Persian MS 398 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The first of two volumes of the Ḥabīb al-Siyar (Beloved of Biographies), uniformly bound with Persian MS 399. Originally completed in 937 AH (1530–1531 CE) by Ghiyās̲ al-Dīn ibn Humām al-Dīn (ca. 1475–1535) known as Khvāndamīr (1487–1524 CE), a maternal grandson of Timurid-era historian Mīrkhvānd (1433–1498), he presents a general history spanning the pre-Islamic period until the reign of Shāh Ismāʿīl I, which dedicates to then-governor of Herat, Karīm al-Din Khvājah Ḥabīb-Allāh Sāvajī (fl. early-mid 16th c.), hence the title. The entire work consists of a preface, an introduction, followed by three volumes, containing four sections each appended with lists of names of prominent figures associated with specific periods, followed by an epilogue. This first volume, completed by ‘Abd al-Ghafūr valad-i Qāz̤ī Muḥammad Ja‘far in Jalalpore 17 Ẕū -al-Qa‘dah 1146 AH (21 Apri. 1733 CE), covers the early Islamic period.

Author: Khvānd Mīr, Ghiyās̲ al-Dīn ibn Humām al-Dīn, ca. 1475-1535?
خواند مير، غياث الدين بن همام الدين
Khvāndamīr
خواندمير

Title: Ḥabīb al-Siyar

Title: حبيب السير

Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): لطایف اخبار لآلی نشار انبیاء عالیمقرار شرایف آثار یعانی رثار(؟) سلاطین ذو الاقتدار جمید الاثر...

Explicit: برگ ۲۳۳ر (folio 233a): کو هیج ذکر مناثین(؟) چون مست غمت * چون هست غمت ذکر چه غم دارم من.

Colophon: برگ ۲۳۳ر (folio 233a): تمام شد مجلد اول کتاب حبیب السیر فلله الحمد و المنت. تمام شد بعون الله الملک الحي القیوم جلد اول جبیب السیر تباریخ هفدهم روز جمعه شهر ذو القعده سنه ۱۱۴۶. کاتب الخروف فقیر حقیر اضعف العباد عبد الغفور ولد مرحم مغفور قاضی محمد جعفر ساکنا جلالپوری سرکار بهگر

Colophon: Completed by ‘Abd al-Ghafūr valad-i Qāz̤ī Muḥammad Ja‘far in Jalalpore 17 Ẕū -al-Qa‘dah 1146 AH (21 Apri. 1733 CE).

Language(s): Persian

For other copies of this work held in the Rylands see, Persian MS 165, 809, 810, 811 (3 vols), 815, 816, (3 vols. bound in 2), 971, and 972, as well as 973, and 974 (2 vols). For a full analysis, see Bockholt. For English translations of select extracts by Henry Lushington, see Elliot and Dowson.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of heavy-weight, cross-grained, heavily flocked, buff-coloured, sized and polished paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~5 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.

Extent: 461 folios, 7 flyleaves (ff. v + 461 + ii).

Dimensions (leaf): 321 × 210 mm.

Dimensions (written): 244 × 122 mm.

Foliation: Foliated in black Hindu-Arabic numerals on the upper-left corners of the a sides throughout.

Foliation: Pencilled Arabic numerals on the initial flyleaves.

Collation

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

Condition

In good condition, with moderate water historical repairs at the beginning and end.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 23 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders by ‘Abd al-Ghafūr valad-i Qāz̤ī Muḥammad Ja‘far.

Additions:
Table of Contents: written in another hand on the third right flyleaf b side to fifth a side (ff. iiib–va).
Inscriptions:

The second right flyleaf a side (f. iia) bears the name of the title and author, likely in the hand of Muhīn Dās, and assistant to former owner Colonel George William Hamilton.

Bookplates: Left doublure: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with shelfmark ‘1/B’, ‘Hamilton MSS No. 315’.

Binding

Probably rebound in a hybrid British-Indian style in Multan for former owner Colonel George William Hamilton between 1850 and 1863, since it comports with others rebound for him at that time.

Sewn two stations, unsupported, with edges trimmed and Islamic-style twined chevron endbands in green and red silk threads at head and tail. Covered in full, tight-backed polished red goatskin leather over pasteboards, with squares at the edges, and defined joints, but without a flap (type III binding per Déroche). Internal doublures of the same leather, with the excess width adhered to the first and last flyleaves, with strips of paper applied over top to disguise the overlaps.

Board margins ruled with double yellow lines. Spine titled in handwritten yellow nasta‘līq.

335 × 228 × 77 mm.

In good condition. Some whitened salts on the interior

History

Origin: Completed by Completed by ‘Abd al-Ghafūr valad-i Qāz̤ī Muḥammad Ja‘far in Jalalpore; 17 Ẕū-al-Qa‘dah 1146 AH (21 Apri. 1733 CE).

Provenance and Acquisition

Subsequently acquired by Colonel George William Hamilton (1807-1868) who served in India from 1823 to 1867, latterly as Commissioner in Delhi. He acquired over a thousand Indian and Persian manuscripts, from which the British Museum purchased 352 from his widow, Charlotte Logie Hamilton (1817–1893), now held in the British Library.

Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) purchased the remainder of Hamilton's collection in 1868.

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.

Record subsequently augmented and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2022 with reference to the manuscript 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

S. Bashir, 'A Perso-Islamic Universal Chronicle in Its Historical Context: Ghiyas al-Din Khwandamir's Habib al-siyar', in History and Religion: Narrating a Religious Past, edited by J. Rüpke, S. Rau, and B. C. Otto (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015) pp. 207–223.

P. Bockholt, Ein Bestseller der islamischen Vormoderne Zur Verbreitung von Ḫvāndamīrs Ḥabīb as-siyar von Anatolien bis auf den indischen Subkontinent (Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2022), pp. 127, tbl. 5, no. 130; Appendix, pp. 252–255.

P. Bockholt, ‘Khvāndamīr’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE (2020).

H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India, As Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, Vol. IV (London: Trübner & Co., 1872), pp. 154–212, no. XXVI (with translated excerpts contributed by Henry Lushington.

H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office, Vol. I (London: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903), cols. 25–30, nos. 79–99 [British Library IO Islamic 1788, &c.].

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), pp. 261–262, no. 923(ii).

S. Rafiee-Rad, 'Persian Manuscripts in Samuel Robinson’s Collection in The John Rylands Library', Manuscripta: A Journal for Manuscript Research, Vol. 61, No. 2 (2017): pp. 253–256 [Rylands Persian MS 971–974].

F. Richard, 'Jean-Baptiste Gentil, collectionneur de manuscrits persans', Dix-Huitième Siècle, No. 28 (1996): pp. 91–110.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), pp. 98–102 [British Library Add. 23508, &c.].

E. Sachau and H. Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), cols. 33–38, nos. 70–82 [Bodleian MS. Elliot 142].

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. 1 Pt. 1 (London: Luzac & Co., 1927), pp. 101–102, 104–109, no. 125 (3).

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

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