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Persian MS 3 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: A Persian translation of the ʻAjā’ib al-Makhlūqāt va Gharāʼib al-Mawjūdāt (Wonders of Creation and Oddities of Existence), Qazvīnī's famous medieval Arabic cosmography. Completed by Shūmā on 12 Ẕū-al-Ḥijjah 1041 AH (30 Jun. 1632 CE) on various tinted papers, the volume also features 355 Isfahan style illustrations.

Author and Bibliographic antecedent: Qazwīnī, Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad, ca. 1203–1283
قزوينی، زكريا بن محمد

Author and Translator: Anonymous

Scribe: Shūmā شوما

Title: ʻAjāyib al-Makhlūqāt

Title: عجايب المخلوقات

Title: عجايب المخلوقات و غرائب الموجودات

Title: ʻAjā’ib al-Makhlūqāt va Gharāʼib al-Mawjūdāt

Title: ʻAjā’ib al-Makhlūqāt wa Gharāʼib al-Mawjūdāt

Incipit: برگ ۴پ (folio 4b): العظمه لک والکبریا لجلالک اللهم یا قایم الذات ومفیض الخیرات واجب الوجود وواهب العقول وفاطر السموات والارض مبدی الحرکة والزمان و مبدع الخیر والمکان...

Explicit: برگ ۲۵۶ر (folio 256a): و آنرا آن قوم مبارک شمردندی واین کتاب حشم شد بعون الله الملک الوهاب والله اعلم بالصواب.

Colophon: برگ ۲۵۶ر (folio 256a): تحریرا فی دوازدهم شهر ذالحجه الحرام سنه ۱۰۴۱ من الهجریه النبویه صلوات الله علیه و اله و سلم. کتبه الفقیر الخقیر المذنب شما غفر له و ستر عیوبه.

Colophon: Probably completed in Isfahan by Shūmā on 12 Ẕū-al-Ḥijjah 1041 AH (30 Jun. 1632 CE).

For other copies of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 1, 2, 4, 37, and 374.

Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Text block comprised of a combination of sized and polished, straight and cross-grained paper of different weights and tints, including natural ivory, cream, coffee, straw, peach, pale green, and turquoise blue probably handmade in Greater Iran.

Extent: 256 folios

Dimensions (leaf): 342 × 178 mm.

Dimensions (written): 270 × 123 mm.

Foliation: Pencil Arabic numerals on the upper-left corners of the a sides throughout, inclusive of the first three right flyleaves, with the first folio proper numbered 4, etc.

Collation

Undetermined. Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

In fair condition, with moderate water and insect damage and historical repairs throughout.

Layout

Written in 1 column, with 21 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with subheaders in red by Shūmā.

Decoration

355 illustrations exemplify the high standard of execution of the mature 17th-century Isfahan style throughout. For a complete description of the depictions, see both Robinson and also the digital surrogate.

A delicately illuminated headpiece appears at beginning of the text on folio 4b, with the central medallion left unpainted. 129 × 123 mm.

Additions:
Inscriptions: Folio 4a bears several notations:

Top: a partially legible note by Iltifāt ‘Alī Khān an ambiguous, partially legible note mentions ‘...year one, in Bombay’ and the name of one Yār ‘Alī Khān
‘فی تاریخ ⟨نه معلوم⟩ شهر ربیع الاول سنه احد دار بمبای یار علیخان اون(؟)’
‘fī tārīkh-i ⟨obliterated⟩ shahr rabī‘ al-Avvāl sanah Aḥad Dār-i Bumbāī Yār ‘Alī Khān avan(?)’.
Underneath the seal of Iltifāt ‘Alī Khān, he declares that he purchased the volume for 250 rupees as written in Indic sīyāq numerals: ‘مالکه التفات علیخان قیمت ۲۵۰’ ‘Mālikuhu Iltifāt ‘Alīkhān qaymat 250 [rupees]’.
Bottom left: An unsigned notation dated 14 Sha‘bān 1131 AH (2 Jul. 1719 CE).
‘تاریخ چهار دهم (۱۴) شهر شعبان سنه احد شاهجهان ثانی در بلده لکهنو عرض دیده شد یوم سیه شنبه’ ‘Tārīkh-i Chahār dahum (14) shahr Sha‘bān sanah aḥad-i Shāhjahān-i Sānī dar baladuhu Lakhnaw ‘Arż dīdah shud yawm-i Sih Shanbah’.
Upper left: Note by Mu’izz al-Dawlah Bahādur Sharīf dated 23 Rabī‘ II 1168 AH (26 Jan. 1755 CE), written adjecent to his seal records receipt of the volume as a gift from Iltifāt ‘Alī Khān: ‘کتاب عجایب المخلوقات التفات علیخان به بندهٔ درگاه تواضع نموده‌اند تاریخ بیست سیم ربیع الثانی سنه احد عالمگیر ثانی ’ ‘Kitāb-i ‘Ajāyib al-Makhlūqāt-i Itlifāt ‘Alīkhān bih bandah-'i dargāh tavāżu‘ namūdahand, tārīkh-i bīst (u) siyum rabī‘ al-sānī sanah aḥad-i ‘Ālamgīr Sānī (AH 23 Rabī‘ II 1168/January 26 1755 CE).’

