Persian MS 34 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
One of ten copies of this work held in the Rylands, for others see Persian MS 14, 50, 262, 263, 288, 563, 842, 945, 946, and 1001–1003 (3 vols).
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column with 8 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq.
Decoration
Illumination: Folio 1b bears a scalloped domed headpiece with gilt palmette foliate scrollwork on an ultramarine ground and an uninscribed central cartouche, and four vertical radiating lines.
86 × 117 mm.
Illuminated verse markers in the margins indicate the start of each poem, the first 300 with Hindu-Arabic numerals.
Ruling: Folios ruled in gold outlined with thin single interior and double exterior black lines, surrounded by single red and blued lines throughout.
Marginalia: Pencilled notes in the margins appear to be in the hand of former owner Nathaniel Bland (1803-1865).
Bookplates: Left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘F/4’, and ‘Bland MSS No. 44’, with the name and number crossed out and ‘Persian’ and ‘34’ written aside.
Binding
Probably rebound in Europe uniformly with Persian MS 33 in the late 18th century CE for a former owner, possibly Count Karl Emerich Alexander Reviczky von Revisnye .
Endpapers made in Europe with ~11 laid lines per cm and 22 mm between laid lines, added at front and back, stiff-leaved with two types of European-made swirled marbled endpapers. Resewn on four cord suppports laced into pasteboards. Edges trimmed, coloured with bright red, with front-bead decorative endbands sewn in white and blue silk threads twined at head and tail. Covered in half British tan coloured calfskin with plain paper sides.
Spine decorated with 6 raised bands—two false—tooled on the bands with a floral scrollwork design, and abstract cockell shell designs for the centres and corners of each panel, then lettered
‘DIVANI
HAPHYZ. The titling, tooling at the tail of the spine, and the marbled endpapers all comport with Persian MS 33.
’
301 × 199 × 45 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition, with corners bumped, delaminating, and extensive abrasions to the spine.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Michael O'Sullivan (p. 80 n. 132) identifies Count Karl Emerich Alexander Reviczky von Revisnye (1737–1793) as a former owner of the volume, who possibly had it uniformly rebound together with Persian MS 33.
While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865) acquired the volume from an unidentified source 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, 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 2023 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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