Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Persian MS 463 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Contents

Summary of Contents: A copy of the Bahār-i Dānish (Spring of Wisdom) authored by ʻInāyat Allāh (d. ca. 1671) in 1061 AH (1651 CE) during the reign of Shāh Jahān, relates the romantic adventures of Jahāndār Sulṭān and Bahravar Bānū, which serves as a frame story interwoven with other tales. One of six copies held in the Rylands, this redaction contains a preface by the author's younger brother and pupil Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ followed by the author's own introduction in which he explains how he adapted the tale frome that he heard a young Brahmin recite. A scribe named Qutḅ al-Dīn Muftī valad-i Niẓām al-Dīn bin Muftī Nūr Allāh possibly completed this volume in the Punjab, on 25 Rabī‘ II 1256 AH (26 Jun. 1840 CE).
Scribe: Qutḅ al-Dīn Muftī valad-i Niẓām al-Dīn bin Muftī Nūr Allāh, fl. mid-18th c.
Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): فاتحه کتاب مستطاب افرینش و پیرایهٔ صحیفهٔ دانش و بینش حمد خداوند خردبخش سخن آفرین و صورت نمای معنی ایجاد و تکوین است که بر لطایف ابداع و صنایع اختراع قدرت کامله پس از ماهتاب...
Explicit: سیه کاری مکن چون خامهٔ خویش * بشو از چشم بر خون نامه‌ٔ خویش | زبان را گوشمالی خاموشی ده * که هست از هرچه کوئی خاموشی به.
Colophon: تمت الکتاب المسمی به بهار دانش بعون الملک الوهاب از دست ملا قطب الدین مفتی ولد نظام الدین بن صاحب المنقول مولوی عبد الرسول مفتی نور الله مضجعه برد الله مرقده ساکن جامع بتاریخ بیست و پنجم ربیع الثانی شد سنه ۱۲۵۶. سنة ثمان وثلاثين وتسعماية
Colophon: Completed by Qutḅ al-Dīn Muftī valad-i Niẓām al-Dīn bin Ṣāḥib al-Manqūl Mawlavī ‘Abd al-Rasūl Muftī Nūr Allāh on 25 Rabī‘ II 1256 AH (26 Jun. 1840 CE).
Language(s): Persian

S. H. Qasemi documents 244 manuscripts and printed editions of this work. C. A. Storey also notes various manuscripts and translations into English, German, French, Turkish, and Urdu. For other copies of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 88, Persian MS 199, 919, 991, and 1017. For a glossary of terms found in this work entitled Rang-i Bahār by ‘Abd al-Bāqī, see Persian MS 477.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Textblock of thin weight, combination of cross-grained, externally sized and highly polished, grayish-buff coloured paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~13 laid lines per cm and few discernible chain lines.
Dimensions (leaf): 228 × 142 mm.
Dimensions (written): 166 × 90 mm.
Foliation: Unfoliated.

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 20 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders.

Decoration


Illumination: Folio 1b bears a hastily-executed scalloped domed headpiece with palmette foliate scrollwork on a gilt ground, with an empty gilt cartouche below, all surounded by a gold margin painted with a floriate vine with red and pink blossoms.

Ruling: Aside from the opening page, ruled in gold outlined with thin black single internal and double external lines, and surrounded by comparatively thick vermilion single lines.

Additions:
Inscriptions:
  • The first right flyleaf a side (f. ia) bears the title, date, and author's name in bold nasta'īq script, likely in the hand of Muhīn Dās, an assistant to former owner Colonel George William Hamilton.
  • Folio 1a bears a pious phrase implying acquisition written underneath an immolated seal impression, unsigned, but probably by a former owner named Ṣaliḥ, as per his legible impression on 1b (no. 1):
    ⟨قی⟩المالک هو البا’
  • The final folio , by the colophon, bears an acquisition statement, in the hand of Sayyid ‘Aṭā ‘Alī as per his adjacent seal impression (no. 2), in which he declares that he paid Ḥabīb Punjābī 36 rupees for the volume on 26 May 1841 CE:
    ‘کتاب هذا از حبیب الله پنجابی بقیمت سی شیش روپیه تاریخ ۲۶، می سنه ۱۸۴۱ عیسوی’
Bookplates: The left doublure: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘1/I’, and ‘Hamilton MSS No. 380’ with the name and number crossed out and ‘Persian’ and ‘463’ written aside.

Binding

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

Resewn at two unsupported stations. Endpapers of comparatively heavy paper added at the beginning and end, then edges trimmed and twined chevron endbands worked in red and green silk threads at head and tail. Covered in full maroon goatskin leather over pasteboards, with squares at edges and defined external joints but without a flap (Type III binding per Déroche). Internal doublures lined with the same leather, their excess widths adhered as hinges connecting the textblock to the cover, with strips of paper cut with zig-zags along one edge placed over top to disguise the joins.

The spine bears an octagonal paper label with the title handwritten in nata‘līq script.

236 × 152 × 43 mm.

Handle with caution. Binding in fair but stable condition, with a large loss in the upper headcap, and very tightly bound with opening to the gutter margins restricted.

Seal(s):
Two types of black seal impressions of former owners, both intalgio carved in nasta‘līq script, both dated before completion of the manuscript.

