Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

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

Summary of Contents: This manuscript contains six poetical works, primarily the Kitāb-i Ḥaydar Bayg (Book of Ḥaydar Bayg) completed by Safavid-era courtier ‘Abd al-Mahdī bin Muḥammad, pennamed ‘Balākash’, in 1 Muḥarram 1077 AH (4 Jul. 1666 CE), which concerns the exploits of a hero during the reign of Shāh 'Abbas II (b. 1632, r. 1642–1666). It also contains the satires Qiṣṣah-'i Mūsh va Gurbah (Story of the Mouse and Cat), and Qiṣṣah-'i Sangtarāsh (Story of the Stone Cutter) attributed to ʻUbayd Zākānī (d. ca. 1370) and the Kitāb-i Ismā‘īl Qurbān (Book of Ismā‘īl Qurbān), regarding the account of the Prophet Ibrāhīm's attempt to sacrifice his son Ismā'īl by Kamāl al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan Fārisī, (fl. ca. 1300). The volume ends with a brief, anonymous ghazal lyric poem followed by Ta‘ziyat (Eulogies) by late Safavid-era poet Muḥammad Shaykhā Muqbil Iṣfahānī (d. ca. 1744). A Zoroastrian émigré from India named Bahman son of Bahman son of Isfandiyar (d. 1788) copied this volume for Sir William Jones (1746–1794), with whom he lived in Calcutta for three years.

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.

1. Folios 1b–55b
Incipit: (beginning) برگ ۱پ (Folio 1b): بنام ایزد بخشایندهٔ بخشایشگر مهربان کتاب حیدر بگ. الا ای طوطی نطق شکر خای * بزندان قفس تا کی کنی جای.
Explicit: برگ ۵۵پ (Folio 55b): هزاران درود و هزاران سلام * زما باد بر روی نیکان پیام.
Colophon: No colophon
Language(s): Persian

References

E. Sachau and H. Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), col. 744, no. 1219(2) [Bodleian Ouseley 152 (no. 4)].
C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. 3 (2021), No. 809 (23).
2. Folios 56a–60b
Incipit: (beginning) برگ ۵۶ر (Folio 56a): ای خردمند عاقل ودانا * قصۀ موش وگربه برخانا
Explicit: برگ ۶۰پ (Folio 60b): هست این قصۀ عجیب وغریب * یادگار عبید زاکانا
Colophon: No colophon.
Language(s): Persian

For other illustrated copies of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 30 and 40.

References

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. 744–745, nos. 797, 799 [Bodleian Ouseley 152 (no. 1), Ouseley 87].
C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. 3 (2021), No. 693 (8).
3. Folios 60b–64b
Incipit: (beginning) برگ ۶۰پ (Folio 60b): سنگ تراشي بود اندر کوه تور * سنگ تراشیدي و گفتي یا غفور
Explicit: برگ ۶۴پ (Folio 64b): چونکه راضي شد ز موسی پادشاه * بعد از آن راضي شد آنمرد خدا
Colophon: No colophon.
Language(s): Persian

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

E. Sachau and H. Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), col. 744, no. 798 [Bodleian Ouseley 152 (no. 3)].
C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. 3 (2021), No. 693 (17).
4. Folios 65a–73a
Incipit: (beginning) برگ ۶۵ر (Folio 65a): بنام پادشاه فرد اعظم * کریم خالق داناي عالم
Explicit: برگ ۷۳ر (Folio 73a): کمال فارسي او نیک محضر * بنظم آورد او پاکیزه گوهر
Colophon: No colophon.
Language(s): Persian

Sachau and Ethé describe this poem as 'recited at Easter'; however, they omit the confession of the reciters.

References

E. Sachau and H. Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), col. 744, no. 1219(1) [Bodleian Ouseley 152 (no. 3)].
C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. 3 (2021), No. 809 [Appendix] (246).
5. Folios 73a–73b
Author: Anonymous
Title: Ghazal
Title: غزل
Incipit: (beginning) برگ ۷۳ر (Folio 73a): کسی کز جان خریدار تو باشد * چرا ای گل چنین خار تو باشد؟
Explicit: برگ ۷۳پ (Folio 73b): نگاه قطره بر مژگان چو قطره * ستاده بهر دیدار تو باشد
Colophon: No colophon.
Language(s): Persian
6. Folios 73b–87b
Title: Ta‘ziyat
Title: تعزیت
Title: Vaqi‘at
Incipit: (beginning) برگ ۷۳پ (Folio 73b): روایت است که چون گشت عازم میدان * به آرزو شهادت امام تشنه لبان
Explicit: برگ ۸۶پ (Folio 86b): چو مقبول تو‌ام از لطف خاص و دعامم کن * ز ورطه‌‌ٔ که دران مانده‌ام خلاصم کن.
Colophon: No colophon.
Language(s): Persian

References

S. A. A. Mirbāqirīfard and Aḥmad Āṣaf 'Vāqi‘a va Muqbil-i Iṣfahānī'. Matn Pazhūhī-i Adabī Vol. 18, No. 62 (1393 SH (2015 CE)): pp. 41–57.
C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), p. 740 [British Library Add. 24987/13].
E. Sachau and H. Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), col. 744, no. 1218 [Bodleian Ouseley 152 (no. 2)].

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Textblock of cross-grained, ivory-coloured paper handmade in Great Britain with 9 laid lines per cm and 24 mm between chain lines, watermarked with a crest bearing a powder horn with the initials ‘GR’ underneath. Endpapers of the same stock, hence prepared with the volume.
Extent: 88 folios, 2 flyleaves (ff. 88 + ii).
Dimensions (leaf): 227 × 181 mm.
Dimensions (written): 160 × 113 mm.
Foliation: Hindu-Arabic numerals marked on the upper-left corners of the a sides of every 10th page.
Foliation: Pencilled Arabic numerals on the upper-left corners of the a sides on every ten folios and the start of various works, which commence on 1Aa and omit 10a, hence thereafter over by one from the Hindu–Arabic numerals, and under by two overall.

Collation

Undetermined, but primarily quaternions throughout. Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

In fair condition, with moderate water and insect damage and historical repairs throughout.

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).

Additions:
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.
Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘2/I’, and ‘Bland MSS No. 355’ with the name and number crossed out and ‘Persian’ and ‘133’ written aside.

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

Origin: Completed by Bahman, son of Bahman, son of Isfandiyar (d. 1788) for Sir William Jones (1746–1794) in Calcutta (Kolkata); undated, but between 1785 and 1788.

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

    Mr. [R. H.] Evans, Catalogue of the Library of the Late Sir William Jones, Judge of the Supreme Court of Bengal, and President of the Asiatic Society : with the Books Added Subsequently to His Death, by His Widow, Lady Jones... London: Mr. Evans, 1831.
    J. Lawrence, 'Building a Library: The Arabic and Persian Manuscript Collection of Sir William Jones', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan. 2021): pp. 1–70.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute


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