Persian MS 998 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Fourteen documents and detached folios, mostly Persian, including several presented to Colonel George William Hamilton upon his appointment as Commissioner of Delhi in 1862 and several years thereafter.
Contents
Physical Description
14 separate items.
Binding
Condition
History
Provenance and Acquisition
He acquired over a thousand Indian and Persian manuscripts, from which the British Museum selected 352, now held in the British Library.
Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) purchased the remainder of Hamilton's collection in 1868.
Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913).
Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1908 to the John Rylands Library, Manchester.
Persian MS 998A
Contents
Physical Description
Persian MS 998B
Contents
Poem in praise of George William Hamilton on Nawrūz
Physical Description
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column with 20 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders by Mawlavī Ẓuhūrī ‘Alī.
Persian MS 998C
Contents
Poem
Physical Description
Condition
Layout
Written in 4 columns with variant lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders by Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥamīd ‘Alī Muz̤ṭar.
Persian MS 998D
Contents
Physical Description
Persian MS 998E
Contents
A detached bifolium bearing an unsigned and undated Arabic prose lexicographical excerpt.
Physical Description
Persian MS 998F
Contents
Physical Description
Persian MS 998G
Contents
Fifty-one Rekhta couplets by Sirāj al-Shu‘arā.
Physical Description
Persian MS 998H
Contents
Physical Description
‘John Miller
Extra Super
Glasgow
1860’
72 × 137 mm. .
Persian MS 998I
Contents
Physical Description
A blind embossed, partly legible paper mill impression appears on the lower-left corner of the letter, bears the crest and name of the ‘Angoulème Mill’
22 × 14 mm.
Persian MS 998J
Contents
The same scribe also completed Persian MS 649 for George William Hamilton .
Physical Description
Persian MS 998K
Contents
Physical Description
A blind embossed, partly legible paper mill impression appears on the lower-left corner of the letter, bears the crest and name of the ‘Angoulème Mill’
22 × 14 mm.
Persian MS 998L
Contents
Physical Description
Decoration
Headpiece: An illuminated header appears a folio 1b
Folio 1a, bears a small black square seal impression intaglio-carved in two nasta‘līq lines, double-ruled, of a former owner or associate named Badr al-Dīn
‘بدر الدین خادم العلماء’
13 × 13 mm.
Persian MS 998M
Contents
Unsigned Persian poem
Physical Description
Persian MS 998N
Contents
Physical Description
Britannia Watermark:
135 × 72 mm.
Countermark: ‘Stone & Co.
1862’
72 × 145 mm. .
Additional Information
Record Sources
Bibliographical description based on an index created by Reza Navabpour circa 1993, derived from a manuscript catalogue by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s, concisely published as Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.
Preliminary description by Jan Schmidt, A Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the John Rylands University Library at Manchester, 2011.
by Jake Benson in 2024 with reference to the items 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.
Funding of Cataloguing
The John Rylands Research Institute and Library
The Soudavar Memorial Foundation
Please fill out your details.