Persian MS 688 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
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.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
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.
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’
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
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
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
Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
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