Persian MS 983 (The John Rylands 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 جلال الدین رومی

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: 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

Physical Description

Form: codex

Extent: 104 folios (ff. 104).

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 an Arabic supplicatory prayer derived from prophetic traditions:
‘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 inscription, presumaby by a non-native, roughly translates as: ‘This book was bought from the nation of Greek at the most prosperous time of Constantinople and around Petersburg, was written in the year of 8571 [NB: probably 1758] of Gregorian calendar’, with another note beneath in English: ‘M.S. Pers.’

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.

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Availability

The manuscript is available for consultation by any accredited reader, see Becoming a Reader for details. Please contact uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk for further information on the availability of this manuscript.

Bibliography

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.

Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

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

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