Bookplates:

Right doublure: ‘M: Silvestre de Sacy’ with the number ‘226’
Left doublure: ‘Bland MSS Nº. 13’.
The final right flyleaf b side (f. iiib): ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘F/3’.

Binding

Binding of shagreen leather, probably contemporary with the manuscript.

The final two left flyleaves (ff. ii–iii) of ivory-coloured paper, sized and quickly polished, with ~8 lines per cm probably added when previously restored. Subsequently resewn on four recessed cords, with 20th-c. peach-tinted machine-made laid endpapers added and the spine replaced, tight-backed, with green goatskin leather.

Boards decorated with finely gold blocked central scalloped medallions medallions (flowers) and pendants (rabbits). Internal doublures of red goatskin leather, inlaid with painted blue, green, and red recessed central medallions and detached pendants overlaid with gilt leather filigree inset flush with the surface.

342 × 196 × 45 mm.

Hand binding with cuation. In fair but sound condition; with exterior decoration abraded and losses to the interior filigree. Boxed.

Seal(s):

Folio 1a bears six black seal impressions, four obliterated and two legible, the latter both rectangular and intaglio-carved in nasta‘līq script:

1: A seal impression in two stacked lines, single-ruled, of Chief Palace Eunuch to the Begums of Awadh in Faizabad, Iltifāt ‘Alī Khān, :

11 × 15 mm. Regarding this former owner, see Fayz̤ Muḥammd Kātib Hazārah and Santha.

2: A seal impression in three stacked lines, single-ruled, of Mu’izz al-Dawlah Bahādur Sharīf dated 1126 AH (1714–15 CE):

12 × 16 mm.

History

Origin: Probably completed by Shūmā in Isfahan; 12 Ẕū-al-Ḥijjah 1041 AH (30 Jun. 1632 CE).

Provenance and Acquisition

Anonymous inscription dated 14 Sha‘ban year one of Shāh Jahān II (21 June 1719 CE) in Lucknow.

Purchased an an unknown time for 250 rupees by Chief Eunuch of the Royal Begums of Awadh in Faizabad, who would later in his career serve Treasurer to Tīmūr Shāh Durrānī (b. ca. 1742, r. 1772–1793), Iltifāt ‘Alī Khān (fl. 18th c.).

Adjacent to his seal impression, Mu’izz al-Dawlah Bahādur Sharīf that he received the volume as a gift from Iltifāt ‘Alī Khān (fl. 18th c.) on 23 Rabī‘ II, first regnal year of ‘Alamgīr II [1167 AH] (6 Feb. 1755 CE).

Subsequently acquired by orientalist Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy (1758-1838). A label affixed to the inside front cover reads: 'M: Silvestre de Sacy, 226' as well as his incription on his bookplate on folio 1a.

After de Sacy's death, presumably inherited by his son Samuel Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy (d. 1879), who sold many of his father's oriental manuscripts through Parisian booksellers Romain Merlin (1793–1871) and Grangeret de la Grange, (1790-1859) on 1843 (no. 284), where an individual named 'Moore' purchased it.

Thereafter acquired by scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865) for his library at Randalls Park, Leatherhead.

After Bland's death, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in June, 1866, paid in two instalments of £450 and £400, and then 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.

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.

Codicological description based on B.W. Robinson, Persian Paintings in the John Rylands Library: A Descriptive Catalogue (London, 1980).

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2022 with reference to the volume in hand, and in consultation with Dr. Vivek Gupta, Jesus College, University of Cambridge.

