Persian MS 995 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
عبدالله قطب شاه
The term al-Ṭufūf derives from the term the Arabic term ṭaff (riverbank), a name for the city of Karbala. For other Persian translations dated approximately a century after this manuscript, see Diryātī and Diryātī. For the seal of seal impression of ‘Abd Allāh Quṭb Shāh (b. 1614, r. 1626–1672 and his library, see Overton and Benson.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column with 12 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders and in gold for the name of the ruler, along with Arabic quotations in black naskh.
Decoration
Illumination: Folio 1b bears a scalloped domed headpiece with gilt palmette foliate scrollwork on an ultramarine ground above a cartouche bearing the title written in what may be an azurite that since shifted tones. Dome surmounted by four small and two large radiating lines.
The outer margins of folios 2a profusely decorated with floral scrollwork and foliate palemettes on the gutter margins painted in gold ink.
Ruling: text margins ruled in gold outlined with thin black single interior and double exterior lines, and surrounded by single blue lines. The margins of folios 2b onwards ruled with single lines of ultramarine blue.
Inscriptions: Folios 1a inscribed by Muḥammad Ja‘far adjacent to his seal impression, during an inventory.
Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘2/K’, and ‘Bland MSS No. 327’, with the name and number crossed out and ‘Persian’ and ‘123’ written aside.
Binding
Possibly rebound in the Deccan sometime in the 18th–19th century.
Resewn on two flat supports, possibly leather things. Edges trimmed, and endbands at head and tail, now missing. Covered in full reddish-brown goatskin leather over pasteboards, with squares along the edges, defined joints, but without a flap (Type II binding per Déroche). Doublures of comapratively coarse straw-coloured paper, with interior paper hinges connecting the cover to the textblock.
Board exteriors decorated with paper onlays featuring central rosettes, cartouches above and below, and strips with one edge serrated surring the board margins. Blind tooled with a thick single fillet lines connecting the internal decoration, repeated twice on the surrounding margins. Board interiors also bear similarly serrated blue paper margins.
Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition, with spine detached, endbands missing, extensive abrasion to the paper decoration and leather at the edges of the boards.
1. 1: Bottom, a large legible triple-lobed circular seal impression with five stacked thuluth lines with the name of ‘Abd Allāh Quṭb Shāh (b. 1614, r. 1626–1672, double-ruled, and dated 1037 AH (1628–29 CE). read from top down:
‘إنِّي عَبْدٱللّه ءَاتیني ٱلکتب * بنده شاه ولایت قطبشاه ۱۰۳۷’
(‘Innī ‘Abd Allāh 'atànī al-kitāb * bandah-'i Shāh-i Vilāyat- Quṭb Shāh 1037’, ‘Indeed, I am the servant of God ['Abd Allāh], he gave me the book * Servant of the King of Authority [i.e. ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib] Quṭ Shāh 1037’.)
40 × 29 mm.
2. 2: Middle, a partly legible seal impression bearing the name of Muḥammad Ja‘far in three stacked nasta‘līq lines, double-ruled and dated 1125 AH (1713 CE) read from bottom upwards:
‘جعفر از فضل بیشک(؟) غلام حیدر علی است ۱۱۲۵’
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Inherited by ‘Abd Allāh Quṭb Shāh (b. 1614, r. 1626–1672 upon his father's death, as per his library seal impression on folio 1a.
Subsequently transferred to, and inspected by, Muḥammad Ja‘far, as per his seal impression dated 1125 AH (1713 CE) and adjacent notation on folio 1a.
While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, University of Manchester Professor J. A. Boyle (1916–1978) subsequently acquired it from an unidentified source.
Bequeathed by J. A. Boyle to the University of Manchester, Feb. 1990
Record Sources
Bibliographical description derived from an unpublished handlist of additional Persian manuscripts.
Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2023 .
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
Soudavar Memorial Foundation and The John Rylands Research Institute
The John Rylands Research Institute and Library
The Soudavar Memorial Foundation
Please fill out your details.