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Persian MS 151 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The second of four volumes of the Siyar al-Mutaʼakhkhirīn (Review of Modern Times), with Persian MS 150, an unrelated volume added to complete the set, but uniform with 152, and 153. The author, Ghulām Husain Khān Ṭabaṭāḅāī (b. 1727 or 8) , a son of Patna Vice-Regent Sayyid ‘Alī Khān and cousin of ‘Alīvardī Khān, Nawwab of Bengal (b. 1676 r. 1740–1756), composed this text in circa 1780–1784, and dedicated it to Governor-General of Bengal, Warren Hastings. A general history of India, it spans the death of the Mughal Emperor ‘Alamgīr I in 1707 until 1195 AH (1781 CE). Since the author relates many eyewitness accounts, historians regard it as a preeminent 18th-century source.

Author: Ghulām Ḥusayn Khān, Ṭabaṭāḅāī, b. 1727 or 8 غلام حسين بن هدايت علی خان بن السيد عليم الله بن السيد فيض الله الطباطبائی الحسينی

Title: Siyar al-mutaʼakhkhirīn

Title: سير المتأخرين

Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): سراج الدوله بعد فراغ از مراسم تعزیت بر هند ایالت جلوس نموده قلیلی از .

Explicit: برگ ۲۵۶ر (folio 256a): اسدالله خان و غیره افواج متعنیه باشد اسد الله خان و شیر علیخان و غیره افواج قطع منازل نموده بشیخ هست الیه جماعداران دیگر در میدان سوتی ملحق شوند.

Colophon: No colophon

Language(s): Persian

'Nota-Manus' (pseudonym of M. Raymond, a. k. a. Haji Mustapha, d. 1791) published an English translation of the first volume in 1789, but apparently died before completing the entire work. Colonel John Briggs (d. 1875) later revised and expanded it for the Oriental Translation Fund, published in 1832.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of paper probably handmade in India, with endleaves of the same. Laid lines ~ 1mm apart; no discernible chain lines.

Extent: 266 folios (ff. x + 266 + ii)

Dimensions (leaf): 244 × 162 mm.

Dimensions (written): 193 × 102 mm.

Foliation:

Foliated in Hindu-Arabic numerals on the upper centres of the a sides by the scribe in red ink.

Foliation:

Partly foliated in modern pencilled Arabic numerals starting with the table of contents on the upper-left corners on on the first 10 folios then every 10th folio of the a sides.

Note that this record follows the original Hindu-Arabic numerals.

Collation

catchwords thoughout on the lower left corners of the b sides.

Condition

In good condition. Bound a bit tight. White salts on the exterior leather due to prolonged exposure to moisture.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 14 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in a clear nasta‘līq hand in black with subheaders in red.

Additions:
Table of Contents: given on the fifth to tenths flyleaves (va–xa).
Bookplates: The left paste-down, ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with shelf mark ‘2/E’, and ‘Bland MSS No. 373’.

Binding

Sewn all-along on five cords frayed and put down on the second to the first and last flyleaves. Twined Islamic-style chevron endbands are missing (but present on the related volumes), edges coloured yellow. Bound in a British-Indian hybrid style, tight-backed in full red-brown goatskin leather over pasteboards without a flap (Type III binding as per Déroche), with five raised bands and uneven squares at the edges.. Internal doublures of the smooth red goatskin leather, the excess width of which is put down on the first and last flyleaves, and decorated with a strips of paper with serrated zig-zag cuts adhered over top. Titled "SEIR. AL. MÓTAKHERĪN VOL. II in gold on the spine, uniformly with the other volumes. Headcaps repaired in similar goatskin leather.

251 × 166 × 33 mm.

Good condition, although exterior scuffed.

History

Origin: Probably Northern India; late 18th-early 19th century CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

Formerly part of the collection of the Persian scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865), after whose death London antiquarian dealer 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 volume.

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

Persian MS 150 (Vol. 1)

Persian MS 152 (Vol. 3)

Persian MS 153 (Vol. 4)

A. F. L. Beeston, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstânî, and Pushtû Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Part III (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954), p. 7 no. 2471 [Bodl.. Ms. Ind. Inst. Pers. 25-26].

E. G. Browne, A Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Cambridge, (Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1896), p. 176, no. 101 [Camb. Add. 408].

H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India, As Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, Vol. VIII (London: Trübner & Co., 1877), pp. 194–198, no. CXII.

H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, Vol. I (Oxford: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903) col. 157, no. 416 [BL IO Islamic 3319].

Ghulām Muḥammad Haft Qalamī Dihlavī, Tad̲h̲kira-i-k̲h̲us̲h̲navīsān of Mawlānā G̲h̲ulām Muḥammad Dihlavī. Edited by M. Hidayet Husain. (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal) 1910), p. 74.

Gholam Hussein-Khan, The Siyar-ul-Mutakherin: A History of the Mahomedan Power in India During the Last Century. Revised translation by John Briggs. London: Oriental translation fund, 1832.

Ghulam Husain Khan, A Translation of the Sëir Mutaqherin; or View of Modern Times, Being an History of India, from the Year 1118 to Year 1194 (This Year Answers to the Christian Year 1781-82) of the Hidjrah, Containing, in General, the Reigns of the Seven Last Emperors of Hindostan, and in Particular, an Account of the English Wars in Bengal ... To Which the Author Has Added Critical Examination of the English Government and Policy in Those Countries, Down to the Year 1783. Translated by 'Nota-Manus' [pseudonym of M. Raymond, a.k.a. 'Haji Mustapha']. Calcutta: Printed by J. White, 1789.

D. S. Margoliouth, Catalogue of the Oriental Manuscripts in the Library of Eton College (Oxford: Horace Hart, Printer to the University, 1904, p. 24, no. 199 (shelf/item: 16/14) [Eton Pote 436].

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), pp. 157–158, no. 517.

W. H. Morley, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Historical Manuscripts in the Arabic and Persian Languages (London: John W. Parker & Son, 1854), pp. 105–108, nos. CV–CIII [RAS Persian 110–113].

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), p. 280 [BL Add. 6577-6578].

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. 133, no. 254 [Bodl. Ouseley 330/3].

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. 2 Pt. 3 (London: Luzac & Co., 1939), pp. 635–639.

Robert Travers, 'The connected worlds of Haji Mustapha (c. 1730–91): A Eurasian cosmopolitan in eighteenth-century Bengal, The Indian Economic & Social History Review Vol. 52, No. 3 (2015): pp. 297–333.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

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