Persian MS 1016 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: A third final disparate volume added to complete a set of the Tārīkh-i Firishtah (History of Firishtah), together with Persian MS 1014 and 1015. A chronicle by historian Muḥammad Qāsim Hindūshāh Astarābādī (fl. ca. 1585–1625), pennamed 'Firishtah' (Angel), he completed two redactions, one in 1015 (1606–07 CE) and another in 1018 (1609–10 CE) entitled Tārīkh-i Nawras'nāmah, both dedicated to his patron, the ruler of the Deccan Sultanate of Bijapur Ibrāhīm ‘Ādil Shāh II (b. r. ). It features a preface on the pre-Islamic rulers of India followed by the Islamic period in twelve books. Since he relates many eyewitness accounts of his time in the Deccan, scholars till deem it a valuable reference today. French military figure and collector Jean Baptiste Joseph Gentil (1726-1799) possibly acquired this and the other volumes then had them uniformly rebound as a set. This volume opens with the third rawz̤ah (garden) of the third book, which concerns the Quṭb Shāhī dynasty and commences with events in 918 AH (1512–1513 CE).

Author: Firishtah, Muḥammad Qāsim Hindū Shāh Astarābādī;
فرشته، محمد قاسم هندوشاه استرآبادی

Title: Tārīkh-i Firishtah

Title: Gulshan-i Ibrāhīmī

Title: تاريخ فرشته

Title: گلشن ابراهیمی

Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): روضه‌ٔ چهارم در بیان حالات حکام نلنگ که موسوم‌اند بقطب شاهیه بر واقفان آثار عالم گون و فساد مخفی مستور نماند...

Explicit: برگ ۴۵۶ر (folio 458a): ...روز آورد و ...تا آنکه را مراج نامی در سنه نهصد و هفتاد باحام دکن جنگ عظیم کرده یقتل رسید و فرزندانش دیگر قوت نیافته درآن مملکت ملوک طوایف نمیرسیدند. تمت تمام شد...

Colophon: No colophon.

Language(s): Persian

This volume lacks the seal impression of Yūsuf Muḥammad Khān found in the first two volumes. While the volume appears previously damaged, it seems possible that Gentil acquired it to complete the set and had them uniformly rebound. For other copies of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 378 and 379 (2 vols.), 380, and 826 (formerly owned by an early translator of the work, Jonathan Scott). For a critical Persian edition, see Briggs. For English translations of selections, see Briggs, Scott, and Dow.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of medium-weight, cross-grained, yellow (turmeric?)-tinted, externally sized and polished, paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~5 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.

Extent: undetermined number of folios, 8 flyleaves (ff. iv + 448 + iv).

Dimensions (leaf): 314 × 185 mm.

Dimensions (written): 221 × 115 mm.

Foliation: Unfoliated.

Collation

Undetermined due to condition, but probably primarily quaternions throughout. Catchwords on the lower-left corners of most b sides throughout.

Condition

In fair but stable condition with evidence of water stains along the edges.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 17 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in a clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders.

Additions:
Marginalia: Occasional notes throughout in an unidentified English hand written in sepia ink, which translates chapter headings and events and cross-references Dow's translation.
Inscriptions: The fourth right flyleaf a side (f. iva) bears a French note by former owner Jean Baptiste Joseph Gentil that describes the volume.
Bookplates: The right and left doublures both bear Chetham's bookplates, the latter with the class mark ‘7994’.

Binding

Probably repaired and rebound in the Indian subcontinent, possibly for former owner Jean Baptiste Joseph Gentil.

Resewn at two unsupported stations, with straight-grained, medium-weight, ivory-coloured, externally sized and polished endpapers, probably handmade in Awadh with ~7 laid lines per cm and no discerible chains lines added at the beginning and end. Edges trimmed, with chevron endbands twined in yellow and green silk over round cores at head and tail. Spine lined with wide strips of paper adjacent to the sewing as false bands. Covered in full maroon goatskin leather, tight-backed, over pasteboards, flush-cut with the edges, but without a flap (Type III binding per Déroche), with internal doublures of the same leather, their excess widths adhered as hinges connecting to the first and last flyleaves to the cover, with strips of paper applied over top to disguise the joins.

316 × 190 × 60 mm.

Handle with extreme caution. Binding in poor condition, with boards detached and textblock split in several areas. Endbands missing. Boxed.

Seal(s):

The second right flyleaf a side (f. iia) bears a partly legible black rectangular seal impression, intaglio-carved in lines of nasta‘liq script, double-ruled, with the names and titles of former owner Jean Baptiste Joseph Gentil dated 1182 (1768–1769 CE): ‘جنتیل بهادر ناظم جناب پذیر الملک رفیع الدوله ۱۱۸۲ ’
19 × 23 mm.

History

Origin: Completed by an unidentified scribe in the Indian subcontinent; undated, but probably late-18th century CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

Evidently acquired in India by Jean Baptiste Joseph Gentil (1726-1799) to complete a set of two other volumes, as per his signature on 1a, inscriptions on the endpapers, and seal impressions.

While the circumstances under which these volumes arrived in Britain remain unclear, Chetham's Library, Manchester subsequently acquired them.

Purchased in 1981 by the John Rylands Library, together with other oriental manuscripts for £2000.

Record Sources

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2023 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

Persian MS 1014

Persian MS 1015

J. Briggs, 'Essay on the Life and Writings of Ferishta'. Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1829): pp. 341–361.

H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India, As Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, Vol. VI (London: Trübner & Co., 1875), pp. 207–236, no. LI.

H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office, Vol. 1 (London: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903), cols. 113–118, nos. 291–302 [British Library, IO Islamic 1408, etc.].

Firishtah, Ferishta's History of Dekkan from the first Mahummedan conquests. Translated by J. Scott. Shrewsbury: Printed by J. and W. Eddowes for John Stockdale, Picadilly, London, 1794.

Firishtah, Tarikh-i-Ferishta, or, History of the rise of the Mahomedan power in India, till the year A.D. 1612. Translated by Major-General John Briggs. Vols. I, II, III, and IV. London: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1829.

Firishtah, Tarikh-i-Ferishta, or, History of the rise of the Mahomedan power in India, till the year A.D. 1612, by Mahomed Kasim Ferishta, of Astrabad. Edited and collated from various manuscript copies on the spot, and examined with the best maps by Major-General John Briggs, F.R.S. ... assisted by Munshi Mir Kheirat Ali Khan Mushtak of Akberabad, Vols. I and II. Bombay: Lithographed at the Government College Press, 1831.

G. P. Greswell, Bibliotheca Chethamensis: Sive Bibliothecæ Publicæ Mancuniensis Ab Humfredo Chetham Armigero Fundatæ Catalogus, Vol. III (Mancunii: Henricus Smith, 1826), p. 164, no. 7992 [Rylands Persian MS 1014–1016].

G. R. G. Hambly, 'Ferešta, Tārīḵ-e', Encyclopædia Iranica, Vol. IX, Fasc. 5 (2003), pp. 533–534.

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), pp. 145–147, no. 471.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), pp. 225–228 [British Library Add. 6569–6571, &c.].

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. 116, no. 217 [Bodleian MS Hunt 265].

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. I, Pt. 2, Fasc. 3 (London: Luzac & Co., 1953), pp. 445-450, no. 617.

Funding of Cataloguing

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library and the Soudavar Memorial Foundation.

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