Persian MS 489 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
The incipit in this manuscript slightly varies from most other versions, which open with:
الحمد لله فالق الحب والنواي...
(Praise be to God who sprouts the seeds and date-stones), a reference to Qur'ān 6:95, Surah al-An'am (Chapter of the Cattle).
The text breaks off in Chapter 7, folio 30b, in a passage on the propagation of peaches and its diseases, then resumes on 41a on preserving grapevines from Chapter 9, with portions in between clearly lost. Nevertheless, the work largely comports with a manuscript dated 7 Ẕī-al-Ḥijjah 1004 AH (2 Aug. 1596 CE) held in the Library, Museum and Document Center of Iran Parliament in Tehran, no. 74201 (5572), Bodleian MS. Or. Fraser 188, and Wadham College Minasian 252; however, the header for the conclusion mistakenly appears earlier on 57b despite topics pertaining to various food usages that clearly continue from the prior chapter, whereas the true concluding section devoted to pigeon-keeping commences on 60a. In his critical edition of the text, Īrāj Afshār attributes this work to famed mathematician and astronomer ʻAbd al-ʻAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn Birjandī (d. 1528) , citing two 19th-century manuscripts and another lithographed edition. However, whether the earliest extant copies also support this attribution awaits confirmation. See Birjandī, Afshār ed.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column with 14 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders and markings.
Marginalia:Occasional notes written in another hasty black nasta‘liq hand.
Inscriptions:
- The right flyleaf a side (f. ia) bears the title written in Persian and ‘number 870’.
- Folio 1a summarizes the chapters topics and subtopics:
‘در معرفت هوا و باران و احکام طلوع شعر يمانی...’
Also at bottom:
‘نسخه مغلوط است’
‘Nuskhah maghlūṭ ast’ (‘Text is defective’). - Folio 1b bears a dated inspection notation by probable Awadh royal library attendant Muḥammad Bayg, who similary signed other volumes held there. ‘اهتمام محمد بیگ سنه ۱۲۳۱’
‘Ihtimām Muḥammad Bayg sana 1231’ (‘Inspected by Muḥammad Bayg year 1231 AH [1815–16 CE]’). - The first left flyleaf a side (f. iia) bears a prayer ascribed to Ḥāfiẓ above a magic square.
Binding
Probably rebound in a hybrid British-Indian style in the Delhi for former owner George William Hamilton.
Resewn at three unsupported stations. Endpapers of comparatively thin, bright ivory-coloured paper, likely handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~10 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines added at front and back, but the edges appear left untrimmed, with remnants of undertermined endbands left at the head. Covered in full brownish-red goatskin leather over pasteboards, with squares at the edges and defined joints, but without a flap (Type III binding per Déroche). .
Boards decorated with blocked paper onlays, subsequently discoloured. The same blocks appear on Persian MS 611. A handritten octagonal label bears the title on the spine, with another horizontal rectangle bearing the same applied to the exterior left cover.
220 × 130 × 17 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In fair condition with exteriors and board edges abraded and paper onlays discoloured.
1: Folios 2a and 60b bear library seal impressions of Nāṣir al-Dīn Ḥaydar Shāh (b. 1803, r. 1827–1837) dated 1244 AH (1828–29 CE), inscribed with his title Sulaymān Jāh, within two stacked single-ruled cartouches:
خوش است مهر کتبخانه سلیمان جاه * بهر کتاب مزین چو نقش بسم الله، ١٢۴۴
Khvush ast muhur-i kitābkhānah-'i Sulaymān Jāh bahr-i kitāb; muzayyin chaw naqsh-i basmallah, 1244 (The seal of the library of Sulaymān Jāh is good; it embellishes the book like the design of a basmallah, 1244).
17 × 37 mm.
2: Folios 1b and 61b bear library seal impressions surmounted by the royal emblem of Awadh, of Amjad ‘Alī Shāh (b. 1801, r. 1842–1847) dated 1260 AH (1844–45 CE), within a dotted border:
ناسخ هر مهر شد چون شد مزین بر کتاب * خاتم امجد علی شاه زمان عالیجناب، ١٢٦٠
Nāsukh har muhur shud chun shud muzayyin bar kitāb; khātim-i Amjad ‘Alī Shāh zamān-i ‘Ālījanāb, 1260 (Every [prior] seal became cancelled since the book became embellished by the seal of Amjad ‘Alī Shāh in the era of his Sublime Majesty, 1260).
53 × 45 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Formerly held in the royal library of the kings of Awadh (Oude) in Lucknow, as indicated by their seal impressions on folios 1a, 60b, and 61b. Probably initially held in the Moti Mahal Palace, then later transferred to the Qaisarbagh Palace, then presumably looted from the latter during India's First War of Independence, when British soldiers ransacked the Qaisarbagh palace and library on 15 March 1858 (see Wolseley's memoir).
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
Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
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