Persian MS 281 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The Dīvān of poet Ḥaydar Haravī (d. 1552), popularly known as Kulūch (Biscuit) or Kulūchah-Paz on account of his profession as a biscuit-baker and merchant. Originally from Herat, his trade took him to India. Despite the poet's contemporary, Timurid vizier Mīr ‘Alī Shīr Navā'ī description of him in the Majālis al-Nafā'is (Assemblies of Elegancies) as illiterate and of modest talent, an opinion repatedly cited by subsequent authors, his works have only very recently received critical scholarly attention.

Author: Ḥaydar Haravī, d. 1552 دیوان حیدر هروی Ḥaydar Kulūchah-paz حیدر کلوچه پز Ḥaydar Kulūchah حیدر کلوچه

Title: Dīvān-i Ḥaydar Haravī

Title: دیوان حیدر هروی

Title: Dīvān-i Ḥaydar Kulūchah-paz

Title: دیوان حیدر کلوچه پز

Incipit: برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): بیا رب یا ربم تا روز بی ماه رخت شبها.

Explicit: برگ ۸۹پ (folio 89b): تمت الکتاب بعون الله وحسن توفیقه

Colophon: No colophon.

Language(s): Persian

Ḥamīd Riz̤ā Ṭahmāsbī recently-published a critical edition of this Divan.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of cross-grained, ivory-coloured paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent

Extent: 89 folios, 9 flyleaves (ff. vi + 89 + iii).

Dimensions (leaf): 190 × 125 mm.

Dimensions (written):

Condition

Handle text with caution. In fair condition, with stains and discolouration, and some folios torn.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 12 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq.

Additions:
Inscription: Folio 1a bears a note, possibly for the sale of the volume, dated 5 Jumādā II 1219 AH (11 Sep. 1804 CE)
Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with shelfmark ‘2/K’, and ‘Bland MSS No. 501’.

Binding

Spine and board edges hemmed in and faced with marbled paper. Spine titled ‘Diwan Heidar’ in Latin script.

History

Origin: Possibly completed in Greater Iran> Undated, but possibly 18th century.

Provenance and Acquisition

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 James White in 2018 with reference to the volume in hand.

Subsequently augmented and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2022 with reference to the volume in hand.

Availability

The mansucript is available for consultation by any accredited reader, see Becoming a Reader for details. Please contact uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk for further information on the availability of this manuscript.

Bibliography

Ḥaydar Haravī, Dīvān-i ashʻār-i Ḥaydar-i Haravī-i Kulūch: shāʻir-i qarn-i dahum. Edited by Ḥamīd Riz̤ā Ṭahmāsbī. Tehran: Manshūr-i Samīr, 1397 SH (2018–19 CE).

Ali Muhaddis, Fifteen Literary - Mystical Poems: In Persian and Arabic. PhD Dissertation. (Upsalla: Uppsala University Publications, 2005) pp. 11–12, 126–143 [selections from Uppsala University Library O Nov-389].

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), p. 736a [BL Or. 7796].

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

Persian poetry

Comments

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