1: Folio 1a, top-left bears an immolated oval seal impression, but likely the same as two others, one legible, on folio 1b, which bears the name of a former owner Ṣāliḥ, in a single line, double-ruled with a chevron design between, dated 1252 AH (1836–37 CE).
12 × 15 mm.

2: The final folio bears a rectangular seal impression by the colophon, with the name of former owner Sayyid ‘Aṭā ‘Alī, in two stacked lines on a floral scrollwork ground, double-ruled, dated 1253 AH (1837–38 CE).
9 × 10 mm.

History

Origin: Completed by Qutḅ al-Dīn Muftī valad-i Niẓām al-Dīn bin Muftī Nūr Allāh, fl. mid-18th c., possibly in the Punjab; 25 Rabī‘ II 1256 AH (26 Jun. 1840 CE).

Provenance and Acquisition

Formerly owned by three individuals named Ṣālih, as per his seal impressions on folios 1a–1b, another individual named Ḥabīb Punjābī named in acquisition statement by the third owner, Sayyid ‘Aṭā ‘Alī, as per his seal by the note in the colophon. The Punjabi niṣbah of Ḥabīb suggests that the scribe completed the manuscript in that region.

Subsequently acquired by Colonel George William Hamilton (1807-1868) who served in India from 1823 to 1867, intially in the Punjab where he probably obtained this volume, but then ultimately 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 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

    A. S. Bazmee Ansari, 'ʿInāyat Allāh Kanbū' Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., Vol. III (Leiden: Brill, 1971), pp. 1203–1204.
    ‘Abd al-Muqtadir, Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in the Oriental Public Library at (Bankipore) Patna, Vol. VIII (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1925), p. 182, nos. 741–742.
    A. Ashraf, A Catalogue of the Persian Books and Manuscripts in the Library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1890), p. 48, nos. E 34–36.
    M. Dirāyatī and M. Dirāyatī, Fihristgān: Nuskhahʹhā-yi Khaṭṭī-i Īrān (Fankhā) (Union catalogue of Iran manuscripts), Vol. 6 (Tehran: Sāzmān-i Asnād va Kitābkhānah-i Millī-i Jumhūrī-i Islāmī-i Īrān, 1391 S. H. [2012–13 CE]), pp. 155–158 [Mashhad Maybudī MS no. 137, &c.].
    H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office, Vol. 1 (London: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903), cols. 529–532, nos. 806–817 [British Library, IO Islamic 1408, etc.].
    M. A. Hukk, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in Edinburgh University Library (Hertford: Printed for the University of Edinburgh by S. Austin & Sons, 1925) pp. 106–107, nos. 121–122 [University of Edinburgh Or. Ms. 357].
    ʻInāyat Allāh, Tales, translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi. In two volumes. [Translated by Alexander Dow] Dublin: Printed for P. and W. Wilson, H. Saunders, W. Sleater, B. Grierson, D. Chamberlaine, J. Potts, J. Williams, and C. Ingham, 1769.
    ʻInāyat Allāh Kanbū Lāhūrī, Bahar-Danush; or, Garden of Knowledge. An Oriental Romance. Translated by Jonathan Scott. Shrewsbury: Printed by J. and W. Eddowes, 1799.
    ʻInāyat Allāh Kanbū Lāhūrī, Bahār-i Dānish. Edited by Ḥasan Z̲ū al-Faqārī and ʿAbbās Saʿīdī. Tehran: Rushdʹāvarān, 1392 SH (2013 CE)
    [Matthew Lumsden], Selections for the use of the students of the Persian Class, Vol. II: Comprising a portion of the Bahaure Daunish and the Deewaune Saudee (Calcutta: Persian Press of the College of Fort William, 1809), pp. 1–176.
    D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), pp. 203–204, no. 715(ii).
    ‘A. Nawshāhī, Fihrist-i Nuskhahā-yi Khaṭṭi-yi Fārsi-yi Pākistān (Fihrist-i 8000 nuskha-yi khaṭṭi-yi kitābkhānahā-yi shakhṣī va dawlatī), Vol. 3 (Tehran: Mīrās̱-i Maktūb, 1398 SH [2017 CE]), pp. 1529–1532.
    S. H. Qasemi, A Descriptive Catalogue of Persian Translations of Indian Works (New Delhi: National Mission for Manuscripts, 2014), pp. 189–201, nos. 1955-2203.
    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. 289–291 [Rylands Persian MS 991].
    C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), pp. 765–766 [British Library Add. 18409].
    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. 434–435, nos. 466–472 [Bodleian Ouseley 233, etc.].
    I. H. Siddiqui 'ʿEnāyat-Allāh Kanbo', Encyclopædia Iranica, Vol. VIII, Fasc. 4 (1998), pp. 429–430.
    C. A. Storey [Online] (2021), Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. III, Pt. 3 Tales no. 728.
    P.P. Subrahmanya, A descriptive catalogue of the Islamic manuscripts in the Government Oriental manuscripts library, Madras, Vol. I (Madras: Government Press, 1939), pp. 394–397, nos. 323–326
    Ḥ. Z̲ū al-Faqārī, 'Bahār-i Dānish' Dā'irat al-Ma‘ārif-i Buzurg-i Islāmī, Vol. 13 (Tehran: Dā'irat al-Ma‘ārif Buzug-i Islāmī, 1383 SH (2004-05 CE), p. 93.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute


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