Hart 19223 (The Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery)
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R. E. Hart Collection
Contents
Summary of Contents: This illuminated manuscript features two tales Iskandar-Nāmah (Book of Alexander) and teh romance of Laylà va Majnūn from the Khamsah (Quintet) by Niẓāmī Ganjavī (ca. 1140–1203). Originally composed as two separate books, a subsequent owner bound them together. Each tale opens with an elegantly illuminated headpiece. Completed by an unidentified scribe. Four illustrations appear inserted at a much later date.Title: KhamsahTitle: خمسۀLanguage(s): PersianFor another copy of tales by the same poet in the The Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery, see Hart 19222.
Title: IskandarnāmahTitle: Laylà va MajnūnPhysical Description
Form: sheetExtent: undetermined foliosCollation
Undetermined. Catchwords present on the lower-left corners of the b sides.Layout
Central text written in 4 columns with 2 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in a clear black nasta‘līq hand.
Decoration
The initial folios for each tale feature delicately illuminated opening headpieces, with four paintings inserted at a later date.
Illuminated opening features a domed scalloped half-cloud-collar surmounting a rectangle below, containing a blank gilt horizontal cartouche and finials with infilled floral scrollwork set against an ultramarine ground.
- Mi‘rāj scene from the Iskandarnāmah
Prophet Muḥammad ascends to heaven on the composite mythical creature, al-Burāq
120 × 90 mm. - Scribe seated outdoors, possibly depicts the author Niẓāmī Ganjavī, from the conclusion of the Iskandarnāmah.
Battle scene, with slain soliders at right.
223 × 132 mm. - Laylà and Majnūn sit together beside by a tree.
223 × 132 mm. - Majnūn in the wilderness.
148 × 90 mm.
History
Origin: Probably completed in the Safavid Empire; undated, but probably 16th century CE.Provenance and Acquisition
While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remains unclear, collector Robert Edward Hart (1878-1946) acquired it from an unidentified source.
Bequeathed to the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, Blackburn, Lancashire, after the death of Robert Edward Hart (1878-1946) in 1946.
Record Sources
Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2026 with reference to the volume in hand, and with contributions to the record by Dagmar Riedel.
Availability
If you wish to make an inquiry please email museum@blackburn.gov.uk.
Bibliography
Nathaniel Bland, Niẓāmī Ganjavī, and Nathaniel Bland. Makhzan ul asrár, the treasury of secrets: being the first of the five poems, or khamsah, of Shaikh Nizámi, of Ganjah. London: Society for the Publication of Oriental Texts, 1844.François de Blois, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. V, Pt. 2 (London, Luzac, 1994), pp. 364, 374 .H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, Vol. I (Oxford: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903) cols. 602–603, no. 989 [BL IO Islamic 1444].‘Arif Naushahi, Kitāb-shināsī-yi Ās̱ār-i Fārsī-yi Chāp Shudah pp. 830–831, no. 5558S. Rafiee-Rad, 'Persian Manuscripts in Samuel Robinson’s Collection in The John Rylands Library', Manuscripta: A Journal for Manuscript Research, Vol. 61, No. 2 (2017): pp. 248–251 [Rylands Persian MS 969].C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), pp. 565–566 [BL Add. 7729/1].E. Sachau and H. Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Vol I. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), col. 494, nos. 600–603 [Bodleian. Ms. Ouseley 302, &c.].Funding of Cataloguing
The Soudavar Memorial Foundation
- Mi‘rāj scene from the Iskandarnāmah
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