Persian MS 971 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: An isolated second volume of the Ḥabīb al-Siyar (Beloved of Biographies), originally completed in 937 AH (1530–1531 CE) by Ghiyās̲ al-Dīn ibn Humām al-Dīn (ca. 1475–1535) known as Khvāndamīr (1487–1524 CE), a maternal grandson of Timurid-era historian Mīrkhvānd (1433–1498). It presents a popular general history covering the pre-Islamic period up to the reign of Shāh Ismāʿīl I. The entire work consists of a preface, an introduction, followed by three volumes, containing four sections each appended with lists of names of prominent figures associated with specific periods, followed by an epilogue. This volume covers the early Islamic period up until the reign of the last Khwarazmshāh Jalāl al-Dīn Mingburnu (r. 1220–1231).

Author: Khvānd Mīr, Ghiyās̲ al-Dīn ibn Humām al-Dīn, ca. 1475-1535?
خواند مير، غياث الدين بن همام الدين
Khvāndamīr
خواندمير

Title: Ḥabīb al-Siyar

Title: حبيب السير

Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): الحمد الله الذی جعل للنبین لسانا علیه و بعث فی...

Explicit: برگ ۴۵۰ر (folio 450a): ...مشرف باد عنوان رسایل.

Colophon: No colophon

For other copies of this work held in the Rylands see, Persian MS 165, 398 and 399 (3 volumes bound in two), 809, 810, 811 (3 vols), 815, 816, (3 vols. bound in 2), and 972, as well as 973, and 974 (2 vols). For a full analysis, see Bockholt. For English translations of select extracts by Henry Lushington, see Elliot and Dowson.

Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of heavy-weight, cross-grained, heavily flocked, buff-coloured, sized and polished paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~5 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.

Extent: 450 folios (ff. 450).

Dimensions (leaf): 260 × 165 mm.

Dimensions (written): × mm.

Foliation: Unfoliated.

Collation

Undetermined. Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

In good condition.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders.

Additions:
Inscriptions:

Folio 1b bears inscriptions that denotes the volume number and the content of the manuscript and state the writing (perhaps copying) of the manuscript will be accomplished by Muḥammad Fāz̤il (محمد فاضل), a pupil of Afrāsīyāb Bayg (افراسیاب بیگ) On fol. 2a there are also inscriptions that state the manuscript was sent to Afrāsīyāb Baig by his pupil Muḥammad Salīm Bayg Khān (محمد سلیم بیگ خان). fol. 1b denotes the volume number and the content of the manuscript.

Binding

Quarter bound in brown goatskin leather with Antique spot marbled paper sides.

271 × 180 × mm.

Binding in good condition.

History

Origin: Probably completed in the Indian subcontinent; ; undated, but possibly mid 16th to mid 17th century CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

Previously owned by Jean-Baptiste Gentil (1726–1799 CE) as per his seal impressions on folios 1a and 3a. Presumably sold by Gentil before his death or by his family thereafter; however the circumstances of the volume's arrival in Britain remain unclear. Note that although Siavash Rafiee-Rad implies that Samuel Robinson of Wilmslow formerly owned this manuscript, we find no external nor internal evidence to suggest this.

Unknown. Probably transferred from the University of Manchester Library to the John Rylands Library after the institutions merged in 1972.

Record Sources

Bibliographical description derived from Siavash Rafiee-Rad, 'Persian Manuscripts in Samuel Robinson’s Collection in The John Rylands Library' (2017).

Record created and manuscript description amended and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2022 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

S. Bashir, 'A Perso-Islamic Universal Chronicle in Its Historical Context: Ghiyas al-Din Khwandamir's Habib al-siyar', in History and Religion: Narrating a Religious Past, edited by J. Rüpke, S. Rau, and B. C. Otto (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015) pp. 207–223.

P. Bockholt, Ein Bestseller der islamischen Vormoderne Zur Verbreitung von Ḫvāndamīrs Ḥabīb as-siyar von Anatolien bis auf den indischen Subkontinent (Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2022), pp. 127, tbl. 5, no. 130; Appendix, pp. 252–255.

P. Bockholt, ‘Khvāndamīr’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE (2020).

H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India, As Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, Vol. IV (London: Trübner & Co., 1872), pp. 154–212, no. XXVI (with translated excerpts contributed by Henry Lushington.

H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office, Vol. I (London: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903), cols. 25–30, nos. 79–99 [British Library IO Islamic 1788, &c.].

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), pp. 261–262, no. 923(ii).

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. 253–256 [Rylands Persian MS 971–974].

F. Richard, 'Jean-Baptiste Gentil, collectionneur de manuscrits persans', Dix-Huitième Siècle, No. 28 (1996): pp. 91–110.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), pp. 98–102 [British Library Add. 23508, &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), cols. 33–38, nos. 70–82 [Bodleian MS. Elliot 142].

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. 1 Pt. 1 (London: Luzac & Co., 1927), pp. 101–102, 104–109, no. 125 (3).

Funding of Cataloguing

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation

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