Persian MS 731 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: This Farasnāmah (Book of Horses) more often appears under a variant title Risālah dar Ṣaydīyah by Shaykh ʿAlī Ḥazīn (d. ca. 1767). The work contains an introduction on the legality of hunting, followed by the first chapter that presents various land and sea animals by name, a second on their origins, and a third on their senses and faculties. A scribe named Faz̤l Allāh possibly copied this manuscript in the Indian subcontinent during the 18th century CE.

Author: Ḥazīn , ʿAlī, d. ca. 1767);
شيخ علي حزين

Scribe: Faz̤l Allāh ;
فضل الله

Title: Risālah dar Ṣaydīyah

Title: رساله در صید

Title: Taẕkīra-'i Ṣaydīyah

Title: رسالهٔ صیدیه

Title: Risāla dar Khavāṣṣ-i Ḥayvānāt

Title: رساله در خواض حیوانات

Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): سواران مضمار بندگی و سرافکندگی را چه مجال

Explicit: برگ ۲۳پ (folio 23b): ...و چهار روز بعد از آن هم شیر را بدهر دوزد همان پی بس است در خصول مقصود بی نظیر است.

Colophon: اکنون بضبق اختتام این رساله ⟨نماید⟩ ربنا اختم عواقباط(؟) تمام شد

Colophon: برگ ۱ر (folio 1a): تمت تمام شد، تمت هذه الرسالة یوم السبت بید الفقیر الحقیر فضل الله فی شهر شعبان

Colophon: Two colophons, the end of the text uninformative; however, the conclusion copied on the folio 1a bears the signature of Faz̤l Allāh and a partial date of ‘...Saturday... in the month of Sha‘bān’, with the say and year ommitted.

Language(s): Persian

Note that in his handlist, Michael Kerney misidentified this manuscript as Persian MS 732. For another text on this topic attributed to the same author, see see Persian MS 610.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of straight-grained, unevenly formeds and heavily flocked, externally lightly sized and polished, buff-coloured paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~7 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.

Extent: 23 folios, 2 flyleaves (ff. i + 23 + i).

Dimensions (leaf): 270 × 184 mm.

Dimensions (written): 228 × 135 mm.

Foliation: Modern pencilled Arabic numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides.

Collation

Two quaternions and a ternion 2IV+1(17)1III(23). Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

Hand text with caution. In fair but stable condition, with water and insect damage and historical repairs throughout.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 19 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in a hasty black nasta‘līq hand with shikastah ligatures.

Additions:
Inscriptions: The right flyleaf a side (f. ia) bears the title of the work and the name of former owner Colonel George William Hamilton , possibly in the hand of his assistant Muhīn Dās.
Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘1/E’, and ‘Hamilton MSS No. 648’, with the name and number crossed out and ‘Persian’ and ‘731’ written aside.

Binding

Probably bound in Delhi for former owner Colonel George William Hamilton (1807-1868) between 1862 to 1867

Sewn on two stations, unsupported. Endpapers of comparatively rough cross-grained paper added to the beginning and end. Edges trimmed and the head edge spattered. Covered in half reddish-brown goatskin leather, hollow-backed, with defined joints and squares along the edges (Type III binding per Déroche), with the right board faced with a predominantly brown 'Spanish" waved marbled pattern with blue veins, while the left board bears a predominantly dark blue 'Stormont' patterned marbled paper sides with green and brown veins.

Spine bears an octagonal paper label with the title in nasta‘līq script.

280 × 191 × 10 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In sound but fair condition, with extensive external abrasion and opening to the gutter margins restricted.

History

Origin: Completed by Faz̤l Allāh , probably in the Indian subcontinent undated, possibly 18th century CE.

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 purchased 352 from his widow, Charlotte Logie Hamilton (1817–1893), now held in the British Library.

Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) purchased the remainder of Hamilton's collection in 1868 for 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.

Subsequently augmented and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2024 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

A. J. Arberry, A Second Supplementary Handlist of the Muhammadan Manuscripts in the University and Colleges of Cambridge, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952), p. 68, no. 413 [Or. 1635].

E. G. Browne, A Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Cambridge, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896), p. 52, no. 199 [King's no. 199].

Vladimir Ivanow, Concise Descriptive Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the Curzon Collection (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1926), p. 425, nos. 610–11 [I 439 and I 93].

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), p. 184, no. 629, ix.

E. H. Palmer, Catalogue of the Oriental Manuscripts in the Library of King's College (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1867), p. 14, no. 199 [King's no. 199].

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), p. 483 [British Library Add. 23562/2].

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

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