Persian MS 745 (The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: Risālah dar Ṣaydīyah, a treatise on hunting and hunting-animals, containing an alphabetically arranged section on the legality of eating certain animals in the Shāfiʿī legal school. A second unrelated text follows entitled Risālah dar Ḥāl-i Javāhirāt va Ta's̲īrāt-i Ānhā (Treatise on the Condition of Jewels and Their Effects), on the properties of precious stones, in twelve chapters. Both texts were copied in Ẕī'l-Ḥijjah 1134 AH (September, 1722 CE), during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Muḥammad Shāh (r. 1719–1748).

1. folios 1b–56b

Author: Anonymous

Title: Treatise on Hunting

Title: Risālah dar Ṣaydīyah

Title: رساله در صیدیه

Incipit: برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): بهترین طایر ما فال مبارک بال که طیران کند در هوای ابتدای رمز دلی بال حمد خداوندیست

Explicit: برگ ۵۶پ (folio 56b): موی زیادتی که در پلک چشم شده باشد بر کنند و خون موی زیادتی بر نیاید.

Colophon: برگ ۵۶پ (folio 56b): تمت الرساله الشریفه بعد بعون الله من هو ناصر و معین والحمد الیه وحده العزیز و صلی الله علی محمد و آلیه اجمعین بتاریخ یازدهم شهر ذی الحجه سنه ۱۱۳۴ موافق سنه پنج محمد شاهی روز یکشنبه در قصب نگینه تحریر یافت.

Colophon: ff. 56b and 69a, both dated 1134 AH

Language(s): Persian

2. folios 57a–69a

Author: Anonymous

Title: Treatise on Precious Stones

Title: Risālah dar Ḥāl-i Javāhirāt va Ta's̲īrāt-i Ānhā

Title: رساله در جواهرات و تاثیرات آنها

Incipit: برگ ۵۷ر (folio 57a): آما بعد این رساله ایست در بیان معرفت جوهر که بادشاهان این کتاب در خزانهٔ خود نگاه میداشتند.

Explicit: برگ ۶۹ر (folio 69a): بدین طریق که مذکورش عمل کند این بود حاصیت جو.

Colophon: برگ ۶۹ر (folio 69a): تمت الرساله الشریفه بعد بعون الله من هو ناصر و معین والحمد الیه وحده العزیز و صلی الله علی محمد و آلیه اجمعین بتاریخ یازدهم شهر ذی الحجه سنه ۱۱۳۴ موافق سنه پنج محمد شاهی روز یکشنبه در قصب نگینه تحریر یافت.

Colophon: Completed in Nagina, Bijnor District, India on 11 Ẕī'l-Ḥijjah 1134 AH (22 Sept. 1722), in the 5th year of the reign of the Mughal ruler of Delhi, Muḥammad Shāh.

Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Lightly sized and polished light brown coloured handmade paper likely manufactured in India, with laid lines >1mm and occasional discernible chain lines. Extensive repairs with an orange-umber paper. Endpapers of heavier Indian handmade paper.

Extent: 69 folios (ff. i + 69 + i )

Dimensions (leaf): 205 × 150 mm.

Dimensions (written): 170 × 87 mm.

Foliation: Modern pencilled Arabic folio numerals written on the upper left corners of the a sides.

Collation

8IV(64)1II+1(69). Primarily quaternions throughout. Occasional catchwords on the lower left corners of the b sides but many are covered by repairs.

Condition

Fair condition. Handle with care. Extensive water and insect damage with historical repairs throughout.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 15 lines per page

Hand(s)

Legible nasta’liq script with shikastah ligatures in black ink. Rubrication in red.

Additions:

Table of Contents: Folio1a features a list of animals featured in the manuscript, written in nasta‘līq script.
Inscription: Right flyleaf bears the Persian titles written in nasta‘līq script.
Bookplates: left paste-down, ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with shelfmark ‘1/I’, and ‘Hamilton MSS 662’.

Binding

Sewn on a single flat support, without endbands. Covered in a hybrid British-Indian binding in full red goatskin leather over pasteboards, without a flap (type III per Déroche), squares at the edges and defined joints.Sewn on a single flat support, without endbands. Covered in a hybrid British-Indian binding in full red goatskin leather over pasteboards, without a flap (type III per Déroche), squares at the edges and defined joints. Risālah Ṣaydiyah written in Persian on an octagonal paper label adhered to the spine.

Boards ruled along the perimeters in yellow with a double line and with a single line for the inner margins.

215 × 156 × 22 mm.

History

Origin: Completed in Nagina, Bijnor District, India; 11 Ẕī'l-Ḥijjah 1134 AH (22 September 1722 CE), in the 5th year of the reign of the Mughal ruler of Delhi, Muḥammad Shāh.

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 that after his death the British Museum selected 352 now held in the British Library.

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

Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913).

Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands 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 by James White in 2017 with reference to the volume.

Further amended and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2021.

Availability

The manuscript is available for consultation by any accredited reader, see Becoming a Reader for details. Please contact uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk for further information on the availability of this manuscript.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation, the John Rylands Research, and the Soudavar Foundation

Subjects

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