Arabic MS 764 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

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Arabic Manuscripts

Contents

Summary of Contents: The fifth of fourteen large volumes of an illuminated Quʾranic manuscript with interlinear literal translations in Persian and Qarakhanid Turkic. The set, probably from the 14th century, would originally have comprised 30 volumes. This volume contains parts of Juzʾ 10.
Title: al-Qurʿān
Title: القران
Language(s): Arabic, with interlinear translations in Persian and Qarakhanid Turkic
1a-66a
Title: Juzʾ 10
Title: جزء 10
1a-7a
Title: Sūrat al-ʾAnfāl
Title: سورة الأنفال

Sūrah 8:41-75. Lacuna between folios 6b and 7a: from middle of 8:48 to middle of 8:74 are missing.

Incipit: قان الله خمسة وللرسول
Explicit: ببعض في كتاب الله ان الله بكلشئ عليم
7b-66a
Title: Sūrat al-Tawbah
Title: سورة التوبة

Sūrah 9:1-93 (Aya 93 is the beginning of Juzʿ 11). Some lacunae; for instance between folio 7b ending with the first word of 9:2 and folio 8a beginning with the end of verse 9:9.

Incipit: براة من الله ورسوله الي الذين
Explicit: قلوبهم فهم لا يعلمون

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: White and cream glazed paper.
Extent: 66 folios (ii+66+ii)
Dimensions (leaf): 360 × 295 mm.
Dimensions (written): 230 × 180 mm.
Foliation: Modern foliation in pencil in Western Arabic numerals.

Layout

1 column with three lines of Arabic script, the Persian and Turkic translations below.

Hand(s)

The Arabic text is in large Naskh characters fully vowelled, perhaps of the fourteenth century. The Persian and Turkic translations are both written in smaller characters in the same hand.

Decoration

Folio 35a: full-page illumination with the first four words of Sūrah 8:41.

7b: Sūrah heading within illuminated rectangular panel.

Folio 66b: circular shamsa without text; primarily in gold, red and blue.

Small illuminated verse markers at the end of each verse, larger, more elaborately illuminated markers (almond-shaped and circular) after every five and ten ayas.

History

Origin: 14th century, probably CE; possibly produced in ; Transoxiana (A. Ata narrows it down to the Ispicab region; see Ata 2020).

Provenance and Acquisition

Formerly in the collection of Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) Crawford, Alexander Crawford Lindsay, 1812-1880. His bookplate on the back paste-down: 'Bibliotheca Lindesiana 4/D'.

Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) Rylands, Enriqueta, 1843–1908 in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913) Crawford, James Ludovic Lindsay, Earl of, 1847–1913 .

Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) Rylands, Enriqueta, 1843–1908 in 1908 to John Rylands Library.

Record Sources

Description based on A. Mingana, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library Manchester (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1934), no. 29, revised and expanded by Zsófia Buda.

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Digital Images

Manchester Digital Collections (full digital facsimile)

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