Persian MS 983 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: This first book of the Mas̲navī-i Ma‘navī (Spiritual Couplets) by Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (1207–1273) opens with a brief Arabic preface. A scribe named Ḥamzah ibn Umah completed the volume in 842 AH (1438–39 CE).

Author: Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, 1207–1273;
جلال الدین رومی

Compiler: Sulṭān Valad, 1226–1312;
سلطان ولد

Title: Mas̲navī

Title: مثنوی

Title: Mas̲navī-i Ma‘navī

Title: مثنوی معنوی

Scribe: Ḥamzah ibn Umah
همزة ابن أمة

Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): هذا كتاب المثنوي، وهو أصول أصول أصول الدين في كشف أسرار الوصول واليقين وهو فقه الله الأكبر، و شرع الله الأزهر، وبرهان الله الأطهر يشرق اشراقا آنور من الإصباح، مثل نوره كمشكاة فيها مصباح وهو جنان الجنان والعيون و الأغصان وعند أصحاب المقامات والكرامات

Explicit: برگ ۱۰۳ر (Folio 103a): صبر کن و الله اعلم بالصواب.

Colophon: برگ ۱۰۳ر (Folio 103a): تمت بعون الملک التواب * الواسع العلی الکبیر الوهاب | علی ید اضعف العباد حمزه بن امة * عفی عنهما الله ذو القعدة(؟) | و صلّی الله علی سیدنا محمد واله وصحبه اجمعین * وغفر لسائن المؤمنان والمؤمنات آمین | سنه سته و اربعین و ثمانمائه * من الخجرة النبی الامي ذی الفضل والمنة.

Colophon: Completed by Ḥamzah Ibn Umah on 842 AH (1438–39 CE).

The preface on folio 1b and commencement of the poem proper on folio 2a published by Rafiee-Rad, plates 7–8.

Language(s): Persian

For other copies of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 17, 21, 72, 213, 236, 250–255 (Books I–VI), 795, 847, 848, 926, and 984, the last being the earliest, completed in 9 Muḥarram 758 AH (2 January 1357 CE), about 85 years after the author first composed it. For critical editions, see Isti‘lāmī and Furūzānfar. For a recent English translation of the first two books based on the former edition, see Williams. For earlier translations, see Arberry, Nicholson, and Whinfield.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Extent: 104 folios, 6 flyleaves (ff. iii + 104 + iii).

Dimensions (leaf): 298 × 215 mm.

Hand(s)

Primarily written in black nasta‘līq with red subheaders by Ḥamzah ibn Umah, who possibly likely also wrote a majority of the marginal commentaries.

Additions:
Inscriptions:

Folio 1a bears the signature of former owner Nikolaus Vouides ni Latin script, ‘N. Bouijdi’ at top, with an unrelated Arabic supplicatory prayer below it:
‘اللهم زین ظواهرنا بخدمتک و بواطننا بمعرفتک و قلوبنا بمحبتک و ارواحنا بمعاونتک و اسرارنا بمشاهدتک اللهم اجعل فی قلبی نورا و فی سمعی نورا و فی بصری نورا و فی مخی نورا و عن یمینی نورا و عن شمالی نورا و عن فوقی نورا و تحتی نورا برحمتک یا ارحم الراحمین’
Folio 104b bears a Persian statement by former owner Nikolaus Vouides regarding his acquisition of the volume, which roughly translates as: ‘This book was bought from the nation of Greece at the most prosperous time of Constantinople and around Petersburg, which was written in the year of 8571 [NB: probably 1758] of Gregorian calendar’, with another note beneath in English: ‘M.S. Pers.’

Bookplates: The final right flyleaf b side (f. ivb): Owens College, ‘Bequeathed by Samuel Robinson, of Wilmslow, 1884’.
Left pastedown: ‘Samuel Robinson, Blackbrook Cottage, Wilmslow’.

History

Origin: Completed by Ḥamzah Ibn Umah in 842 AH (1438–39 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 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).

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

A. J. Arberry, Tales from the Masnavi. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1961

A. J. Arberry, More Tales from the Masnavi. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1963.

E. G. Browne, A Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Cambridge, (Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1896), pp. 313–315, nos. 224–226 [Cambridge University Library Oo.6.32, Gg.5.32, and Add. 199 (Lewis 19)].

W. Chittick, The Philosophy of Ecstasy: Rumi and the Sufi Tradition. Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2014.

W. C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983.

H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office, Vol. 1 (London: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903), cols. 630–640, nos. 1060–85 [British Library, IO Islamic 2709, &c.].

Gustav Flügel, Die Arabischen, Persischen und Türkischen Handschriften der Kaiserlich-Königlichen Hofbibliothik zu Wien, Bd. I (Vienna: Druck und Verlag der K. K. Hof und Staatsdruckerei, 1865), p. 514–515, no. 519 [Cod. N. F. 126].

D. Forbes, Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, Chiefly Persian, Collected Within the Last Five and Thirty years, (London: W. H. Allen., 1866), p. 1, no. 2 [Rylands Persian MS 848]

B. Furūzānfar, Sharḥ-i Mas̲navī-i sharīf. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Dānishgāh-i Tihrān, 1347–48 SH (1967–70 CE).

F. D. Lewis, Rumi Past and Present East and West: The Life, Teachings and Poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi Oxford: One World, 2000

L. Lewisohn, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi. Albany: SUNY Press, 1983.

G. M. Meredith-Owens, Handlist of Persian Manuscripts, 1895–1966. (London: British Library, 1968), pp. 66, 68 [BL Or. 11677].

G. H. Pertz, texts Die Handschriften-verzeichnisse der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, Bd. 4 (Berlin: Preussische Staatsbibliothek, 1853), pp. 783–791, nos. 762–772 [Staatsbibliotek zu Berlin, Minutoli 21 &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): pp. 273–275, pls. 7–8.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), pp. 584–587 [British Library Add. 27263, &c.].

Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, The Masnavi of Rumi: A New English Translation with Persian Text and Explanatory Notes. Edited by M. Istiʻlāmī and translated by A. Williams. London: I.B. Tauris, 2020.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, The Mathnawí of Jalálu'ddín Rúmi The Mathnawí of Jalálu'ddín Rúmi. Edited and translated by R. A. Nicholson. London: Luzac & Co., 1925–1940.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Masnavi I Ma'navi : The Spiritual Couplets of Maulána Jalálu'd-Dín Muhammad I Rúmí, 2nd ed. Translated by E. H. Whinfield. London: Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1898.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Kullīyāt-i Mas̲navī-i Maʻnavī-i. Edited by B. Furūzānfar, with commentary by M. Darvīsh. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Jāvīdān, 1342 SH (1963 CE).

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. 511–516, nos. 646–660 [Bodleian Ouseley Add. 146].

Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Persian MS 983 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

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