Persian MS 987 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

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Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: A complete copy of the Ṭūṭī′nāmah (Tales of the Parrot), a Persian redaction of fifty-two tales of a parrot that ultimately derives from a Sanskrit collection of Buddhist jataka legends entitled Šuka-saptatī (The Parrot’s Seventy Tales). Authored by an Iranian émigré to India, Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn Nakhshabī (d. 1350), he reworked his text from an prior inelegant translation which he completed in 730 AH (1338–89 CE). The author's most popular work, it tremendously impacted subsequent story-telling literature, and circulated widely in both full and abridged forms, and several subsequent redactions by other authors, including many illustrated versions that survive today. This manuscript bears an enigmatic partial date of ‘Tuesday, 13 Safar’ with the year ommited, but it appears likely 18th century.

Author: Nakhshabī, Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn, d. 1350 ضياء الدين نخشبى

Title: Ṭūṭī′nāmah

Title: طوطی نامه

Language(s): Persian

For other copies of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 215, 257, 519, and 951.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Dimensions (leaf):

Dimensions (written):

Layout

Hand(s)

Binding

History

Origin: Partially dated Tuesday, 13 Safar with the year ommited, but probably 18th century 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. F. L. Beeston, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstânî, and Pushtû Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Part III (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954), p. 17 no. 2517 [Bodleian Ms. Ind. Inst. Pers. 68].

E. Berthels, 'Nak̲h̲s̲h̲abī' Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition (Online). 2012.

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. 506–510, nos. 743–754 [British Library IO Islamic 3496, &c.]; col. 1547, no. 2851 [IO Islamic 2740].

[Rev. Benjamin Garrens, d. 1825], Tales of a Parrot: Done Into English, from a Persian Manuscript, Intitled Tooti Namêh, Vol. 1 London, Printed for the translator at the Minerva Press, 1792.

Nakhshabī, The Tootinameh: Or, Tales of a Parrot, in the Persian Language. Calcutta: Printed by A. Upjohn, 1792.

S. H. Qasemi, A Descriptive Catalogue of Persian Translations of Indian Works (New Delhi: National Mission for Manuscripts, 2014), pp. 35–44, nos. 361-545.

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 [Rylands Persian MS 987].

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1879), p. 753 [British Library Royal 16 B.XII, &c.]; 855–856 [Add. 25835/3].

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. 424, no. 444 [Bodleian Ouseley 50]. .

C. A. Storey [Online] (2021), Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. III, Pt. 3 Tales no. 692 (3).

Tawfīq Subḥānī, 'Kitāb'hā-yi khaṭṭī-i Fārsī fihrist nashudah dar Kitābkhānah Jān Rāylāndz, Manchistir' Majallah-'i Dānishkadah-i Adabiyāt va ‘Ulūm-i Insānī n.s., Vol. 1, Nos. 2-3 (1372 SH [1993 CE]): pp. 169–170, no. 10. [Rylands Persian MS 951]

M. K. Zanjani Asl, 'Naḵšabī, Żīāʾ-al-Dīn' Encyclopædia Iranica Online (2000).

Funding of Cataloguing

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library

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