Persian MS 508 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
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Persian Manuscripts
Contents
Summary of Contents: An introduction to a commentary on an originally Arabic divan ascribed to ʻAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ff. 2a and 4a), composed in the year 890, by Ḥusayn ibn Muʻīn Maybudī, (d. 911), whose name is given on f. 4a. The authenticity of the divan is doubtful even to the commentator as he states on f. 4a هر چند بیقین معلوم نیست .که این بحر از خاشاک شعر غیر صافی است اگر یک بیت شعر اوست مرا در دنیا و عقبی کافیست but he seems not to be concerned about the authenticity of the the commentary of the divan من خود چه کسم که در شماری باشم- یا در صف اهل دل سواری باشم- مقصود همین است که در شأن علی- گویم سخنی چند و بکاری باشم. The commentary is, however, wanting in the present MS. which only contains an extensive seven-part fatihah or preliminary discourse on Sufi doctrines and philosophical, astrological and mystical matters. The fatihah, according to Maibudi, j is useful to a better understanding of the commentary قبل از شروعدر شرح ابیات مطالب بلند و مارب ارجمند که در اثنای شرح مفید است و اکثر آن مشتمل بر فایده جدید است مسطور خامۀ تحریر و مزبورنامۀ تصویرخواهد شد در ضمن هفت فاتحه . the MS. comes to a conclusion with the end of the seventh fdtihah and the beginning of the commentary.Title: Favatiḥ MaybudīTitle: فواتح میبدیIncipit: (beginning) برگ ۲پ (folio 1b): سپاس سعادت اساس و شکر عبادت لباس معبودی را که احکام نبوت و ولایت در میدان فتوت و هدایت برافراشت و ارقام حقایق انجام حدس و الهام بر صحایف قلوب علما و الواح ارواح حکما نگاشتExplicit: برگ ۷۳پ (folio 73b): با حضر بیان و احتراز از تکرار لغات التزام شد جه فهم آن از ترجمه میتوان واسال الله توفیقColophon: برگ ۷۳پ (folio 73b): اتمام کتاب فانه منعم الصدق و ملهم الصواب و الله اعلم بالصواب.Colophon: Uninformative colophon.Language(s): Persian1aTitle: List of AbreviationsTitle: شرح"...و اکنون که فواتحه سبعه رقم اتمام یافت شروع خواهیم کرد در شرح ابیات محکمة المبانی و اول توضیح لغات خواهد بود و تنقیح نکات نحو و معانی پس ترجمه ابیات بی زیاده و نقصان و ایراد یک رباعی بر طبق آن ودر حکایات حوادث و رجزهای حروب و تفصیل قصص خواهد شد..."
Physical Description
Form: codexExtent: 73 folios, 1 flyleaf (ff. 73 + i)Dimensions (leaf): 261 × 170 mm.Dimensions (written): 184 × 100 mm.Foliation: Hindu-Arabic numerals on the upper-left corners of the a sides from folios 1a to 34a, with number 3 ommitted, hence under by one.Foliation: Modern pencilled Arabic figures on every recto page commence with folio 36a, which omits folio 35, to account for the discrepancy in the earlier foliation.Collation
Probably quaternions throughout. Catchwords on the lower-left corners throughout.Condition
Wormeaten throughout, repaired.Layout
Written in 1 column with 21 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in black nasta‘līq miniscule, with red subheaders and markings.
Additions:- content note 1a A list of abreviations used in the fatihah, is given as: () for () for ( شارح ) i.e. the commentator. () for Khajah Hafiz () for ( ملا روم ) i.e. Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī جلال الدین رومی Jalal al-Din Rumi; () for Shaikh Saʻdī سعدى though his name does not appear in this MS and the same letter, in another copy, is said to stand for Shabistarī, Maḥmūd ibn ʻAbd al-Karīm, -approximately 1320 محمود بن عبدالكريم شبسترى (see Ethe, 10 1449), ( مح )for Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿArabī, 1165-1240; () for Ibn al-Fāriḍ, ʻUmar ibn ʻAlī, 1181 or 1182-1235 حروفهایی: (ض) که بالی اشعار نوشته شد تا دلیل باشد که این شعر از فلان عزیز است به این تفصیل (س) شارح مصنف شرح مولانا امیر حسین ابن معین الدین ال میبدی الیزدی, (ظ) خواجه حافظ, (م) ملا روم, (د) شیخ سعدی شیرازی, مح) شیخ محی الدین ابن عربی, (ض) ابن فارض مکی)
- Marginalia, additions in the margins
- Lacunae for astronomical cancellations f. 26a-26b
- An obliterated note at the for-edge bears a date of 1118 AH.
- Name In bold hand on fly leaf كرنل جارج وليم هميلتن صاحب بهادر (Colonel George William Hamilton?) for whom it was apparently repiared and rebound.
- Bookplates inside cover Printed under coat of arms; Bibilotheca Lindesiana, Bland MSS No. 425 (crossed and changed to Persian MSS No. 507)
Seal(s):Binding
Rebound in Delhi for Hamilton. heavy flocked flyleaves. British-made marbled pastedowns.
Sewn on a single, probably leather thong, support. blue and white enbands twined over round cores. Gold blocked central mandorlas, the lower cover in better condition.
275 × 182 × 21 mm.
Condition
Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition. The black margin and spine deteriorated, boards yawning at fore-edge.Folio 1a bears a black oval seal impression, intaglio-carved in two horizontally stacked nasta‘liq lines, double-ruled, impressed below a notation by former owner Muḥammad Kāẓim ibn Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-Ḥusaynī al-Māzandarānī. which invokes his namesake, Imām Musà Kāẓim, and bears either a regnal or abbreviated year ‘18’. 13 × 16 mm.
History
Origin:Provenance and Acquisition
From the collection of 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 of which 352 were selected after his death for the British Museum. The remainder were purchased in 1868 by Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford.
Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands, on behalf of the John Rylands Library, in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford.
Record Sources
Bibliographical description based on an index created by Reza Navabpour circa 1993, derived from a manuscript catalogue by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s and his Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.
Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2023 with reference to the volume.
Availability
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Bibliography
Arabic MS 728For other copies see Ethe, IO 1448-50 (4 copies 2663-66) and Rieu, BM 19a-20a; for lithographs see Mushar 2118-19: Lucknow A.H 1293, Tehran AH 1356 (in the margins of a commentary by Navvab on Nahj al- Baldghah); another commentary without commentator’s name: اکره AH 1303-4; Gunpore, AH 1313; another commentary by ‘Ala’ al-DTn Ahmad Bahadur لوهار , AH 1293.Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
Subjects
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