Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Persian MS 975 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Arabic Manuscripts

Contents

Summary of Contents: This Arabic Muʻallaqāt (Suspended Odes) by seven pre-Islamic Arabic poets, allegedly written on cloth then displayed upon the Ka‘bah contains an anonymous interlinear Persian translation and commentary. Complete, albeit unsigned and undated, an unidentified scribe copied it on British-manufactured handmade paper watermarked ‘J. Bigg’ manufactured by Iping, West Sussex papermaker John Bigg (fl. 1746–1772), which indicates the manuscript must date roughly to the third quarter of the 18th century.
Title: المعلقات
Title: The Mu'allaqāt
Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): و هذة الطبقة الا و هی السموط و...
Explicit: برگ ۱۳۵ر (folio 139b): شیخی الفتی اعداء و یعقر جارة.
Colophon: No colophon.
Language(s): Arabic and Persian
Author, Translator and Commentator for written text: Anonymous

For another manuscript of the Muʻallaqāt with an interlinear Persian translation by one Mawlavi Rawshan ‘Alī of Jaunpur, see Rylands Arabic MS 55 (Mingana catalogue no. 434).

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: British-manufactured handmade paper watermarked ‘J. Bigg’ manufactured by Iping, West Sussex papermaker John Bigg (fl. 1746–1772).
Extent: 135 folios (ff. 135)
Dimensions (leaf): 205 × 140 mm.
Foliation:

Collation

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

Condition

Layout

Hand(s)

Additions:

Binding

Possibly rebound in Britain for an unidentified prior owner before circa 30 June 1790 as indicated on the left paste-down.

220 × 150 × mm.

Handle binding with caution. In poor but stable condition. Boxed.

History

Origin: ; undated but probably completed during papermarker John Bigg (fl. 1746–1772) career, hence likley before 1772 CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, subsequently owned by Manchester merchant and scholar Samuel Robinson (1794–1884) of Wilmslow, the author of Persian Poetry for English Readers (1883), who donated it to Owens College (the original institution that evolved into the of The University of Manchester today).

Transferred to the John Rylands Library in circa 1975 after it merged with the University of Manchester.

Record Sources

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

Manuscript description 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

    Rylands Arabic MS 55 (Mingana catalogue no. 434).
    M. Dirāyatī and M. Dirāyatī, Fihristgān: Nuskhahʹhā-yi Khaṭṭī-i Īrān (Fankhā) (Union catalogue of Iran manuscripts), Vol. 30 (Tehran: Sāzmān-i Asnād va Kitābkhānah-i Millī-i Jumhūrī-i Islāmī-i Īrān, 1392 SH [2013–14 CE]), pp. 487–489 [Āstān-i Quds Raz̤avī no. 4354, &c.].
    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): p. 259, no. 975 [Rylands Persian MS 975].
    A. H. Shorter 'Paper Mills in Sussex' Sussex Notes and Queries Vol. XIII, no. 8 (1951): pp. 170–171 .

Funding of Cataloguing

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation


Comments

Comment on this record

Please fill out your details.

How are we using your feedback? See our privacy policy.

See the Availability section of this record for information on viewing the item in a reading room.

TO TOP