Jamshid, a draught of wine, drink, so that, of the mystery of the angels, Thee, the ray of the cup, world-viewing, may give news"
Folio: 335 × 218 mm. Interior Margin: 210 × 113 mm. Illustration: 189 × 92 mm.
Translation by Henry Wilberforce Clarke.
"This unidentified Arabic prose text describes philosophers views on God's creation of man from four elements: water, fire, earth, and air, and the impact of an excess of each. The style of naskh recalls that of Safavid-era master Aḥmad Nayrīzī."
Folio: 335 × 218 mm. Margin: 293 × 192 mm. Illustration: 265 × 168 mm.
Mounted on the same blue paper as the endleaves.
Folio: 325 × 240 mm. Exterior Margin: 308 × 224 mm. Intermediate Margin: 293 × 207 mm. Interior Margin: 205 × 118 mm. Illustration: 192 × 102 mm.
Mounted on the same blue paper as the endleaves.
Folio: 340 × 240 mm. Exterior Applied Border: Exterior Applied Border: 311 × 211 mm. Interior Margin: 292 × 188 mm. Illustration: 168 × 273 mm.
Mounted on the same blue paper as the endleaves.
Folio: 346 × 235 mm. Margin: 193 × 153 mm. Illustration: 199 × 125 mm.
"در گلشن ایجادم اگر خار توام * بی قدر متاعم و به بازار توام | مخلوق توام اگر چه طاعت نکنم * در کار تو نیستم ولی کار توام | "
"I am, too, in the garden of creation, even if I am but a thorn, A worthless merchandise, but still in your marketplace. I am your creature, even if I do not obey; Though I am out of your business, I am still in your business."
Folio: 346 × 235 mm. Margin: 183 × 113 mm. Illustration: 158 × 88 mm.
Translation by Prof Iván Szántó. Impey seal impression at bottom.
Folio: 342 × 232 mm. Margin: 190 × 153 mm. Illustration: 164 × 128 mm.
Probably originally positioned opposite folio 8a. This is the first of three folios detached from the same album, together with folios 9a to 10b.
شاه كوثر
"وقد وسئل عن القدر، فقال عليه السلام: طَرِيقٌ مُظْلِمٌ فَلاَ تَسْلُكُوهُ، وَبَحْرٌ عَمِيقٌ فَلاَ تَلِجُوهُ، وَسِرُّ اللهِ فَلاَ تَتَكَلَّفُوه و من كلامه عليه السلام : عرفت الله سبحانه بفسخ العزائم وحل العقود و قال صلوة الله عليه: لاهم كهم الدين ."
"This composition features quotes attributed to ʻAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib together with a Persian panegyric authored by the calligrapher. A Shaykh of the Shaṭṭāriyah Sufi order in India, he travelled to Iran where he met with other prominent religious scholars and mystics such as Sayyid Quṭb al-Dīn Muḥammad Nayrīzī. "
Folio: 342 × 232 mm. Margin: 195 × 130 mm. Illustration: 171 × 103 mm.
Impey seal impression at bottom.
References
Folio: 360 × 249 mm. Margin: 185 × 150 mm. Illustration: 158 × 126 mm.
Caption:
‘ ہمایون بن بابر بادشاه’
‘Humāyūn bin Bābur Bādshāh’.
Appears untrimmed and thus probably indicates the height of this series.
" علیه سلام یا رب دلني على عملٍ خالص قال الله تعالی هل اشبعت جائعاً؟ هل سقيت عطشاناً؟ هل كسوت عرياناً؟ هل نصرت مظلوماً؟ هل أكرمت عالماً؟ هذا لي عمل خالص "
Folio: 360 × 249 mm. Margin: 280 × 187 mm. Illustration: 257 × 152 mm.
Impey seal impression at bottom.
Folio: 370 × 253 mm. Illustration: 200 × 127 mm.
Caption:
‘کشن جیو که ہنودان کنہیا گویند’
‘Kishan Jīv kih Hinūdān Kanhayā Gūvind’.
Folio 11b blank with Impey seal impression at centre. This is the first of five folios that appear from the same album, together with folios 13a to 16c and 18a.
Folio: 357 × 243 mm. Margin: 251 × 169 mm. Illustration: 223 × 144 mm.
From Book 1 Part 3:
" هر آن کو غافل از حق یک زمان است * در آن دم کافر است اما نهان است | اگر آن غافلی پیوسته بودی * در اسلام بر وی بسته بودی | "
" Anyone who has forgotten about God for a time, is an unbeliever for that moment, even if concealed; if he remains negligent, for him the gate of Islam remains closed. "
Few calligraphers by this name appear documented at this time, but it could possibly be Muḥammad Taqī Kirmānī. See Bayani
Folio: 357 × 243 mm. Margin: 207 × 125 mm. Calligraphy: 186 × 103 mm.
Impey seal impression at bottom.
References
Folio: 368 × 259 mm. Margin: 337 × 229 mm. Illustration: 209 × 150 mm.
