Persian MS 133 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Six Persian poems copied by Bahman, son of Bahman, son of Isfandiyar (d. 1788) for Sir William Jones (1746–1794).
Contents
Bodleian MS Ouseley 152 holds many of the same works, albeit rearranged. See Sachau and Ethé catalogue. For other volumes that Jones owned now held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 10, 187 (to which the present manuscript closely resembles), 192, 219, 240, 267, and 340. For more on his collection overall, see Lawrence.
References
For other illustrated copies of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 30 and 40.
References
A second inauthentic incipit appears above the first line, written in Persian by Jones:
مالک الملکی و دانای کبیر * واقف اسرار استاد ضمیر. While others attribute this work to ‘Ubayd Zākānī, this manuscript misattributes it to Bahman Balākash
References
Sachau and Ethé describe this poem as 'recited at Easter'; however, they omit the confession of the reciters.
References
References
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 2 columns with 8 lines per page. Unruled.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq by Bahman son of Bahman son of Isfandiyar (d. 1788).
Marginalia: Many notes, amendments, and comments written by Sir William Jones.
Inscriptions:
- The right flyleaf b side (f. ib) bears a note by Jones:
‘21 Jan. 1790
agreed with Aâzzu‘ddīn to copy a Mesnavī at 25 S.R. a month’ (probably pertains to British Library, RSPA 35-40. See Lawrence, 'Building a Library', pp. 47–48). - Folio 1a signed ‘SH Lewin from Sir Wm Jones's Collection 1831’ by former owner Samuel Hawtayne Lewin.
Binding
Bound in a late-18th century European style binding, possibly for Jones.
Sewn on five cords, with three laced into the pasteboards. Endpapers of similar stock added and the edges trimmed, the head gilded, and decorative front-bead endbands sewn at head and tail in red and white silk threads. Covered in full diced Russia calfskin leather, with five raised bands.
Spine panels palleted with thick, vertical dash lines with thin solid lines either side, floral garlands in the centres, and quintafoil rosette corners, and the title panel left blank. Board margins bear decorative rope designs, outlined with single fillets on either side, with thick-and-thin diagonal lines on the board edges.
233 × 191 × 29 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In fair condition, with joints cracked, headcaps missing, endbands broken, and corners bumped. Boxed.
Accompanying Material
Between folios 81b to 82a, Loose_leaf_1a, a copperplate-engraved portrait of English theologian John Wycliffe (d. 1384) while the reverse, bears pencilled algebraic notations, evidently used as a bookmark.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
After Jones death, his wife Lady Anna Maria Jones (1748–1829) inherited the volume. While this volume neither explicitly appears in Jones' library catalogue, bookseller John George Cochrane (1781–1852) probably acquired it from that sale on behalf of Chancery Court Clerk and Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society Samuel Hawtayne Lewin (1795–1840), for whom he evidently also obtained other ex-Jones volumes (e.g. Rylands Persian MS 187 and 240; see Lawrence, 'Building a Library', p. 34).
After Lewin's death, his family evidently sold his manuscripts, largely then obtained by scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865) for his library at Randalls Park, Leatherhead.
After Bland's death, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in June, 1866, paid in two instalments of £450 and £400, and then moved to Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh Hall, Wigan.
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, concisely published as Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.
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.
Digital Images
Manchester Digital Collections (full digital facsimile)
Bibliography
Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
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