Persian MS 982 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: Modelled on the Gulistān (Rosegarden) of Sa‘dī, this complete eighteenth-century manuscript of Maʻdin al-Javāhir (The Mine of Jewels) by Mullā Ṭarzī contains 22 chapters and a conclusion (khāṭimah) of edifying stories and morals written in prose and verse. The work opens with praise of God, the Prophet, and his patron, the Mughal ruler Jahāngīr and concludes with the author expressing regret for his choice of title and humbly asking for forgiveness in the afterlife (fol. 1037b). A chronogram indicates that the author completed it for his patron in 1025 AH (1616–1617 CE). A scribe named ‘Abdul Raḥmān Ṣadīqī completed this volume on Rajab 1133 AH (Apr.–May 1721 CE).

Author: Mullā Ṭarzī ملا طرزی

Scribe: ‘Abdul Raḥmān Ṣadīqī;
عبد الرحمن صدیقی

Title: Maʻdin al-Jawāhir

Title: معدن الجواهر

Title: Maʻdan al-Javāhir

Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): در صفت حمد یاری تعالی و نعت سید المرسلین...

Explicit: برگ ۱۳۹پ (folio 139b): چون گفته بنام جهانگیر زان شده * تاریخ او کتاب جهانگیر پادشاه.

Colophon: برگ ۱۳۹پ (folio 139b): تمت تمام شد هذا النسخه المسمی معدان الجواهر تصنیف ابلغ البلغای عظم ملا طرزی علیه رحمة بتاریخ پانزدهم ۱۵ شهر رجب مرجب سنه ۱۱۴۳ هجری مطابق سنه ۱۳ جلوس خلافت پناه شوکت و حشمت دستگاه ظل سبحانی خلیفه الرحمانی حقایق و معارف آگاه محمد شاه پادشاه خلد الله ملکه و سلطنته در صوبه‌داری

Colophon: Completed by ‘Abdul Raḥmān Ṣadīqī in the month of Rajab 1133 AH (Apr.–May 1721 CE).

Language(s): Persian

For two other later copies of this same work held in the Rylands. see Persian MS 201 and 495.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of cross-grained, ivory-coloured paper, probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with 8 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.

Extent: 145 folios, 6 flyleaves (ff. iii + 145 + iii).

Dimensions (leaf): 230 × 148 mm.

Dimensions (written): 181 × 94 mm.

Foliation: Original foliation in red Hindu-Arabic numerals on the upper-left corners of the a sides, with many trimmed off when rebound, counting 143 folios total, hence under by 2

Foliation: Inked Arabic numerals added to bottom-left corners of the b sides.

Collation

Undetermined due to tight sewing. Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

Text in fair condition, with extensive water stains and moderate insect damage, with historical repairs throughout.

Layout

Primarily written in 1 column with 19 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with subheaders in red by ‘Abdul Raḥmān Ṣadīqī.

Additions:
Inscriptions: Folios 140a to 145b bears quotations from different poets in various hands, including Jāmī (140b), ‘Abd Allāh Anṣārī (141a), various quintains (mukhammis) and lyrical poems (ghazal). Bookplates: The final right flyleaf b side (f. ivb): ‘Bequeathed by Samuel Robinson, of Wilmslow, 1884’, with ‘Class: 284; Section: 100; Prog. Nº 39155’.
Left pastedown: ‘Samuel Robinson, Blackbrook Cottage, Wilmslow’.

Binding

Evidently rebound in Europe for an unidentified prior owner, who also rebound Persian MS 983 and Persian MS 984.

Resewn on five recessed cords, with added made endpapers of coarse green wove paper lined with thin wove. Laced into pasteboards, edges trimmed and spattered brown, with decorative front-bead endbands sewn in yellow and green silk threads at head and tail. Covered in full diced Russia leather, tight backed, with false raised bands.

Board exteriors decorated with a blind central panel insular dots and large lily-like cornerpieces. Board margins ruled with a double fillet lines in gold, with a blind decorative roll featuring alternating leaves and floral blossoms. Interior board margins also bear double fillet lines in gold. Remaining spine fragments decorated on the false bands with single fillet lines palletted on either side, blind ribbon and narrow decorative lines upon the bands, and gold quatrefoils in the centres of the panels surrounded by blind trefoils.

237 × 155 × 26 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In poor condition, with the left board detached, the front board breaking, and delaminating, friable spine remnants. Boxed.

Seal(s):

A black intaglio-carved seal impression appear five times within the manuscript, with a second one impressed upon an accompanying loose bifolium:

1: Folios 1a and 139b bear five impressions from the same seal in three stacked nasta‘līq lines, double ruled with the name of ‘‘Abd al-Raḥmān’ dated 1140 AH (1727–28 CE), possibly the same person as the scribe ‘Abdul Raḥmān Ṣadīqī.
15 × 20 mm.

2: The accompanying bifolium bears an illegible, faint rectangular seal impression in three stacked nasta‘līq lines, double ruled.
10 × 12 mm.

Accompanying Material

A detached bifolium in an unrelated hand and unidentified text accompanies the volume.

History

Origin: Completed by ‘Abdul Raḥmān Ṣadīqī Rajab 1133 AH (Apr.–May 1721 CE).

Provenance and Acquisition

Subsequently acquired 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 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

J. Aumer, Die persischen Handschriften der K. Hof- und Staatsbibliothek in München = Catalogus codicum manu scriptorum Bibliothecae Regiae Monacensis codices persicos complectens (: , 1866), p. 60, no. 190 [Bavarian State Library, Or. 373].

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, nos. 2519–2512 [Bodleian Ms. Ind. Inst. Pers. 82 and 95; MS Whinfield 30–31].

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. col. 522–524, nos. 793–796 [British Library IO Islamic 1559, &c.].

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), p. 352, no. 1131.

W. Pertsch, Verzeichniss der Persischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin: Asher, 1888), pp. 983–984, no. 1023 [Ms. Orient. Fol. 292].

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. 271–273.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. III (London: British Museum1883), p. 1038 [British Library Or. 1962/III].

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. 432–433, nos. 464–465 [Bodleian Ouseley Add. 61 and 122].

Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World