Persian MS 195 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
The text continues from the end of Volume 1 with commentary on Qur'an verse 17:79 (مقاماً محموداً).
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column with 27 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black naskh with quotations from Qur'an verses in red.
Decoration
Illumination: Folio 1b bears a recycled rectangular headpiece with uninscribed gilt central cartouche set within palmette foliate scrollwork on an ultramarine ground, with vertical radiating lines added when restored.
Ruling: Folios 1b and 2a ruled in gold outlined with thin black lines, and surrounded by another single line. The margins of folios 2b to 4b onwards ruled with double red lines surrounded by a single black line, and thereafter comparatively thin double red lines surrounded by single ultramarine lines on the original portion of the manuscript.
Marginalia: Notes in various hands in the margins throughout.
Inscriptions:
The third right flyleaf b side (f. iiib) bears the transliterated title and ‘Nº 63’ in the hand of former owner Sir Gore Ouseley, which albeit unsigned, comports with his hand as found in other volumes.
Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibilotheca Lindesiana’ with shelf mark ‘2/C’ and ‘Bland MSS No. 416’.
Binding
Probably split and uniformly rebound in two volumes in a hybrid British-Indian style, but in the Indian subcontinent for former owner Sir Gore Ouseley.
Resewn on six raised cords, with two laced into pasteboards. Endpapers medium-weight, straight-grained sized and polished straw-coloured paper, probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent added at the beginning and end, with edges trimmed, and twined chevron endbands worked over round cores at head and tail. Covered in full reverse calfskin leather over raised bands, tight-jointed, and without a flap (type III binding per Déroche).
Coated imitated boarded russia-grained paper labels applied to the spine bears a handwritten nasta‘līq title and volume number.
289 × 216 × 61 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In fair but sound condition, with the left board separating from the textblock and spine covering lifting. Some abrasion to the edges. Some folios protrude at the fore-edge.
Accompanying Material
European paper bearing a watermark dated 1830 bears a note on the volume.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The hybrid style of rebinding suggests that former owner Sir Gore Ouseley (1770–1844) probably acquired the volume in the Indian subcontinent.
Subsequently acquired by scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865) for his library at Randalls Park, Leatherhead. After his death, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in 1866, and 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, Manchester.
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.
Bibliography
Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
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