Persian MS 827 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
The opening of this manuscript comports with Ethé India Office catalogue no. 125. While Henry Miers Elliot and Charles Rieu describe the work as eponymously written in the name of Muḥammad Bakhtāvar Khān by Muḥammad Baqā Sahāranpūrī, Sajida Alvi identifies contemporaneous sources that identify it as the by former, but then likely completed by the latter.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Handle with caution. In poor condition, with extensive water, mould, and insect damage throughout.
Layout
Written in a single column with 25 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in many various hands in nasta‘līq script in black with subheaders and lines above the beginning of the sentences marked in red.
Inscriptions: The first right flyleaf (f. ia) numbered ‘No. 2’ and priced ‘5l. 15s. 6d.’ Bookplates and labels: On the left paste-down: ‘Biblioteca Lindesiana’ with shelfmark ‘1/A’, with an earlier handwritten label at top ‘Persian MSS no. 33’, with the number crossed out and ‘827’ added.
Binding
Probably rebound in London for former owner Duncan Forbes. Oversewn on five recessed cords laced into the pasteboards. Edges then trimmed and stained in a reddish tan colour. No enbands at head and tail. Recovered in full, maroon bookcloth embossed with a moirée pattern, without a flap fore-edge flap (type II binding per Déroche et al), with endpapers of heavy-weight machine-made wove paper.
Gilt spine label of black sheepskin skiver leather boldly titled ‘MIRAT UL 'ALAM’ in gold.
441 × 268 × 59 mm.
Handle with caution: in good condition, headcaps abraded and corners bent. Text block split between pages 707–708.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Later acquired by Duncan Forbes (1798–1868), Professor of Oriental Languages at King's College.
In 1866, he published it as item no. 2 in his library catalogue, then sold it to W. H. Allen & Co. in London in exchange for annuity, from whom Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) purchased it later that same year.
Subsequently 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.
Record Sources
Basic entry compiled by Elizabeth Gow from a manuscript catalogue by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s, later published in concise form as Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish in 1898.
.Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2021 with reference to the volume
Availability
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