Persian MS 634 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
The opening folio of the volume appears missing, so it opens with a quatrain in praise of ‘Ali ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 661) from the Khulāṣat al-Ash‘ār va Zubdat al-Afkār (Quintessence of Poems and Cream of Considerations) compiled by Mīr Taqī al-Dīn Kāshānī (fl. 17th c.). The volume ends with verses by Ḥazīn Lāhījī (d. 1766) and Siḥābī Astarābādī (d. 1601–02), hence the former provides terminus post quem for the work's composition.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 2 columns with 15 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in black nasta’līq with shikastah ligatures, and the names of the poets and verse markers in between the columns in red.
Decoration
Ruling: Vertical column and horizontal verse dividers ruled in silver outlined in thin black single lines. Marginal ruling throughout in the same outlined with thin internal single and external doule black lines, surrounded by a comparatively thick single line in red, with comparatively thin outer silver ruling outlined with black single lines.
Marginalia: Occasional marginal notations written in shikastah in another hand.
Inscription: The second right flyleave a side (f. iia) bears the title of the work, likely in the hand of Muhīn Dās, and assistant to former owner Colonel George William Hamilton.
Bookplates: Left paste-down: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with shelfmark ‘1/G’, ‘Hamilton MSS No. 551’.
Binding
Rebound in a British-Indian hydrid style, probably in Multan, for former owner Colonel George William Hamilton (1807-1868).
Unsupported sewing at two stations. Edges trimmed, with twined chevron endbands in red and green threads at head and tail. Covered in full, smooth polished maroon goatskin leather over pasteboards, with defined joints and squares along the edges of the boards, but without a flap (Type III binding per Déroche). Doublures of the same leather line the interior, with the excess put down as hinges onto the first and last flyeleaves, overlaid with a strip of paper cut with a decorative zig-zag cut along one edge to disguise the join.
Board margins double-ruled in yellow twice along the perimeters. Octagonal paper spine label bears the title of the volume in nasta‘līq.
255 × 249 × 29 mm.
Binding in good condition, with whitened salts on the leather surface (spew) on th einternal doublures likley due to prolonged exposure to moisture.
Folio 154b impressed with three vermilion library seals of the kings of Awadh (Oude), intaglio-carved in nasta‘līq script in two stacked lines.
1: Rectangular seal of the library of Nāṣir al-Dīn Ḥaydar Shāh (b. 1803, r. 1827–1837) dated 1244 AH (1828–29 CE), inscribed with his title Sulaymān Jāh:
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: Rectangular seal surmounted by the royal emblem of Awadh, of Amjad ‘Alī Shāh (b. 1801, r. 1842–1847) dated 1260 AH (1844–45 CE):
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.
3: Rectangular seal surmounted by the royal emblem Awadh, of Wājid ‘Alī Shāh (1822–1887), King of Awadh (r. 1847–1856) dated 1262 AH (1846–47 CE):
خاتم واجد علی سلطان عالم بر کتاب * ثابت و پر نور بادا تا فروغ آفتاب، ١٢۶۲
Khātim-i Wājid ‘Alī, Sulṭān-i ‘Ālam bar kitāb, s̄abit va pur nūr bādā tā farūgh-i āftāb, 1262 (‘The seal of Wājid ‘Alī, Sulṭān of the World, upon the book shall be permanent and as bright as sunlight, 1262 AH [1847 CE]’.
41 × 26 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Previously held in the royal library of Awadh in Lucknow, as indicated by library seal impressions on folio 155b of the Kings of Awadh Nāṣir al-Dīn Ḥaydar Shāh (b. 1803, r. 1827–1837), Amjad ‘Alī Shāh (b. 1801, r. 1842–1847), and Wājid ‘Alī Shāh (b. 1822, r. 1847–1856), then presumably looted during India's First War of Independence, when British soldiers ransacked the Kaisarbagh 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 and his Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.
Revised and expanded by James White in 2018 with reference to the volume.
Further amended and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2022 with reference to the manuscript 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, and the Soudavar Foundation
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