Persian MS 287 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

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Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: Ṣad dar (One hundred Doors) by Īrānshāh ibn Malikshāh, in New Persian verse. Originally completed by the author in 1494 as a versified version of a well-known prose text, it contains one hundred chapters on different topics pertaining to the Zoroastrian faith. Possibly completed in Surat> for British surgeon Samuel Guise, the volume curiously omits Chapters 23 to 65, with folios 17b to 33b left blank, but then it resumes with Chapter 66 onwards, which suggests that the scribe may have copied the text from a defective manuscript.

Author: Īrānshāh ibn Malikshāh ايرانشاه بن ملكشاه

Title: Ṣad dar

Title: صد در

Incipit: (beginning) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): بنام خداوند ذات صفاست * خداوند فیض و خدای حیات.

Explicit: برگ ۵۶ر (folio 56a): بدین صد رای مرد فرخنده نام * عمل کر کنی دین یزی [یزدی؟] و سلام.

Colophon: برگ ۵۶ر (folio 56a): تمت تمام شد کار من نظام شد.

Colophon: Colophon undated and unsigned.

Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex

Extent: 57 folios (ff. i + 57 + i)

Dimensions (leaf): 199 × 119 mm.

Dimensions (written): 155 × 77 mm.

Foliation: Foliated in pencilled Arabic script numerals on the upper-left corners of the a sides when catalogued, with folio 25 duplicated.

Collation

41V+1(33)3IV-1(56). Quaternions throughout, with some repaired and replaced folios. Catchwords througout on the lower left corners of the b sides.

Condition

In good condition.

Layout

Written in 2 columns with 15 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Primarily written in a legible nasta‘līq script in black, with subheaders in red.

Replacement folios 17a–b written in a comparatively hasty nasta‘līq hand with shikastah ligatures in black.

Additions: Inscriptions:

The right pastedown bears possible bookseller's notes ‘12/-’ and ‘2/28’
The right flyleaf a side (f. ia) inscribed ‘Mr Lewin’, but not in his hand, alludes to former owner Samuel Hawtayne Lewin.
The right flyleaf b side (f. ib) bears a Latin description of the work in the hand of former owner Samuel Hawtayne Lewin, cites Hyde's Latin translation in Historia Religionis, along with other pencilled references to the same throughout the text.
Folio 1a bears several notations:
- The title ‘صددد نظم’ in Persian at top-left.
- The number ‘2’ at the top-left corner.
- Signed ‘S. H. Lewin 12/, 1828, from Dr. Guise's Collection’ by former owner Samuel Hawtayne Lewin at top-centre.
- ‘Nº 406. Sadder or 100 Doors in Modern Persian Verse’ in an unidentified hand in the centre
- A Gujarati notation in the centre reads ‘Ketāb sadar najam iāne darvājā 100 sadarnāme dasturān dastur velāetnāṃjī tasnīf kidheli’ (‘The book Ṣad Dar Naẓm [i.e., 100 doors]. The Ṣad Dar nāme was composed by the High Priest of Vilāyat [i.e., Iran].’
- ‘Nº 124 of D. Guise's catalogue. See Ouseley's Oriental Collections, Vol.’ in an unidentified hand.

Bookplates and labels

The right pastedown: ‘John Haddon Hindley’ and pasted bookseller's ticket ‘Howell and Stewart, 295 Holborn,London, successors to Ogle, Duncan, & Co.’; however, Sims-Williams, 'The Strange Story of Samuel Guise': pp. 206, 208 n48, no. 125 notes the 1828 catalogue omits this volume.
Left pastedown: ‘Bibilotheca Lindesiana’ with shelf mark ‘1/K’, and ‘Bland MSS No. 507’.

Binding

Possibly rebound for former owner Samuel Guise. Resewn on four raised cord supports, laced into the pasteboards. Covered in European-style, quarter spattered calfskin leather, tight-backed, with Stormont marbled paper sides.

204 × 124 × 15 mm.

Handle with caution. In fair condition. Top headcap on spine missing, board edges abraded, and opening to the gutter margins restricted.

History

Origin: Very likely completed in Surat; completed before 1792.