Folio 13b blank with Impey seal impression at centre.
"منصور علیخان
شبیه نواب صفدر جنگ پدر شجاع الدوله "
"Manṣūr ‘Alī Khān. Shabīh-i Nawwāb Ṣafdar Jang pidar-i Shujā‘ al-Dawlah ([By Mansur ‘Alī Khān. Likeness of Nawwāb Ṣafdar Jang, father of Shujā‘ al-Dawlah."
Folio: 370 × 258 mm. Exterior Applied Border: 355 × 242 mm. Interior Applied Border: 240 × 173 mm. Illustration: 197 × 121 mm.
Folio 14b blank with Impey seal impression at centre.
"باج بہادر و روپمتی"
"Bāj Bahādur va Rupmatī (Bāj Bahādur and Rupmatī)."
Bāj (more commonly Bāz) Bahādur Khān (r. 1555-1562), Sultan of Mālwa, and his consort, Rānī Rūpmatī
Folio: 376 × 258 mm. Exterior Applied Border: 230 × 214 mm. Exterior Applied Silver Border: 274 × 190 mm. Illustration: 233 × 153 mm.
Folio 15b blank with Impey seal impression at centre, and the same caption written above.
"شبیه کُنا بیگم زن نواب غازی الدینخان"
"Shabīh-i Gunnā Baygam, zan-i Nawwāb Ghāzī al-Dīn Khān. "
Gunnā Baygam was the consort of ‘Imād al-Mulk Ghāzī al-Dīn Khān Fīrūz Jang III, grand vizier of the Mughal Empire (r. 1754–1782), a rival of Safdar Jang.
Folio: 370 × 258 mm. Marbled Applied Border: 228 × 168 mm. Illustration: 158 × 98 mm.
Folio 16b blank with Impey seal impression at centre, along with an alternate caption:
‘ نواب غازی الدینخان بنو در سورت زنده است’
‘Nawwāb Ghāzī al-Dīn Khān Banū dur sūrat-i zindah ast’.
Folio: 364 × 250 mm.
Exterior Applied Border: 342 × 235 mm.
Intermediate Margin: 315 × 208 mm.
Intermediate Applied Gilt Border: 220 × 158 mm.
Interior margin: 188 × 122 mm.
Illustration: 165 × 98 mm.
Arabic numeral ‘32’ at top.
"الحمد لله رب العالمين، والصلاة والسلام على خير خلقه محمد وعلى آله أجمعين"
"Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, and prayers and peace be upon the best of His creation, Muḥammad, and upon all of his family."
" اما بعد این رساله مشتمل است بر آنکه حکما از کتب قدما اختیار کرده‌اند"
"But then: this treatise contains what the sages have chosen from the ancient books."
"وز این غم بسوزد دل و جان او * شود خونفشان چشم گریان او | قدم در طریق صبوری نهد * جزع را به رخ داغ دوری نهد | "
"May his heart and soul be burned by this grief,
Let his crying eyes bleed;
Step on the path of patience,
Take away impatience from the blazing face. "
Folio: 364 × 250 mm.
Applied Intermediarte Border 128 × 133 mm.
Illuminated Interior Margin 105 × 1110 mm.
Calligraphy: 81 × 78 mm. Hindu-arabic numeral ‘47’ at top-lft, with an abbreviation ‘FIVB Nº 1’, possibly referencing folio 4b? Possible sale information pencilled at bottom:
‘ Kingate S Dec. 1811 8 Nº 21’.
"نواب بخشی الممالک امیر الامرأ صمصام الدوله خاندوران بهادر منصور جنگ محمد شاهی "
"Nawwāb Bakhshī al-Mamālik Amīr al-Umarā' Ṣamṣām al-Dawlah Khān-i Dawrān Bahādur Manṣūr Jang Muḥammad Shāhī"
Commander of the Mughal army against the Persian invasion of India, Ṣamṣām al-Dawlah Khān Dawrān was mortally wounded in the Battle of Karnal on 24 February 1739.
364 × 275 mm. Illustration: 293 × 211 mm. Folio 18b blank with Impey seal impression at centre with an alternate caption:
‘ نواب بخشی الممالک امیر الامرأ صمصام الدوله خاندوران بهادر منصور جنگ محمد شاهی صوبه لاهور’
‘Nawwāb Bakhshī al-Mamālik Amīr al-Umarā' Ṣamṣām al-Dawlah Khān-Dawrān Bahādur Manṣūr Jang Muḥammad Shāhī Ṣūbah Lāhūr’.
Folio: 365 × 260 mm.
Illustration: 310 × 214 mm. The bottom of the painting appears added to extend the height to conform with other folios.
