Persian MS 6 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
B. W. Robinson (Ars Orientalis, Vol. 11, p. 387 and Persian Paintings, p. 148) questions the authenticity of the date, as the left and middle digits appear altered, and since the illumination, illustrations, and binding all seem from the early sixteenth century, rather than the one prior. Furthermore, he observes how the date comports with that calligrapher's known floruit and how the final inverse triangular portion of the colophon may not be authentic since the gold marginal ruling masks a join in the paper. More recently, Shiva Mihan (pp. 10, 17) argued in favour of the signature's authenticity and interprets the date in the colophon as 24 Rabī‘ II 864 AH (17 Feb. 1460 Julian) instead. Recent multi-spectral imaging conducted by the Rylands in 2022 confirms the paper and ink comport with the text, albeit remounted onto the attached margins and gold-flecked when restored; however, the authenticity of the signature and exact date await further comparison and corroboration.
For another illustrated manuscript of this same work, see Rylands Persian MS 969-2, in addition to complete copies of the Khamsah .
Physical Description
Layout
Written in 4 columns with 25 lines per page. Ruled with a miṣtarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in black nasta‘līq throughout with captions in riq‘ah, attributed in the colophon to Mawlānā Aẓhār; however, this awaits further study and authentication.
Decoration
Illustrations: Five early sixteenth-century miniatures exemplify the work of commercial Shiraz artists:
- Folio 10b: Shirin sees a portrait of Khusraw displayed in a tree. Green foreground, with a stream and numerous plants and flowers. Between the foreground and the rising hillside in the background is a group of four trees, on one of which the picture hangs against a gold sky. In this setting, Shirin and 19 of her maids are represented, standing, sitting, picking flowers, offering wine and fruit and playing music. Very slight rubbing near inner edge.
193 × 108 mm.
Published: B. W. Robinson, Persian Paintings, p. 149, no. 550. - Folio 37b: Farhad carries Shirin and her horse. A pale-toned landscape of pink and green under a gold sky with convoluted grey clouds. In the foreground, a mass of rock (possibly in the style of Bihzad). Farhad and Shirin are preceded by one of her maids riding and a running footman and followed by two pairs of mounted maids.
178 × 112 mm.
Published: B. W. Robinson, Persian Paintings, p. 24, no. 551, pl. VIII. - Folio 43b: Khusraw at Shirin's castle. The building rises on the left, with Shirin at the window, four of her maids on the roof and a doorman below. In the tiled courtyard Khusraw sits on a small throne in the shadow of a richly decorated tent, surrounded by courtiers. Others appear outside the courtyard railings and on the horizon with two saddled horses. Garden of green and rising gold hillside with a flowering tree. Blue sky with white clouds.
173 × 112 mm.
Published: B. W. Robinson, Persian Paintings, p. 25, no. 552, pl. IX. - Folio 55a: Khusraw and Shirin after their wedding feast. Khusraw and Shirin relax on the upper floor of a palace, attended by a maid, Khusraw in loose undress wearing a fur-edged cap. Other maids appear at the door, window and balcony. In the courtyard are two guards, one of them asleep, and a courtier carrying a ewer and a basin. Beyond the courtyard railings, against a gold hillside, is a gardener with his spade on his shoulder.
178 × 112 mm.
Published: B. W. Robinson, Persian Paintings, p. 151, no. 553. - Folio 60a: Shirin commits suicide on Khusraw's coffin. The coffin, whose geometric ornament resembles of khatamkārī inlay work, resides within a tiled and painted palace interior. Outside, everything proceeds as normal; maids gossip on the roof, courtiers talk in the courtyard, and a groom holds a saddled horse and mule in readiness on the horizon, underneath a blue sky, slightly darkening towards the top edge.
178 × 112 mm.
Published: B. W. Robinson, Persian Paintings, p. 152, no. 554.
Headpiece: Early sixteenth-century Safavid style illuminated heading on folio 1b of high quality and in very good condition. Sub-headings fully illuminated throughout, with two small decorative panels above the colophon on folio 66a.
