Persian MS 199 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
محمد حسین غوری بنی هاشمی القریسی
S. H. Qasemi documents 244 manuscripts and printed editions of this work. C. A. Storey also notes various manuscripts and translations into English, German, French, Turkish, and Urdu. For other copies of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 88, 463, 919, 991, and 1017. For a glossary of terms found in this work entitled Rang-i Bahār by ‘Abd al-Bāqī, see Persian MS 477.
Henry John Chandler's life and career remain understudied, but he was born in ca. 1854 to John Chandler of Old Jewry, London. He was admitted to the Bengal Civil Service in 1771 then arrived in Bengal on 30 Jul 1772. He first served as an Assistant at Cossimbazar in 1772 until 1774, then appointed Persian Translator at Murshidabad, Bengal in 1774 until 1775, at which time he likely commissioned this volume. He subsequently served as Assistant to the President of the Board of Trade in 1775–1776, Assistant to the Resident of Oudh (Awadh)in 1776–1777, then ulitmately a Factor with the same duties (presumably also in Awadh) 1777–1779, after which he resigned his post and returned to Britain in 1780. He also commissioned at least one other manuscript, India Office Islamic 1503 and 1650, see Ethé Catalogue nos. 2476–2477.
British Library, India Office Records, IOR/J/1/8/358 (appointment as Writer) and IOR/O/6/22 (career summary). K. D. Bhargava, Indian Records Series (Fort William India House Correspondence), Vol. 6 (Delhi: National Archives of India, 1960), p. 137 no. 18. (Appointment as a Writer in 1772) H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office, Vol. 1 (London: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903), col. 1342, nos. 2476–2477 [British Library, IO Islamic 1650 and 1503.]. Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts: Selections from the Art and History Trust Collection (New York: Rizzoli, 1992), p. 409, no. 180a. (Chandler's Persian seal matrix dated 1777)Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column with 15 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders by Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ghūrī Banī Hāshimī al-Qurayshī.
Inscriptions:
- The first right flyleaf a side (f. ia) bears the title in Persian and Latin script in the centre, the numbers ‘21’ and ‘2766’an accession notation in Persian by patron Henry John Chandler (fl. ca. 1767–1779), dated 14 Aug. 1785
: ‘ هنرى جان چاندلر درگیرپای سکونت داشته بود سنه خریت یک هزار و هفت و صد و هفتاد و پنچ روز چهاردهم ماه آگست’. - The second right flyleaf a side (f. iia): ‘Nº 21’ at top-right with a pale, pencilled list of various titles in Persian and what may be prices paid for them aside.
- The second right flyleaf b side (f. iib)a brief glossary pale, pencilled list of various titles in Persian and what may be prices paid for them aside.
- The final left flyleaf a side (f. iia) ‘2700’.
Binding
Probably bound for the patron of the volume, Henry John Chandler, possibly in Lucknow during his tenure as an assistant to the Resident there.
Sewn all-along on two flat supports, probably leather thongs, without gaps in the thread. Endpapers of similar stock added at the beginning and end. Edges trimmed, and twined chevron endbands worked in yellow silk and silver threads over round cord or leather cores with bevelled ends. Covered in full crimson goatskin leather over pasteboards, tight-backed, without a flap, cut nearly flush with the edges, with defined exterior joints (Type III binding per Déroche). Interior doublures lined in the same leather, the excess width adhered to the first and last flyleaves as hinges connecting the textblock to the cover, with strips of paper adhered over top to disguise the joins.
Spine decorated with four raised bands, two sewing supports with false bands added at head and tail. Green goatskin leather onlays adhered to the top, middle, and bottom panels. All panels and band edges painted with gold checkerboard designs, save for the middle one, which features a nine quatrefoils. Boards margins decorated with a wide band of painted gold ruling, subsequently repeately punched with insular dots, with thin single lines painted on either side, and perpendicular radiating lines on the inside. Board edges also painted with gold quatrefoils. Title written on the head and tail edges of the textblock
167 × 118 × 48 mm.
Binding in fair but stable condition, with upper corner of the right board chewed away by rodents.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
After Chandler's death, likely inherited by his son Rev. George Chandler (ca. 1779–1859), who then likely sold it.
Subsequently acquired scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865) from an unidentified source. After his death, London bookseller 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, concisely published as Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.
Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2023 with reference to the volume in hand, and in consulation with Karen Stapely, British Library, regarding Chandler's life and career.
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
Please fill out your details.