"يا عِمادَ مَنْ لا عِمادَ لَهُ، ويا ذُخْرَ مَنْ لا ذُخْرَ لَهُ، وَيا سَنَدَ مَنْ لا سَنَدَ لَهُ، ويا حِرْزَ مَنْ لا حِرْزَ لَهُ، وَيا غِياثَ مَنْ لا غِياثَ لَهُ، وَيا كَنْزَ مَنْ لا كَنْزَ لَهُ، وَيا عِزَّ مَنْ لا عِزَّ لَهُ، يا كَريمَ الْعَفْوِ، يا حَسَنَ التَّجاوُزِ، يا عَوْنَ الضُّعَفاءِ، يا كَنْزَ الْفُقَراءِ، يا عَظيمَ الَّرجاءِ، يا مُنْقِذَ الْغَرْقى، يا مُنْجِيَ الْهَلْكى، يا مُحْسِنُ، يا مُجْمِلُ، يا مُنْعِمُ، يا مُفْضِلُ، اَنْتَ الَّذي سَجَدَ لَكَ سَوادُ اللّيْلِ وَنُورُ النَّهارِ وَضوْءُ الْقَمَرِ، وَشُعاعُ الشَّمْسِ، وَحَفيفُ الشَّجَرِ، وَدَوِىُّ الْماءِ، يا اَللهُ يا اَللهُ يا اَللهُ لا اِلـهَ إلاّ اَنْتَ وَحْدَكَ لا شَريكَ لَكَ، يا رَبّاهُ يا اَللهُ، صَلِّ عَلى مُحَمَّد وآلِ مُحَمَّد وَافْعَلْ بِنا ما اَنْتَ اَهْلُهُ. ثمّ سل حاجتك."
Folio: 365 × 260 mm.
Interior Margin: 273 × 198 mm.
Calligraphy: 221 × 147 mm.
Folio: 392 × 273 mm.
Intermediate Margin: 230 × 144 mm.
Interior Margin: 220 × 1917 mm.
Illustration: 175 × 89 mm.
Folio 20b blank. The first of five folios detached from the same album together with 21a to 24a.
Folio: 392 × 273 mm.
Applied Illuminated Border: 273 × 183 mm.
Interior Margin: 216 × 130 mm.
Illustration: 199 × 111 mm.
Folio 21b blank.
Folio: 390 × 273 mm.
Interior Margin: 225 × 156 mm.
Illustration: 195 × 127 mm.
Folio 22b blank.
Folio: 393 × 275 mm.
Intermediate Margin: 230 × 178 mm.
Interior Margin: 205 × 153 mm.
Illustration: 177 × 125 mm.
Folio 23b blank.
Folio: 391 × 272 mm.
Intermediate Margin: 222 × 136 mm.
Interior Margin: 199 × 113 mm.
Illustration: 176 × 90 mm.
Folio 24b blank.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Binding
Bound in Britain for former owner Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880).
Individual folios attached with white cambric strips, with thin white wove interleaving, and compensation guards of camrbic in the gutters laminated with heavy-weight, heavily flocked, European machine-manufactured blue paper, with the same added as endpapers to the beginning and end. Oversewn on five recessed cords laced into pasteboards. Edges untrimmed, with white and black front-bead decorative endbands sewn at head and tail. Covered in half medium brown goastkin leather, hollow-backed, with spattered decorated paper sides. without a flap (Type III binding per Déroche).
Spine pan elas palleted with thick single filllet lines in blind with thin lines in gold on either side. Lettered:
‘INDIAN
DRAWINGS’
in gold with a small paper label underneath numbered ‘Nº 21>’.
402 × 305 × 44 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition with extensive abrasion and grain layer delamination of the exterior leather.
Rectangular seal impressions, intaglio carved in nasta‘līq script in two stacked lines, double-ruled, of former owner Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809), dated 1775, along with a regnal year 16 of George III, King of Great Britain (b. 1738, r. 1760–1820) reads from bottom upwards:
‘ سر ایلاجه ایمپی چیف جستس سنه ۱۶، ۱۷۷۵
(Sir Īlāhah Īmpī Chīf Justis, sanah 16, 1775).’
Dimensions: 19 × 26 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
London firm of Harry Phillips (d. 1840) sold Impey's collection 21 May 1810; however, others in India also acquired albums and folios from him both prior to—and possibly after—his return to Britain, so whether this volume sold at that sale, possibly separated from a larger one, remains unclear.
Evidently later obtained by scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865) for his library at Randalls Park, Leatherhead.
After Bland's death, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in June, 1866, paid in two instalments of £450 and £400, and then moved to Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh Hall, Wigan. He likely selected and arranged the contents of the parcel and had them bound in two volumes, together with Indian Drawings 18.
Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913).
Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1908 to the John Rylands Library, Manchester.
Record Sources
Bibliographical description based on a manuscript catalogue by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s.
Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2025 with reference to the volume in hand.
Availability
To book an in-person or online appointment to consult the manuscript, visit Using the Special Collections Reading Rooms. For any other enquiries please email uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk.
Bibliography
Funding of Cataloguing
The John Rylands Research Institute
The Persian Heritage Foundation
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