Persian MS 950 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: Shī‘ī religious scholar and philospher Sayyid Ja‘far Kashfī Mūsavī Dārābī Burūjirdī (1775–1851) originally composed his Tuḥfat al-Mulūk fī-al-Siyar wa-al-Sulūk (Gift for Sovereigns Travelling the Path) at the behest of Qajar dynasty prince Muḥammad Taqī Mīrzā Ḥissām al-Salṭanah (1791–1853), as a gift for the latter's father, Fatḥ ‘Alī Shāh Qājār (b. 1769, r. 1797–1834), in 1233 AH (1818 CE). Comprised of three 'Stages' (Ṭabaqāt on the Intellect (‘Aql and its impact on creation and human faculties, followed by a two-part conclusion (khātimah) presenting an encyclopaedic systematization of speculative philosophy and historiosophy. A scribe named Mawlà al-Ḥusaynī completed this illustrated volume on Friday, 10 Rabī‘ II 1266 AH (23 Feb 1850 CE).

Author: Kashfī Musavī Dārābī Burūjirdī, Sayyid Jaʿfar b. Abī Isḥāq, 1775–1851

Dedicatee: Fatḥ ‘Alī Shāh Qājār, b. 1769, r. 1797–1834

Patron: Muḥammad Taqī Mīrzā, Ḥissām al-Salṭanah, 1791–1853

Scribe: Mawlà al-Ḥusaynī

Title: تحفة الملوک فی السیر و السلوک

Title: Tuḥfat al-Mulūk fī-al-Siyar wa-al-Sulūk

Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): الحمدلله خالق العقل و الجهل و جاعل الظملة والنور و الظل و بعد شیرین مقالی كه سر زند از شكرین قائلی حدیث و حكایت...

Explicit: ختم حرفی حمد تو ای ذوالجلال زانکه حمد تو بود خیر المقال تاریخ تحریر سنه ۱۲۳۳ هزار و دویست و سی و سه است و عدد آن در ضمن ایـن بیست حرف است که در ضمن این چهار کلمه است تحفة الملوک الملوک الکلام و ایضا در ضمن آن نوزده حرف است در ضمن این بیست است..

Colophon: سال ختم آن بی زیاد و کم تحفة الملوک قاید الامم و الحمد لله رب العالمین. ملک برکا تا فلگ حرکا تا بتائید حضرت باری و تشدید همه‌‌‌ٔ جناب سهر یاری آنچه مقصود و منظومر نظر ضیاء الله و ما نورا هر قضاد قدر بود بانجام رسید دهید(؟) است که بمقتضای ضقه شکوریت چشم از عدم قایلت آن پوشده بدرجه مقبولیة مقرون فرمایند و عرایش افکار ابکار از انباهز(؟) و نا مرادی ثرویح نقر باشند کقودک بنده‌گی قهر و خاتم ازا کسی درند که در عقیده و قول و فعل مناسب و متابه (؟) آن باش. و قد فرغت من تحریر کتاب تحفة الملوک یوم الخمیس عشر الثانی من شهر ربیع من شهور سنه خان(؟) هزار و دویست شصت و شیش علی ید اقل السادات موالی الحینسی خلف برحمت و غفران پناه میرزا عقیل تفرشی الاصل و الحمد لله رب العالمین و صلی الله علی سیدنا محمد و آله و عترته الطاهربین.

Colophon: Completed by Mawlà al-Ḥusaynī, attendant to Mīrzā ‘Aqīl Tafarrushī al-Aṣl, on Friday, 10 Rabī‘ II 1266 AH (23 Feb 1850 CE).

The same calligrapher completed two copies of Manhaj al-Sālikīn wa Wasīlat al-Najāt al-Hālikīn held in the Parliamentary Library, Tehran (no. 1/14496), and Mar‘ashi Library, Qom (no. 1528), completed 1206 [sic, probably 1260) and 1266 respectively (see FANKHA catalogue).

Language(s): Persian

Title: Introduction

Title: Ṭabaq-i Avvāl: Dar bayān-i ḥaqīqāt al-‘aql

Title: Ṭabaq-i Duvvum: Dar bayān-i kayfiyāt-i irtibāṭ al-ta‘lluq al-‘aql bi-mawjūdāt

Title: Ṭabaq-i Sivvum: Dar bayān-i khavvāṣ va ‘alāmāt-i ān

Title: Khātimah

Title: Majma‘ah-'i Avvāl

Title: Majma‘ah-'i Duvvum

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of medium-weight paper manufactured in

Layout

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq by Mawlà al-Ḥusaynī.

Additions:
Inscriptions: The final folio, , adjacent to the colophon bears a library accession statement dated 1294 AH (1877–1878 CE), adjacent to a partial seal impression with the name ‘Alī.
‘هذا كتاب را يكي از برهان جمشيد(؟) و جهان دائم(؟) است يادگار تحفه نیاز نمود و داخل کتابخانه شد، ۱۲۹۶. ’

Binding

Covered in a contemporary Qajar-era style in full boarded goastkin leather over pasteboards.

Binding in good condition.

Seal(s):

Partly legible black oval seal impression intaglio carved in two nasta‘līq script lines, double-ruled, with the name of ‘Alī appears underneath a notation next to the colophon.

History

Origin: Completed by Mawlà al-Ḥusaynī, possibly in Tehran; Friday, 10 Rabī‘ II 1266 AH (23 Feb 1850 CE)

Provenance and Acquisition

Previously owned or inspected by someone named ‘Alī as per his seal impression adjacent to his accession note by the colophon.

While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britian remain unclear, Alphonse Mingana (1881–1937) probably acquired it for the John Rylands Library from an unidentified source.

Record Sources

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2023, an unpublished handlist, accession registers, and a Persian description of the volume published by Tawfiq Subhani in 1993.

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

H. Corbin, History of Islamic Philosophy. Translated by Liadain amd Philip Sherrard (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2014), pp. 356–358.

M. Dirāyatī and M. Dirāyatī, Fihristgān: Nuskhahʹhā-yi Khaṭṭī-i Īrān (FANKHĀ) (Union catalogue of Iran manuscripts), Vol. 7 (Tehran: Sāzmān-i Asnād va Kitābkhānah-i Millī-i Jumhūrī-i Islāmī-i Īrān, 1391 S. H. [2012–13 CE]), pp. 264–266 [Yazd MS no. 2741, &c.].

Sayyid Ja‘far Kashfī, Tuḥfat al-Mulūk: Guftār'hā-yi darbārah-yi Ḥikmat-i Siyāsī,, Edited by ‘Abd al‑Vahhāb Furātī. Qom: Būstān-i Kitāb-i Qum, 1375 SH (1996 CE).

Sayyid Ja‘far Kashfī, Tuḥfat al-Mulūk fi-al-Sayr va-al-Sulūk: mushtamil bar mavāʻiz̤ va andarz-i salāṭīn-i ʻAjam. [Tabriz]: s.n., 1276 AH (1860 CE).

Sajjad Rizvi, 'Shi'i Political Theology and Esotericism in Qajar Iran: The Case of Sayyid Jaʿfar Kashfī', L'Ésotérisme shi'ite: ses racines et ses prolongements = Shi'i Esotericism: Its Roots and Developments. Edited by Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Maria De Cillis, Daniel De smet, and Orkhan Mir-Kasimov (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), pp. 687-712.

C. A. Storey no. 894

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. 169, no. 9.

Funding of Cataloguing

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation

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