Persian MS 942 (The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Primarily the Badāyiʻ al-Inshāʼ (Novelties in Composition), with a folio detached from the Kitāb-i Taṣrīf.
Contents
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Single column, with 13 lines per page. Ruled with a miṣtarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written primarily in shikastah mixed with nasta‘līq script in black with sub-headers in red.
Many folios bear notes in a miniscule shikastah hand(s) in black written between the lines as well as marginalia in black and red.
- Many folios bear interlinear notes in a miniscule black shikastah hand, as well as marginalia in black and red.
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Folio 1b bears a notation by an unidientified former owner adjacent to an obliterated seal impression.
‘هذا النسخة الشريفة انشاء يوسفي تصنيف مولانا مولوي محمد يوسف.’
- The right board exterior bears a price of ‘50 Rupees’ written in both Persian and English.
Binding
Unsupported sewing at two stations, with twined chevron endbands worked in white silk and silver threads, the latter now tarnished gray. Rebound in full, smooth maroon-coloured goatskin leather over pasteboards, without a flap (type III binding per Déroche). Endpapers of cross-grained, tan-coloured European laid handmade paper with ~ 1mm betwen laid lines and ~ 28mm between chain lines, watermarked with a prominent fleur de lis on the right pastedown measuring 68 × 44 mm., and countermarked on the left pastedown with the date 1800.
Boards decorated with blocked central scalloped central mandorlas, detached pendants, and corners with fine intaglio-carved floral designs, possibly in black ink. Spine later titled ‘YOSUF’ in in the European manner in gold.
211 × 152 × 29 mm.
Binding in good condition. Headcaps repaired in maroon goatskin leather.
Seals of various owners
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The added detached folio, now the fourth right flyleaf a side (f. iva) bears an obliterated, partly legible, round seal impression, intaglio carved in four stacked lines in in naskh script, double-ruled, possibly with the name of Jalāl al-Dīn.
13 × 14 mm.
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Folios 1a and 1b (next to a notation) bear partially-legible rectangular seal impressions, intaglio carved in three stacked lines of nasta‘līq script, double-ruled, and impressed in black ink, a former owner, possibly surnamed Shihābī, bearing the number 20, but the exact date appears unclear.
12 × 15 mm.
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Folios 1b and 130b bear obliterated oval seal impressions, probablt of a former owner, that appear to be intaglio-carved two lines of nasta‘līq script, unruled, and impressed in black ink.
9 × 14 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Subsequently owned by at least two other individuals, likely in India one possible named Jalāl al-Dīn and the other possibly surnamed Shihābī as per their seal impressions upon.
Evidently acquired in India by East India Company administrator Sir Charles William Rouse-Boughton (1747–1821), who served in India from 1765 to 1778. His inscription on the second right flyleaf a side (f. iia) indicates he acquired it there before he departed, since he styles his name as ‘C. W. B. Rouse’ before he later changed his name in 1791 to 'Boughton Rouse' and 'Rouse-Boughton' in 1794.
Subsequently acquired by antiquarian bookseller and publisher J. E. Cornish who operated a shop for many years at 33 Picadilly,Manchester.
Purchased by the John Rylands Library from J. E. Cornish in Oct. 1912.
Persian MS 942A
Contents
References
Persian MS 942B
Contents
References
Additional Information
Record Sources
Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2022, referencing an unpublished handlist and accession registers, and to the manuscript in hand, and in consultation with Dr. Mahmood Alam regarding the colophon.
Availability
The manuscript is available for consultation by any accredited reader.
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