Persian MS 484 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
For a hagiography of the author's father, see an untitled treatise appended to Persian MS 94, folios 145b-188a. The author previously completed another well-known Sufi poem, entitledMajmu‘ah-yi Rāz (Secret Collections) in 1030 AH (1621 CE). At the end, the author explains that it took him three years to compose this work, after which he intended to author another similar style of an account of the life of the Prophet Muḥammad; however, he did not live to accomplish that task.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 colume with 17 to 19 lines to the page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Black ink, rubrics in red; various inconsistent hands, from coarse Indian handwriting approaching a mixture of nasta‘līq and shikastah to relatively refined shikastah.
Decoration
Unfinished Headers: Blank spaces on folios 27b to 84b intended for headings left unfilled.
Marginalia Occasional notes in various hands in the margins.
Inscriptions: The first right flyleaf a side (f. ia) bears the title and author's name, likely written in the hand of :
‘مناقب مرتضوی تالیف محمد صالح حسین ترمذی در فضایل علی بن ابی صالب ۴ الخ.’ Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘’, and ‘Hamilton MSS No. 401’.
Binding
× × mm.
A rectangular, black seal impression intaglio-carved in three stacked lines of nasta‘līq with the name of royal physician to the Kings of Awadh, ‘Alī Ḥasan Khān Bahādur Masīh al-Dawlah Hakīm Mīrzā, dated 1216 AH (1801–02 CE) (also impressed in Persian MS 646).
‘ شاه علی حسن خان
مسیح الدوله حکیم میرزا
۱۲۱۶ ’
(Masīḥ al-Dawlah Ḥakīm Mīrzā Shāh ‘Alī Ḥasan Khān Bahādur, 1216).
26 × 14 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Formerly owned by royal physician to the Kings of Awadh, ‘Alī Ḥasan Khān Bahādur Masīh al-Dawlah Hakīm Mīrzā, as per his seal impressions dated 1216 AH (1801–02 CE) on folios 1b and and 291b.
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.
Bibliography
Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
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