Persian MS 631 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: This anonymously compiled anthology of verses by poets ancient and modern, appears arranged by author, form and theme. It opens with lines by Muḥammad Ṣūfī (d. 1625) then proceeds with examples by many other early modern poets of Iran and India, including several less well-known authors such as Afchangī, Sanjar Kāshānī (ca. 1573–1613, Zamānī Yazdī and Muḥammad ibn Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad Valī Dasht-i Bayāz̤ī (fl. early 17th c.), and ends with an excerpt of a ghazal lyric poem by Vaḥshī Bāfqī (ca. 1532–1583). An unidentified scribe neatly copied this regrettably incomplete volume on a range of tinted papers which an illuminator then elegantly decorated.

Compiler: Anonymous

Title: Anthology

Title: Taẕkīrah-'i Shā‘irān

Rubric: برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): قصیدۀ مولانا محمد صوفی

Incipit: آه ازین آسمان آتشبار * داد ازین روزگار مردم خرار.

Explicit: برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): دی که می‌آمد ز جولانگاه خوبی مست ناز * نرگسش بر گوشۀ دستار خوش ترکانه بود.

Colophon: No colophon.

The title for the volume derives from an inscription on the first right flyleaf a side.

Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Both straight and cross-grained, thin, transcluscent, sized and polished buff and ivory-coloured manufactured handmade laid paper from the Islamic world, measuring ~1–1.5 mm between laid lines, with no discernible chain lines. Folios 52 to 91 tinted in salmon pink, green, and pale indigo blue. Later flyleaves of comparatively heavy Indian handmade paper.

Extent: 123 folios, 2 flyleaves (ff. i + 123 + i).

Dimensions (leaf): 347 × 231 mm.

Dimensions (written): 303 × 187 mm.

Foliation: Pencilled Arabic numerals on the upper-left a sides when catalogued.

Collation

Probably originally quinternions throughout, obscured by subsequent repairs and extensive tipping in the gutters. Catchwords inscribed on the lower left corners of the b sides, but many were regrettably trimmed off when the volume was rebound.

Condition

In poor condition; handle with caution. Prior insect damge in areas, and sharp folds and corroded marginal ruling resulting in many vertical breaks by the columns in the gutter. Extensive historical repairs and loss areas infilled in the guttter margins and at the beginning and end in modern European wove paper.

Layout

Written in 6 columns in oblique lines (chalīpā), with 24 lines per page.

Hand(s)

Written in a clear black nasta'līq hand with sections headings in red.

Decoration

Illumination: blue and gold floral scrollwork designs in cornices and reserve cloud bands for section breaks throughout. 1b, rendered in blue, orange, pink, green, and gold.

Ruling:Columns and section breaks ruled in thin gold outlined with narrow black double-ruling, with surrounding marginal ruling, also in gold, with an interior single-rule and exterior double-ruled lines in black throughout.

Additions:
Inscription:

The right flyleaf recto (f. ia) bears the title and name of former owner George William Hamilton likely in the hand of his assistant Muhīn Dās:
‘کرنیل جارج ولیم هملتن صاحب بهادر. تذکره شاعران’

Bookplates:

Left paste-down: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with shelf mark ‘2/A’, and ‘Hamilton MSS No. 548’.

Binding

Likely restored and rebound in Delhi for former owner Colonel George William Hamilton

Sewn all-along on two flat supports, then lined with cloth, edges trimmed, and Islamic-style twined chevron endbands in yellow and red threads over round cores worked at head and tail. Rebound in a hybrid British-Indian style in full, tight backed, red goatskin leather case binding, with squares and defined joints, but without a flap (type III binding per Déroche). Supports and cloth lining put down on the board interiors, then lined with British-manufactured 'Spanish' waved marbled paper doublures.

Spine and board margins dyed black. Boards decorated with blind stamped bright green paper onlays featuring floral and vegetal scrollwork designs on the scalloped central mandorla, detached pendants, cartouches, and a scrolling vines and insular dots on the outermost margins. Yellow ruled single lines criss-cross the central decoration and border the centre, connect the corners, with double lines on either side of the surrounding borders. Octagonal paper label on the spine is inscribed with the title of the volume in black nasta‘līq. The same marginal decoration appears on Persian MS 572.

356 × 242 × 28 mm.

History

Origin: Possibly completed in either Greater Iran or the Indian subcontinent, possibly in the late 17th to 18th century.

Provenance and Acquisition

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 after his death, now held in the British Library.

Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880), purchased the remainder in 1868.

Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) (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 and his Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.

Manuscript description completed by James White in 2018.

Subsequently amended and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2022 with reference to the volume.

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.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation

John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

Anthologies

Comments

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