Persian MS 951 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
Summary of Contents: An incomplete illustrated copy of the Ṭūṭī′nāmah (Tales of the Parrot), a Persian redaction of fifty-two tales of a parrot that ultimately derives from a Sanskrit collection of Buddhist jataka legends entitled Šuka-saptatī (The Parrot’s Seventy Tales). Authored by an Iranian émigré to India, Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn Nakhshabī (d. 1350), he reworked his text from an prior inelegant translation which he completed in 730 AH (1338–89 CE). The author's most popular work, it tremendously impacted subsequent story-telling literature, and circulated widely in both full and abridged forms, and several subsequent redactions by other authors, including many illustrated versions, such as this one, that survive today. The manuscript regrettably lacks the beginning and end, but the hand and style of painting both suggests that a commercial atelier probably produced it in the Indian subcontinent in the late 18th to early 19th century.
Physical Description
Form: codex
Layout
Written in 1 columns with 20 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders.
History
Origin: Probably completed in the Indian subcontinent undated, probably late 18th to early 19th century
Provenance and Acquisition
Probably acquired for the John Rylands Library, by Alphonse Mingana (1881–1937) 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Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2023, an unpublished handlist, accession registers, and a Persian description of the volume published by Tawfiq Subhani in 1993.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
A. F. L. Beeston, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstânî, and Pushtû Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Part III (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954), p. 17 no. 2517 [Bodleian Ms. Ind. Inst. Pers. 68].
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. 506–510, nos. 743–754 [British Library IO Islamic 3496, &c.]; col. 1547, no. 2851 [IO Islamic 2740].
[Rev. Benjamin Garrens, d. 1825], Tales of a Parrot: Done Into English, from a Persian Manuscript, Intitled Tooti Namêh, Vol. 1 London, Printed for the translator at the Minerva Press, 1792
S. H. Qasemi, A Descriptive Catalogue of Persian Translations of Indian Works (New Delhi: National Mission for Manuscripts, 2014), pp. 35–44, nos. 361-545.
S. 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. 273–275, pls. 7–8 [Rylands Persian MS 987].
C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1879), p. 753 [British Library Royal 16 B.XII, &c.]; 855–856 [Add. 25835/3].
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. 424, no. 444 [Bodleian Ouseley 50]. .
C. A. Storey [Online] (2021), Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. III, Pt. 3 Tales no. 692 (3).
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]): pp. 169–170, no. 10. [Rylands Persian MS 951]
Funding of Cataloguing
The John Rylands Research Institute and Library
The Soudavar Memorial Foundation
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