Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Gaster MS Misc 1519 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Contents

Summary of Contents: This incomplete, illustrated Persian translation of the Kitāb Suwar Kawākib al-Thābitah (Book of Forms of the Fixed Stars), composed in Arabic by ‘Abd al-Raḥman al-Ṣūfī (ca. 903–986). It features thirty-two depictions of the zodiac and other constellations, together with unidentified tables, and possibly dates to the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. The Persian headings derive from Naṣr al-Dīn al-Tūsī's redaction, while the tables appear to comport with those of Ūlūgh Bayg.
Author and Translator: Anonymous
Title: Kitāb Ṣuwar al-Kawākib al-Thābitah
Incipit: (basmala) صقحه‌ی ۱ (page 1): کواکب ذات الکرس: آن‌ کواکب‌ که بر سر است...
Explicit: صقحه‌ی ۳۹ (page 39): باقی کواکب و او بجنوب مایل‌تر است.
Colophon: Colophon missing.
Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: 59 pages [30 folios], 2 endleaves (ff. i + 30 + i)
Dimensions (leaf): × mm.
Dimensions (written): × mm.
Foliation: Modern pencilled Arabic numeral pagination at centre-top throughout.

Collation

Undetermined. No catchwords.

Condition

Handle with caution. In fair but stable condition.

Layout

Written in 1 column with varying numbers of lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Primarily written in clear black nasta‘līq with shikastah ligatures, with various abbreviations and sīyāq numerals, some written with red.

Additions:
Inscriptions:
Folio 1a:

Binding

Unsupported resewing, covered in a semi-limp binding with the edges hemmed in goaskin leather over thin pasteboards, and faced with modern European machine-made pink-violet paper, and interior pastedowns of the same.

× mm.

Handle with caution. In fair but stable condition.

History

Origin: Possibly completed in Greater Iran; undated but possibly 18th or 19th century CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Europe remain unclear, a notation in on folio 1a indicates that someone from France acquired it.

Subsequently obtained by collector and folklorist Moses Gaster (1856–1939) from an unidentified source.

Acquired in 1954 by the John Rylands Library from the heirs of Moses Gaster.

Record Sources

Bibliographical description derived from the Handlist of the Gaster Manuscripts, published in 1995.

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2023, derived from a Persian description of the volume published by Tawfiq Subhani in 1993, and in consultation with Dr. Hamid Bohloul and Dr Sonja Brentjes regarding identification of the manuscript. .

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

    M. Gaster, M. Ettinghausen, and V. I Gaster. Handlist of the Gaster Manuscripts: Held Mostly in the British Library (Formerly British Museum) London and in the John Rylands Library Manchester (London: Hebrew Section, Oriental and India Office Collections the British Library 1995.
    Tawfīq Subḥānī, 'Kitāb'hā-yi khaṭṭī-i Fārsī fihrist nashudah dar Kitābkhānah Jān Rāylāndz, Manchistir' Majallah-'i Dānishkadah-i Adabiyāt va ‘Ulūm-i Insānī n.s., Vol. 1, Nos. 2-3 (1372 SH [1993 CE]): p. 179, no. 28.

Funding of Cataloguing

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation


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