Persian MS 406 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

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Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: An incomplete copy of an anonymous work entitled Tārīkh-i Pādishāhān-i ‘Ajam (History of the Emperors of Iran), an abridged history of Iran from ancient to modern times. The author apparently derived most information from the Jāmiʻ al-Tavārīkh of Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb (1247–1318).

Author: Anonymous

Bibliographic antecedent: Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb (1247–1318)

Title: Tārīkh-i Pādishāhān-i ‘Ajam

Title: تاریخ پادشاهان عجم

Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): ستایش فروان و سنایش پیکران هنرآوار بار گاه مالک مملکی است.

Explicit: برگ ۱۹۰پ (folio 190b): و اجداد چنگیز خان بواسطه خون او کین پر قال ضدیت وتزاع قائم بود لاجرم در سنه تسع و ستمایت که پانزده سال از بادشاهی چترون گذاشته بود که چنگیز خان بعزم تسخیر ممالک خطای بر نشست و...

Colophon: No colophon

Title: Preamble

Language(s): Persian

The initial portion comports with another surviving redaction held in the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS Persian 137).

Title: Chapter 1: The Ancient Persian Kings

101a

Title: Chapter 2: Ancient pre-Islamic Rulers of the Arabs, Yemen, Egypt, Chaldees, Greeks, Romans, and Jews.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of medium-weight, straight-grained, heavily flocked, sized and polished paper, primarily buff-coloured with some folios tinted and spattered with a tan colourant, probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~8 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.

Extent: 190 folios, 4 flyleaves (ff. ii + 190 + ii).

Dimensions (leaf): 276 × 157 mm.

Dimensions (written): 191 × 96 mm.

Foliation: Arabic numerals pencilled on the upper-left corners of the a sides throughout.

Collation

Primarily quaternions throughout. 23IV(184)1III(190). Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

Handle with caution, in poor condition, with extensive water and insect damage and historical repairs throughout. Corrosive verdigris copper pigment damagae in the ruling on 8b. Folio 1a fully lined when restored.

Layout

Written in 1 to 2 columns with 17 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in a clear, minute black nasta‘līq with subheaders in red.

Decoration

Illumination: Folio 1b bears a scalloped domed headpiece with gilt palmette foliate scrollwork on an ultramarine ground surmounted by vertical radiating lines.

Line Fill: All lines on folios 1b and 2a outlined with reverse cloud bands infilled with a gold wash.

Ruling: Margins of folios 8b ruled in gold outlined with thin interior single and exterior double black lines, with green interior and blue exterior single lines, thereafter with the gold replaced by yellow thereafter, surrounded red and blue single lines.

Additions:
Inscriptions:

The first right flyleaf a side (f. ia) pencilled ‘Bihamee’(?) while a Persian inscription misidentifies the work as mainly the Zubdat al-Tavaarīkh (Cream of Histories) of Faz̤l Allāh Rashīd.
The second right flyleaf a side (f. iia) bears the title of the work.

Bookplates: Left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘1/D’, and ‘Hamilton MSS No. 323’ with the name and number crossed out and ‘Persian’ and ‘406’ written aside.

Binding

Probably rebound in a hybrid British-Indian style in the Indian subcontinent for former owner Colonel George William Hamilton.

Unsupported resewing at two stations, with endpapers added of medium-weight, cross-grained heavily flocked stock, probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent, with ~10 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines. Edges trimmed and twined chevron endbands worked in green and red silk threads over round cores at head and tail. Half bound in medium brown goatskin leather over pasteboard, with block-printed gilt decorated paper sides. Internal pastedowns of the same stock as the ends, with the excess width adhered to the first and last flyleaves to connect the cover to the textblock.

Spine bears a paper label with the spine written in nasta‘līq.

289 × 166 × 40 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In fair condition, with extensive abrasion to the exterior.

History

Origin: Probably completed in the Indian subcontinent; undated, but probably 18th century.

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 selected 352, 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.

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 2022 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.

Digital Images

Manchester Digital Collections (full digital facsimile)

Bibliography

W. H. Morley, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Historical Manuscripts in the Arabic and Persian Languages (London: John W. Parker & Son, 1854), pp. 128–129, no. CXXXV [RAS Codrington/Reade No 72. Box 36].

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. I, Pt. 2 (London: Luzac & Co., 1935), , p. 242, Appendix (a) Titled Works, no. 321 (11).

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

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