Fully remargined in cross-grained, sized, and polished salmon pink-coloured paper sprayed with gold on both sides, with the margins ruled in gold, outlined with thin black double lines on either side, and surrounded by comparatively thick grey single lines.
Inscriptions: The sixth right flyleaf b side to fith a side (ff. vib–va) bears an account, written in the reverse direction, of the work and poet signed and dated by former owner Sir Gore Ouseley, ‘Hall Barn Park, January 1837’.
Folio 1a top, numbered ‘Nº 12’ probably by Ouseley, with another note in nasta‘līq script by prior owner Ahmed Pāşāzāde İbrāhīm underneath.
Bookplates and Pasted Items: The first left flyleaf b side (f. viib): ‘Sir Gore Ouseley, Baronet’
The final left flyleaf b side (f. ixb): ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘F/4’.
Left doublure: ‘Bland MSS No. 16’, with the name and number crossed out and ‘Persian’ and ‘6’ written aside.
Binding
Covered in a Sixteenth-century Safavid-era binding in full brown goatsin leather, with a flap, now missing (hence originally a Type II binding perk Déroche). Subsequently restored for former owner Gore Ouseley. Resewn on five recessed cord supports, three laced into the original boards. Flocked, mottled green machine-made endpapers added to the beginning and end, then edges trimmed, resulting in squares at the edges, with front-bead decorative endbands sewn over a flat leather thong in blue and pink silk threads, now faded. Spine recovered in calfskin leather over the original boards switched and inverted, with matching calf internal hinges applied to cover the lacings, comparable with other manuscripts restored for Ouseley.
Boards doubly blocked with dies engraved with cloud bands set against floral scrollwork painted blossoms, with surrounding margins of recessed alternating quatrefoils, cartouches, and corner pieces. Both doublures feature cut leather filigree central medallions, flanking pendants, and corner pieces, infilled with cloud bands and floral scrollwork and applied over recessed gilt grounds. Damaged filigree medallions on the internal doublures overlaid with scalloped ovoid papercuts that bear late-eighteenth-century painted sprays of Ottoman-style roses and tulips (for comparable examples, see Demirez).
307 × 206 × 23 mm.
Hand binding with caution. In fair but fragile condition, with severely damaged edges and historical repairs. Boxed.
‘عبد محمد ابراهیم’
‘‘Abd-i Muḥammad Ibrāhīm’ (‘Servant of Muḥammad, Ibrāhīm’).
14 × 21 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Subsequently acquired by Ottoman poet Ahmed Paşazade Ibrāhīm (d. 1792), the son of poet Ahmed Paşa, pen-named Rātib (d. 1762), as per his signed inscription with his marcasite-flecked tuğra calligraphic emblem, dated (1200 AH 1785–86 CE), and 3 seal impressions zoomorphic lion-shaped seal impressions on folios 1a and 66a
Later owned by orientalist and diplomat Sir Gore Ouseley (1770-1844), who may have acquired the volume during his travels abroad; however the exact circumstances of the manuscript's arrival in Britain remain unclear.
Afterwards obtained by scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865) for his library at Randalls Park, Leatherhead. After his death, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in 1866, and moved to Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh Hall, Wigan.
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, Manchester.
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.
Codicological description drawn from B.W. Robinson, Persian Paintings in the John Rylands Library: A Descriptive Catalogue (London, 1980), p. 148-50
Manuscript description amended and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2022, with reference to the volume in hand, and in consultation with Dr. Sheila Canby, Patty Cadby Birch Curator of Islamic Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art (retired) and Prof Lâle Uluç, Bosphorous University, Istanbul, regarding Robinson's prior attribution of the work to the Safavid court and reassignment to commercial Shiraz artists.
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.
A digital facsimile of the entire manuscript may be downloaded from the University of Manchester Library Image Collections
Custodial History
Exhibited in Gilded Word and Radiant Image at the John Rylands Library, sponsored by the Altajir Trust.
Digital Images
Manchester Digital Collections (full digital facsimile).
Bibliography
Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
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