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.

A digital facsimile is available via the University of Manchester LibraryImage Collections

Custodial History

Exhibited in Gilded Word and Radiant Image, sponsored by the Altajir Trust.

Digital Images

Manchester Digital Collections (full digital facsimile).

Bibliography

I. Afshār, ʿAǰāʾeb al-Maḵlūqāt: ii Persian Works, Encyclopædia Iranica Vol. I, Fasc. 7 (1985), pp. 696–699.

M. Bayānī, and Ḥ. M. Ardakānī, Kitābshināsī-yi Kitāb'hā-yi Khaṭṭī. ([Tehran]: [Dānishgāh-i Tihrān], 1353 SH [1974 CE]), p. 39.

A. F. L. Beeston, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstânî, and Pushtû Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Part III (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954), p. 15 no. 2506 [Bodleian Ms. Pers. d. 61].

P. Berlekamp, Wonder, Image, and Cosmos in Medieval Islam. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.

C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Literatur (1892–1902) GAL I.478; GAL Supp. I. 878.

C. Brockelmann, Brockelmann in English: The History of the Arabic Written Tradition Online Translated by J. J. Witkam. (Leiden: Brill 2017), pp. 882–883, no. 12.

Fayz̤ Muḥammd Kātib Hazārah, The History of Afghanistan: Fayż Muḥammad Kātib Hazārah’s Sirāj Al-tawārīkh , Vol. 1. Translated by R. D. McChesney, and M. M. Khorrami (Leiden: Brill, 2013), pp. 59, 89–90 [ms ff. 37, 56].

R. Merlin and G. de la Grange, Bibliothèque de M. le Baron Silvestre de Sacy, Vol. III, [Appendice] 'Manuscrits' (Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1842), p. 40, no. 226.

V. Gupta, 'Remapping the World in a Fifteenth-Century Cosmography: Genres and Networks between Deccan India and Iran', Indo-Persian Manuscripts special issue of Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, Vol. 59, No. 2 (2021): pp. 151–168.

V. Gupta, 'Wonder Reoriented: Manuscripts and Experience in Islamicate Societies of South Asia (ca. 1450—1600)', PhD dissertation, SOAS University of London, 2020.

Rukn al-Dīn Humāyūnfarrukh, Rāhnimā-yi Kitāb Vol. 14, Nos. 4–6 (1350 SH [June–Sept. 1971]): p. 245.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), p. 464 British Library Add. 23564].

C. Rieu, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1894), pp. 473–474 nos. 698–699 [British Library Or. 1527 and Or. 4217].

B. W. Robinson, Persian Paintings in the John Rylands Library: A Descriptive Catalogue (London: Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications, 1980), pp. 295–330, nos. 1126–1480.

K. Rührdanz, 'Illustrated Persian ‘Ajā’ib al-Makhlūqāt Manuscripts and their Function in Early Modern Times', Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East: Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period, Edited by Andrew J. Newman (Leiden: Brill, 2003), pp. 33–47.

K. Rührdanz, 'An Ottoman Illustrated Version of al-Ṭūsī’s ‘Ajā’ib al-Makhlūqāt', Mélanges Prof. Machiel Kiel, Edited. A. Temimi et al. (Zaghouan: Fondation Temimi pour la recherche scientifique et l'information 1999), pp. 455–475.

K. Rührdanz, 'Zakariyyā al-Qazwīni on the Inhabitants of the Supralunar World: From the First Persian Version (659/1260–61) to the Second Arabic Redaction (678/1279–80)'. The Intermediate Worlds of Angels: Islamic Representations of Celestial Beings in Transcultural Contexts: Beiruter Texte Und Studien 114, edited by Sara Kuehn, Stefan Leder, and Hans-Peter Pokel (2019): pp. 384–402.

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. 399, no. 397 [Bodleian Ouseley 312].

Kidambi Srinivasa Santha, The B (Varanasi: Bharati Prakashan , 1980): 57, 304 n99.

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. II, Pt. 1 (London: Luzac & Co., 1953), p. 126.

N. Titley, Persian Miniature Painting and its Influence on the Art of Turkey and India: The British Library Collections (London: British Library, 1983), pp. 87–91, no. 238 [British Library Add. 23564].

T. Zadeh, Wonders and Rarities: The Marvelous Book That Traveled the World and Mapped the Cosmos. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

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