Provenance and Acquisition

Possibly acquired by Samuel Guise (1751–1811) in Surat before 1792.

After his death London auctioneers Leigh and Sotheby's sold it on 3 July 1812, where Manchester librarian John Haddon Hindley (1765-1827) purchased it for 4 shillings and sixpence.

After Hindley's death, London booksellers Howell & Stewart sold his manuscripts in 1828, from whom Samuel Hawtayne Lewin (1795-1840) evidently purchased it.

Subsequently acquired 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

Provenance description based on an an essay by Ursula Sims-Williams, 'The Strange Story of Samuel Guise: An 18th-Century Collection of Zoroastrian Manuscripts'.

Bibliographical description based on an index created by Reza Navabpour circa 1993, derived from a manuscript handlist by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s and his 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, and in consultation with both Ursula Sims-Williams, British Library, and Prof Daniel Sheffield, Princeton University, whom transliterated and translated the Gujarati inscriptions.

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

A. H. Anquetil-Duperron, Zend-Avesta, ouvrage de Zoroastre: contenant les idées théologiques, physiques & morales de ce législateur, les cérémonies du culte religieux qu'il a établi, & plusieurs traits importans relatifs à l'ancienne histoire des Perses : traduit en françois sur l'original zend, avec des remarques, & accompagné de plusieurs traités propres à éclaircir les matieres qui en sont l'objet, Vol. I Pt. 2 (Paris: N. M. Tilliard, 1771), xxxiv, no. XIII 7º.

H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office Vol. 1, (London: India Office Library, 1903), col. 1520, no. 2820 [IO Islamic 830].

S. Guise, A Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, Collected in Indoostan. By Mr. Samuel Guise, Surgeon to the General Hospital at Surat. From the Year 1777 Till 1792 ([London]: [?], 1793[?]), p. 29, no. 353.

S. Guise, A catalogue and detailed account of a very valuable and curious collection of manuscripts, collected in Hindostan, by Samuel Guise, Esq. late head surgeon to the General Hospital at Surat: including all those that were procured by Monsieur Anquetill du Perron, relative to the religion and history of the Parsis, and many which he could not procure. London: Printed by John Nichols, Red Lion Passage, Fleet Street, 1800.

S. Guise, A Catalogue and Detailed Account of the Very Valuable and Curious Collection of Manuscripts, Collected in Hindostan, Including All Those That Were Procured by Monsieur Anquetil Du Perron, Relative to the Religion and History of the Parsis; Also the Greek, Roman and Arabic Coins, in Gold, Silver and Copper, Collected at Great Expence by the Late Dr. Samuel Guise. To Which Is Added, His Library; As Also the Library of Another Gentleman: Containing a Very Good Collection of Classics and Belles Lettres; Likewise a Large Collection of Books on Chess, with Several Sets of Chessmen, Elegantly Carved in Ivory, &c. Which Will Be Sold by Auction, by Leigh and Sotheby, Booksellers, at Their House, No. 145, Strand, Opposite Catherine Street, on Friday, July 3, 1812, and Four Following Days (Sunday Excepted), at 12 O'clock. To Be Viewed to the Time of Sale, and Catalogues to Be Had at the Place of Sale. London: Leigh and Sotheby, 1812.

T. Hyde, Historia Religionis Veterum Persarum, Eorumque Magorum (Oxonii: E Theatro Sheldoniano, 1700), pp. 428–488

R. A. Nicholson, Reynold Alleyne Nicholson. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental Mss. Belonging to the Late E. G. Browne (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1932), p. 295 [CUL MS Z.1].

W. Ouseley, Oriental Collections Vol. 2, Pt. 4 (London: Printed by Cooper and Graham, 1798), p. 373.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), pp. 48–49 [BL Roy. 16 B. xv and Roy. 16 B. vii].

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. 1111, nos. 1945–1946 [Bodl. MS. Ouseley 56 and 110, no. 2].

Ursula Sims-Williams, "The Strange Story of Samuel Guise: An 18th-Century Collection of Zoroastrian Manuscripts" Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series, Vol. 19, (2005): pp. 199–209.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

Zoroastrianism--Doctrines

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