Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Persian MS 688 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Contents

Summary of Contents: This work entitled ʻImād-i Subḥānīyah dar ‘Ilm-i Suluk (Pillar of Praise in the Science of the Seekers), appears to contain just the first three of four chapters of the work better known as the Junūn al-Majānīn (Lunacy of the Mad). Composed by the author, Qivām al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʻImād Sanjānī (d. 1418) in 770 AH (1368 CE), in the work, he stridently critiques what he deems unorthodox, extremist tendencies of some Sufis, a position for which later figures such as Jāmī praise him. This volume, completed by a likely Mughal-era scribe named Muḥammad ibn Jalāl Shāh Chishtī al-Sarhindī in 17 Rabī‘ I 1013 AH (13 Aug. 1604 CE).
Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): اعوذ بالله و توکلت علی الله وافوض امری الی الله حسبی الله ونعم الوکیل. یا خي یا قیوم یا لله نعوذ بالله یا غفور التواب اعذنا من شر کل ذی شر بسم الله تعالی الا علی الوهاب. بیت: ز من هر لحظه بر من اتبلاها * خداوند امرا از من نگهدار...
Explicit: برگ ۲۴۲ر (folio 242a): زهره را زهرا دريد و ماه را گردن شکست * شد عطارد خشک [ل]ب بر چشمه جن[است؟]
Colophon: برگ ۲۴۲ر (folio 242a): باتمام رسید روز شنبه بوقت چاشت بتاریخ ۱۷ ربیع الاول سنه ۱۰۱۳ الکاتب الحروف محمد ابن شاه جلال چیشتی السرهندی اللهم اغفر ذنوبهو ستر عیوبه
Colophon: Completed by Muḥammad ibn Jalāl Shāh Chishtī al-Sarhindī on Saturday morning, 17 Rabī‘ I 1013 AH (13 Aug. 1604 CE).

This volume contains chapters on Beliefs (Mu‘tiqidāt), Incoming Letters (Vāridāt), and Events (Vāqi‘āt), but lacks a final one featuring poetry. Five other copies of this work appear to survive, two held in Süleymaniye Library (Ayasofya 1749 and 1750), Parliamentary Library (20761), Punjab University Library (4578/1528), and National Library of Egypt (28 Mīm Taṣṣawuf Fārisī), for which see Bakhtiari.

Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: A mixture of straight and cross-grained, cream-coloured, externally sized and polished paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent, with ~7 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.
Extent: 342 folios, 4 flyleaves (ff. ii + 342 + ii).
Dimensions (leaf): 252 × 155 mm.
Dimensions (written): 172 × 85 mm.
Foliation: Pencilled Arabic numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides when catalogued.

Collation

Undetermined. Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

Handle with caution. In poor condition, with extensive water and insect damage, and historical repairs throughout. The ink on folio 177a appears badly smeared.

Layout

Written in 1 to 2 columns with 15–16 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red markings and subheaders by Muḥammad ibn Jalāl Shāh Chishtī al-Sarhindī.

Decoration


Headpiece: Folio 1b bears a very finely illuminated headpiece, now abraded.

Ruling: Margins ruled in gold with thin single interior and double exterior black lines surrounded by red and blue throughout.

Additions:
Inscriptions:
  • The second right flyleaf a side (f. iia) bears the title, author's name and date of completion, likely in the hand of Muhīn Dās, assistant to former owner Colonel George William Hamilton:
    ‘نسخه دوم عماد سبحانیه در علم سلوک و مقالدات
    تالیف عماد سنجانی مخرره سنه ۱۰۱۳ هجري’
  • Folio 1a bears a hasty shikastah note that also briefly describes the work:
    ‘الجز الاول
    نسخه عماد سبحانیه
    در علم سلوک
    و بمقالدات’
Bookplates: Left doublure: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘2/F’, and ‘Hamilton MSS No. 605’ with the name and number crossed out and ‘Persian’ and ‘688’ written aside.

Binding

Probably rebound for former owner Colonel George William Hamilton in Multan before 1862. Resewn all along on at two unsupported stations, with comparatively heavy and coarse endpapers added. Edges trimmed and chevron endbands twined in green and red silk threads over round cores at head and tail. Covered in full, maroon goatskin leather, tight-backed, over pasteboards, with squares along the edges, defined joints, but without a flap (Type III binding per Déroche). Internal doublures of the same leather, with the excess widths adhered to the flyleaves as hinges connecting the cover to the text block, overlaid with strips of paper, both zig-zag cut along one edge, to disguise the joins.

Spine and board margins stained dark brown outined with ruled double lines in yellow.

265 × 164 × 50 mm.

Binding in fair but stable condition with exterior abrasion, page openings restricted to the gutter margin, and overly rigid hinges at the beginning and end, with white salts (spew) on the leather due to prolonged exposure to moisture

Seal(s):

Folios 340a, and also probably 339b bear black, rectangular seal impressions intaglio-carved in one nasta‘līq script line, single ruled, with the name of former owner or associate Muḥammad Mukarram dated 1187 AH (1773–74 CE).
10 × 12 mm.

History

Origin: Completed by Muḥammad ibn Jalāl Shāh Chishtī al-Sarhindī, probably in the Mughal Empire; ; 17 Rabī‘ I 1013 AH (13 Aug. 1604 CE).

Provenance and Acquisition

Subsequently owned or inspected by an individual named Muḥammad Mukarram as attested by his seal impressions dated 1187 AH (1773–74 CE) on folios 339b–340a.

Later 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.

Record subsequently augmented and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2022 with reference to the manuscript in hand, and in consultation with Omid Bakhtiari Sangani

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

    J. Akbari, H. Naji, and S. Rahimiyan, 'Investigating, Explaining and Analyzing the Critique of Sufism in the Book Jonun al-Majanin' Islamic Denominations, Vol. 8, No. 16 (March 2022), pp. 80–97.
    Omid Bakhtiari Sangani, 'Sharḥ-i Ḥāl va Aḥvālāt-i Mawlānā Muḥammad bin ‘Imād Sanjānī (Amīr Qivām al-Dīn Sanjānī)'. Privately published, Tīr 1401 SH (Jun.–Jul. 2022).
    Omid Bakhtiari Sangani, 'Nuskh'hā-yi Kitāb-i Junūn al-Majānīn' (privately published).
    I. Pūrabrīsham and M. Muḥammadī Fishārakī, 'Junūn al-Majānīn va ‘Irfān-i Khurasān dar sadah-'i nahum,' Adabīyāt-i ‘Irfānī, Vol. 5, No. 10 (Spring–Summer 1393 SH [2014 CE]), pp. 109–151.
    Naṣr Allāh Mubashir al-Ṭirāzī, Fihris al-Makhṭūṭāt al-Fārisīyah, allatī taqtanīhā Dār al-Kutub ḥattā ʻām 1963 M., Vol. 2 (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣrīyah, 1962), p. 233, no. 2517 [National Library of Egypt, 27 Mīm Taṣawwuf Fārisi].

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute


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