Persian MS 106 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The Ḥadīqat al-Ḥaqīqah va Sharī‘at al-Ṭarīqah (Garden of Truth and Rules of the Way) by Abū al-Majd Majdūd ibn Ādam Sanāʼī al-Ghaznavī (d. ca. 1150), known as 'Ḥakīm Sanāʼī'. The style of the work tremendously impacted later poets, especially Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī. This incomplete manuscript lacks the final folio an omits an introduction by the compiler, Muḥammad ibn ʻAlī al-Raffāʻ, found in other volumes.

Author: Sanāʼī al-Ghaznavī, Abū al-Majd Majdūd ibn Ādam, d. ca. 1150
سنايى غزنوى، ابو المجد مجدود ابن آدم

Title: Ḥadīqat al-Ḥaqīqah

Title: حديقة الحقيقة

Incipit: (beginning) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): ای درون پرور برون آرای * وی خردبخش بی‌خرد بخشاى.

Explicit: برگ ۳۶۴ر (folio 364a): صدهزاران ثنا چو آب زلال * از رهی باد بر محمد و آل.

Colophon: ‌No colophon

For the earliest full version of Ḥadīqat al-Ḥaqīqah known to survive, see Rylands Persian MS 843, as well as two others, Persian MS 12 and 13.

Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of tan-coloured paper, probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent, with ~1.5 mm between laid lines and no discernible chain lines.

Extent: 383 folios, 4 flyleaves (ii + 383 + ii).

Dimensions (leaf): 212 × 112 mm.

Dimensions (written): 146 × 70 mm.

Foliation: Foliated in pencilled Arabic numerals on the upper-left corners of the a sides when catalogued.

Collation

Undetermined. Catchwords throughout on the lower left corners of the b sides.

Condition

Extensive water stains along the edges and cockelling throughout, with historical repairs at the beginning and end.

Layout

Written in two columns with 17 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in black nasta‘līq script with red subheaders.

Decoration

Headpiece: Folio 1b. Other blank gaps throughout seem intended for illumination or decoration, albeit never completed.

Ruling: Margins framed by double red lines surrounded by single blue lines throughout.

Additions:
Marginalia: Occasional notes in black nasta‘līq script.
Inscriptions:

Second right flyleaf a side (f.ia) probably illegibly signed by unidentified former owner in pencil, obscured by the title and author of the work written in Persian in black ink, adjacent to a sale number ‘5206’, a price of ‘£2.10.0.’, and a note ‘See Stewart & Ouseley or [?] Cat.’
Second to last right flyleaf b side (f. iiib) bears the number ‘53907’.

Sketch: Folio 1abears an incomplete sketch of person wearing a turban and sarpīch in profile.
Bookplates: Left paste-down: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with shelfmark ‘2/J’, ‘Bland MSS No. 328’.

Binding

Bound in a British-Indian hydrid style. Sewn at two stations on cord supports, adhered to the inside of the boards. Edges trimmed, with twined chevron endbands in red and white silk at head and tail. Covered in full maroon goatskin leather, tight backed, with squares at the edges and defined joints, but without a flap (Type III binding per Déroche). Subsequently restored with European laid endpapers and the spine rebacked in medium brown goatskin leather, with headcaps at head and tail.

Boards decorated with blocked paper onlays (possibly white or abraded pale blue) central mandorlas, detached pendants, and corners, all outlined and connected by single lines and interstitial flourishes bounded by radiating darts all in white. Boards margins ruled with a wide white line with comparatively thin double lines on either side, with the inner line connecting the corners.

220 × 122 × 20 mm.

Binding in fair condition, with abrasion to the spine and headcaps and bumped upper corners, with areas of the gilt edge blocked in the gutter margins.

History

Origin: Probably completed in the Indian subcontinent; undated, but possibly 18th century.

Provenance and Acquisition

Formerly part of the collection of scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803-1865), after whose death London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in 1866.

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.

Record Sources

Bibliographical description based on an index created by Reza Navabpour circa 1993, derived from a manuscript catalogue by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s and his Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2021 with reference to the manuscript.

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

François de Blois, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. V, Pt. 2 (London, Luzac, 1994), pp. 522–530.

J. T. P. de Bruijn, Of Piety and Poetry: The Interaction of Religion and Literature in the Life and Works of Ḥakīm Sanā'ī of Ghazna. Leiden:Brill, 1983.

J. T. P. de Bruijn, 'Ḥadīqat aL-Ḥaqīqah wa Šarīʿat al-Ṭarīqah', Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XI, Fasc. 4 (2003), pp. 441–442.

G. Ouseley, Biographical notices of Persian poets; with critical and explanatory remarks... (London: Oriental Translation Fund, 1846), pp. 184–187.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), pp. 549b–551a [BL Add. 16777–16778, Add. 25329, 26150, and Or. 358,].

E. Sachau and H. Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Vol I. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), cols. 463–467, no. 528–535 [Bodl. Elliott 151–154, Ouseley 315, Ouseley Add. 37 and 88].

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

Comments

Comment on this record