Persian MS 983 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
سلطان ولد
The preface on folio 1b and commencement of the poem proper on folio 2a published by Rafiee-Rad, plates 7–8.
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
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.
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.’
Left pastedown: ‘Samuel Robinson, Blackbrook Cottage, Wilmslow’.
History
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
Funding of Cataloguing
The John Rylands Research Institute and Library
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