Persian MS 178 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
Physical Description
Modern foliation marked at top-right corners of the a sides in pencilled Arabic numerals.
Collation
Condition
Hand(s)
Written primarily in a clear naskh hand tending towards nasta‘līq in black, with subheaders in red, by Ḥusayn ibn Hasan.
missing portions and infilles written primarily in a hasty nasta‘līq script shikastah ligatures in black, apparently by the same hand that completed Persian MS 173.
Binding
Probably bound in the Indian subcontinent in a European-style full light brown goatskin leather over pasteboards, with seven bands (four false) on the spine, and squares along the edges, in a completely different manner than other volumes in the set. Marbled endpapers and flyleaves watermarked with a large crest and countermarked with the name of George Smidts. Decorative single-core endbands at head and tail sewn in yellow and green silk. Paper label on the spine bears the title of the volume in Persian.
324 × 222 × 42 mm.
Handle with caution. In fair condition, with with the exterior binding joints breaking and significant abrasion to the surface, and dry-rot. Boxed.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Likely completed for, or obtained by Jonathan Duncan, who governed the Bombay Presidency for sixteen years.
After Duncan's death, his family sold his library through the London firm of Samuel Leigh Sotheby (1805–1861) where Sir Graves Champney Haughton (1788–1849), an early student at Fort William College who excelled in the study of several oriental languages, purchased it as per his inscription on folio 1b dated Feb. 1818.
Later owned by 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.
Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
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