IO Islamic 9 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

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India Office Library

Johnson Collection

Summary of Contents: An excellent old copy of the Mas̱navī-i maʿnavī by Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, containing all six daftars with their prefaces.

Author: Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī جلال الدين رومی

Title: Mas̱navī-i maʿnavī

Title: مثنوى معنوى

Incipit: (basmala) (f. 1v) هذا کتاب المثنوی المعنوی و هو اصول الدین فی کشف اسرار...

All the prefaces are complete in this copy.

Daftar 1: f. 1v; Daftar 2: f. 51v; Daftar 3: f. 96v; Daftar 4: f. 152v; Daftar 5: f. 198v; Daftar 6: f. 250v.

Occasional readings and additions occur in the margins.

Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex

Extent: ff.

Dimensions (leaf): 359 × 225 mm.

Foliation:

Foliation in Arabic numerals on recto of each leaf.

Condition

Good. Remargined throughout before 1764, the date of a former owner's acquisition note.

Layout

Written in four columns per page, 25 lines to the page.

Hand(s)

Nastaʿlīq script in black ink with headings in red.

Decoration

Each daftar and each preface is headed by an illuminated polychrome headpiece

The first two pages of each daftar are richly ornamented with text enclosed in plain cloudbands with gold infill between lines.

Polychrome textframes and outer margin throughout.

Additions:

Occasional marginal notes and various readings added.

Former owner's statement (f. 1r), written on top of the remargined folio, records that the manuscript was purchased through one ʿIbād Allāh on 7 Rabīʿ II, 1178 (4 October 1764): ...kharīd maʻrifat ʻIbād Allāh haftum Rabīʻ al-s̱ānī sanah 1178…. If this ʿIbād Allāh is the same individual whose seal dated 1188 (1774/75) appears on many of Johnson’s manuscripts, then the fol. 1r note must represent the declaration of an intermediary owner, because Johnson did not arrive in India until 1770. The 1178/1764 purchase therefore predates both Johnson’s presence in India and the 1188/1774–75 seal of ʿIbād Allāh.

Richard Johnson's diagonal accession statement (f. 1r): kitāb-i sarkār Navvāb Ṣāḥib Mumtāz al-Dawlah Mufakhkhar al-Mulk Ḥusām Jang Mistar Richārd Jānsan Ṣāḥib Bahādur dām iqbāluh.

Binding

Hybrid binding, probably dating from around 1764, in red leather, gilt, with a pale blue and silver floral central medallion and four vertically aligned pendants; no cornerpieces. The decoration is enclosed within two gilt frames ornamented with a floriate design, set inside a further rectangular gilt border.

Seal(s):

Oval East India Company Library stamp (f. 1r) : ‘E.I. Company Library’.

History

Origin: Undated copy probably dating from the 17th century CE copied most probably in ; India.

Provenance and Acquisition

At some point the manuscript was acquired by an individual named ʿIbād Allāh, who may have been responsible for its refurbishment and remargining. ʻIbād Allāh sold it to an unidentified person on 7 Rabīʿ II 1178 (4 October 1764).

Subsequently it came into the possession of Richard Johnson, who brought it back to England on his return in 1790.

The Johnson collection—comprising 64 albums of paintings and an estimated 1,000 manuscripts—was purchased by the East India Company Library for 3,000 guineas on 18 February 1807.

Record Sources

Based on H. Ethé's description in Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, vol. I (Oxford: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903), Ethé 1075. Additional information supplied by Ursula Sims-Williams with reference to the manuscript in hand.

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader’s card. See Finding and ordering Persian manuscripts in the British Library.

Funding of Cataloguing

Subjects

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