Persian MS 981 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: An undated Dīvān of the poems of Jāmī (d. 1492), possibly completed in Greater Iran in the late 18th to early 19th century. A note by the colophon attributes the hand to one Ghulām Ḥusayn Ḥasan Ḥusayn.

Author: Jāmī, 1414-1492;
جامی

Scribe: Ghulām Ḥusayn Ḥasan Ḥusayn;
علام حسین حسن حسین

Title: Dīvān

Title: دیوان

Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): سبحان من تحیر فی ذاته من سواه

Explicit: برگ ۲۵۶ر (folio 256a): پیش رویت نابخد صف ایستند.

Colophon: No colophon.

Language(s): Persian

A note adjacent to the explicit on folio 256a attributes copying of this volume to Ghulām Ḥusayn Ḥasan Ḥusayn. For other copies of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 83 126, 268, 601 (Kullīyāt), and 885.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of cross-grained, externally sized and polished, ivoury-coloured paper possibly handmade in Greater Iran with ~8 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.

Extent: 256 folios (ff. 256).

Dimensions (leaf): 198 × 110 mm.

Dimensions (written):

Foliation: Hindu-Arabic numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides throughout.

Foliation: Pencilled Arabic numerals added to 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

In fair condition, with moderate water and insect damage and historical repairs throughout.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 20 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders.

Decoration

Illumination: Folio 1b bears a scalloped domed headpiece with gilt palmette foliate scrollwork on an ultramarine ground and an uninscribed central cartouche, and four vertical radiating lines.

Ruling: Folios 1b and 2a ruled in gold outlined with thin black lines, and surrounded by another single line. The margins of folios 2b onwards ruled with single lines of ultramarine blue.

Additions:
Inscriptions:

The right flyleaf a side (f. ia) bears .
Folios 10a and b inscribed with .

Bookplates: Left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘2/K’, and ‘Bland MSS No. 327’, with the name and number crossed out and ‘Persian’ and ‘123’ written aside.

Binding

Probably bound in the

Sewn. Edges trimmed, and chevron endbands of yellow and silver threads twined at head and tail.

209 × 125 × mm.

History

Origin: Possibly completed in Greater Iran undated, but possibly late 18th to early 19th century.

Provenance and Acquisition

Subsequently acquired from an unidentified source 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 1975 after it merged with the University of Manchester.

Record Sources

Bibliographical description derived from an unpublished handlist of additional Persian manuscripts.

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2024 .

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

Jāmī, This Heavenly Wine: Renditions from Divan-e Jami. Translated by Vraje Abramian Prescott. Ariz: Hohm Press, 2006.

J W von Goethe, West-Eastern Divan, Translated by Eric Ormsby. London: Gingko, 2019.

Jāmī, Dīvān-i Jāmī, Edited by Muḥammad Rawshan, Tehran: Nigāh, 1389 SH (2010 CE).

Jāmī, Kullīyāt-i Dīvān-i Jāmī, Edited by Farshīd Iqbāl. Tehran: Chāp va Intishārāt-i Iqbāl, 1385 SH (2006 CE).

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. 270–271.

Sibylle Wentker, 'Bringing Persia to Germany: Joseph von Hammer and Hafiz' A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue between East & West. Edited by Barbara Schwepcke and Bill Swainson, (London: Gingko, 2019), pp. 109–1106

Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World