Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Persian MS 976 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Contents

Summary of Contents: An undated, anonymous Persian translation of the Four Books of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Translator: Anonymous
Explicit: برگ ۲۱۶پ (folio 216b): حضرت عیسی پسر خداست و اینجا اندک سخن آورده شد برای نمودار که آسان شود خوانندگان را برای یافتن و پیدا کردن این راست.
Colophon: No colophon
Language(s): Persian
1a
Incipit: (beginning) برگ ۱ر (folio 1a): کتاب نسبت عیسی مسیح ابن داودبن ابراهیم از ابراهیم بوجود آمد. ابراهیم اسحاق را زاده اسحاق یعقوب را زاده یعقوب یهود و برادرانش را...
58a
Incipit: (beginning) برگ ۵۷ر (folio 57a): انجیل مقدس عیسی مسیح چنانچه نوشته است مرقوس یکی ازهفتاد و دو تلمیذ او فصل اول عیسی عماد او آزموده کرده شد تلمیذان را میطلبد و شیطان را از وجود دور میکند و بیماران را شفا میدهد عیسی مسیح ابن الله...
94a
Incipit: (beginning) برگ ۹۴ر (folio 94a): انجیل مقدس عیسی مسیح چنانچه نوشته شده است لوقا یکی از هفتاد و دو تلمیذ او.
160a
Incipit: (beginning) برگ ۱۵۹ر (folio 159a): انجیل مقدس عیسی مسیح چنانچه نوشته است یوحنا یکی از دوازده رسول او.
205a
Title: Abstracts of the Four Gospels
Incipit: (beginning) برگ ۲۰۵ر (folio 205a): فصل اول در بیان آنکه عیسی مسیحست... .
209a
Title: Commentary on the Four Gospels
Explicit: برگ ۲۱۶پ (folio 216b): حضرت عیسی پسر خداست و اینجا اندک سخن آورده شد برای نمودار که آسان شود خوانندگان را برای یافتن و پیدا کردن این راست.
Colophon: No colophon
Language(s): Persian

For another Persian translation of the Gospels held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 337.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Textblock of straight-grained, ivory-coloured paper, with minimal external sizing and lightly polished, possibly handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~9 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.
Extent: 215 folios, 5 flyleaves (ff. iii + 215 + ii).
Dimensions (leaf): 230 × 150 mm.
Dimensions (written): 172 × 81 mm.
Foliation: Arabic numerals pencilled on the upper-left corners of the a sides when catalogued.

Collation

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

Condition

Text in good condition.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 16 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with subheaders in red.

Decoration

Ruling: Margins and occasional horizontal section breaks ruled in red double lines throughout.

Additions:
Marginalia: Chapters identified by pencilled Latin notes, albeit many trimmed.
Inscriptions: Folio 1a bears a Latin title of the work with an Arabic basmala underneath.
Bookplates: The final right flyleaf b side (f. ivb): ‘Bequeathed by Samuel Robinson, of Wilmslow, 1884’, with ‘Class: 117; Section: 76; Prog. Nº 39155’.
Left pastedown: ‘Samuel Robinson, Blackbrook Cottage, Wilmslow’.

Binding

Probably rebound for former owner Samuel Robinson by the Winstanley firm in Manchester as per its stamp on the final left flyleaf a side (f. iva).

Resewn on four recessed cord supports, with stiff-leaved endpapers of ivory adhered to red machine-made wove papers oversewn at the beginning and end. Edges trimmed, finely sprayed in dilute red earth, then decorative front-bead endbands sewn in pale gold and pink silk threads at head and tail. Case-bound, tight-backed, in half dark brown morroco-grained goatskin leather, with five false bands on the spine, and double-combed 'nonpareil' marbled paper sides.

Blind double-fillet lines paletted at head, tail, and beside the bands on the spine, and also along the paper facing the boards. Spine titled
‘NEW TESTAMENT PERSIAN’
and
‘M. S. PERS.’ in the bottom panel.

240 × 160 × 40 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In fair condition, with extensive abrasion to the exterior joints and board edges.

Seal(s):
Owens College Library, Manchester blind embossed stamp, single-ruled.

19 × 21 mm.

History

Origin: Probably completed in the Indian subcontinent; ; undated, but probably late 18th to early 19th centuries CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, an unidentified European owner acquired the volume who wrote Latin notations therein.

Subsequently obtained by Manchester merchant and scholar Samuel Robinson (1794–1884) of Wilmslow, the author of Persian Poetry for English Readers (1883), acquired it and donated it to Owens College, which later evolved into the of The University of Manchester.

Transferred to the John Rylands Library in 1972 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).

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

    H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, Vol. I (Oxford: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903) cols. 1473–1474, nos. 2713–2714 [BL IO Islamic 2475 and 2693].
    K. Mushār, Fihrist-i Kitāb'hā-yi Chāpī-i Fārsī, Vol. I, Pt. 2 (Tehran: Chāpkhānah-ʼi Urzhang, 1350 SH [1971– CE]), p. 221.
    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. 260–262.
    C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum1879), pp. 1–2 [BL Or. 1419, Add. 19431 and 19532].
    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. 133, nos. 1835–1840 [Bodleian Pococke 241, Ms. Laud Or. 2, Or. 189 and 587, Hyde 12, and Elliott 13].
    K. J. Thomas and A. A. Aghbar, A Restless Search: A History of Persian Translations of the Bible. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2015.
    K. J. Thomas and F. Vahman, 'Bible vii. Persian translations of the Bible' Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. IV, Fasc. 2 (1989), pp. 209–213.

Funding of Cataloguing

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library


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