Persian MS 751 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The Jāmiʻ-i ʻAbbāsī A popular compendium on Islamic law commenced by the leading Twelver Shi‘a theologian of Iran at the time, Muḥammad ʻĀmilī (1547–1621)at the behest of his patron, Safavid ruler ʻAbbās I (b. 1571, r. 1588–1629) ‎. However, at the time of his death he had only completed the first five chapters, to which his student Niẓām ibn Ḥusayn Ṣāvajī (fl. 17th c) fifteen added another posthumously, as explained in the preface to Chapter 6. A brief list of contents for all 20 chapters (bāb) appears at the end of the first preface.

Author: ʻĀmilī, Bahāʼ al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn, 1547–1621 العاملي، بهاء الدين محمد بن حسين

Author, Contributor and Writer of supplementary textual content: Ṣāvajī, Niẓām ibn Ḥusayn (fl. 17th c);
نظام بن حسين صاوجى

Patron and Dedicatee: ʻAbbās I, Shah of Iran, b. 1571, r. 1588–1629 ‎;
شاه عباس اول

Title: Jāmiʻ-i ʻAbbāsī

Title: جامع عباسي

Explicit: برگ ٣٧۴ر (folio 374a): اما ميانه مجتهدين خلاف است بعضي بر آنند که در اين وقت کل مبلغي که وجه اجاره اوست به وارث او مي رسد.

Colophon: برگ ۳۷۴ر (folio 374a): چون دارا دو ربع معمود(؟) از بسیط زین این پادشاه را معلم همیشه مقهور و منکوب کردانال(؟) بالنبی و اله الامجال تمام شد.

Colophon: No colophon

Language(s): Persian

For an extensive list of over 183 manuscripts, editions, and related commentaries see Dirāyatī and Dirāyatī.

Folio 1b

Title: Preface

Title: ديباچه

Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): الحمد لله رب العالمین و الصلوه علی اشرف الاولین و الاخرین محمد سید المرسلین و علی بن ابی طالب امومنین و افضل الوصین و اولادهما الائمه الطاهرین صلواه الله و سلامه علیهم اجمعین اما بعد جون توجه خاطر ملکوت ناظر اشرف اقدس کلب آستان علی بن ابی طالب علیه السلام شاه عباس الحسنی الموسوی الصفوی بهادر خان که اسم اشرفش از بینات خلد الله ملکه هویدا و ظاهر است بانتشار مسائل دینی و اشتهار از بینات خلد الله ملکه هویدا و ظاهر است بانتشار مسائل دینی و اشتهار معارف یقینی مصروف و معطوفست...

Folio 2a

Title: Chapter 1: On Purification

Title: باب ۱: در بیان طهارت بعنی وضوء و غسل و تیتم و توابع آن

Folio 32a

Title: Chapter 2: On Obligatory and Superagotory Prayers

Title: باب ۲: در نماز‌های واجبی و سنتی

Folio 89a

Title: Chapter 3: On Obligatory Charity and Superagotory Alms-giving

Title: باب ۳: در زکوة و خمس واجبی و سنتی

Folio 94b

Title: Chapter 4: On Obligatory Charity and Superagotory Alms-giving

Title: باب ۴: در روزه‌ٔ واجبی و سنتی

Folio 101a

Title: Chapter 5: On Making Pilgrimage

Title: باب ۵: در حج گذاردن

Folio 111a

Title: Chapter 6: On Endowments, Security, Loans, Slave Manumission, and Jihād against Unbelievers

Title: باب ۶: در وقف کردن و تصدق نمودن و قرض دادن و بنده آزاد کردن و با کافران جهاد کردن

Folio 132a

Title: Chapter 7: On Visiting Imām ‘Alī's tomb and other Immaculate Imams and commemorating their birthdays and deaths

Title: باب ۷: در زیارت حضرت رسالت پناه و حضرت امیر المؤمنین علی و باقی حضارت ائمه معصومین علیهم السلام و ایام مولود و وفات ایشان

Folio 156a

Title: Chapter 8: On Observances, Swearing Oaths, and Atonement

Title: باب ۸: در بیان نذر و عهد کردن سوگند خوردن و کفارت دادن

Folio 162a

Title: Chapter 9: On Selling, Mortgaging, and Preemption.

Title: باب ٩: در بیع كردن و رهن نمودن و شفعه گرفتن و توابع آن

Folio 187a

Title: Chapter 10: On Renting, Lending, and Forfeiture.

Title: باب ١٠: در اجاره دادن و عاريت نمودن و احكام عصب كردن و توابع آن

Folio 213b

Title: Chapter 11: On Marriage for Durability and Pleasure, Ensuring Lawfulness, and Property.

Title: باب ١١: در نكاح كردن بدوام و متعه و تحليل و ملک

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of cross-grained, externally sized and polished, ivoury-coloured paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~8 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.

Extent: 375 folios, 2 flyleaves (ff. i + 375 + i).

Dimensions (leaf): 228 × 130 mm.

Dimensions (written): 167 × 82 mm.

Foliation: Modern pencilled Arabic numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides commence on folio 1Aa, then every tenth folio thereafter, hence under by one.

Foliation: Hindu-Arabic numerals on folios 1 to 113.

Collation

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

Condition

Handle text with caution. In fair condition, with extensive insect damage, historical repairs

Layout

Written in 1 column with 20 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq mixed with shikastah with red subheaders.

Decoration

Illumination: Folio 1b bears a scalloped domed headpiece with gilt palmette foliate scrollwork on an ultramarine ground and an uninscribed central cartouche, and four vertical radiating lines. 85 × 79 mm.

Ruling: Folios 1b and 2a ruled in gold outlined with thin black lines, and surrounded by another single line. The margins of folios 2b onwards ruled with single lines of ultramarine blue.

Additions:
Inscriptions:

The right flyleaf a side (f. ia) bears the name of former owner Colonel George William Hamilton, signed on the lower-left corner by his assistant Muhīn Dās
Folios 10a and b inscribed with .

Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘1/H’, and ‘Hamilton MSS No. 668’, with the name and number crossed out and Persian and 751 written aside.

Binding

Rebound for Hamitlon in Dehli.

resewn on a single thong support. yellow and low-carat gold -wrapped threads over round cores. flyleaves of machine-made laid, ~8 ll per cm and 28 chainlines.

235 × 146 × 56 mm.

Handle with caution. Fair but stable condition.

History

Origin:

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 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, 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 2023 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

M. Dirāyatī and M. Dirāyatī, Fihristgān: Nuskhahʹhā-yi Khaṭṭī-i Īrān (Fankhā) (Union catalogue of Iran manuscripts), Vol. 9 (Tehran: Sāzmān-i Asnād va Kitābkhānah-i Millī-i Jumhūrī-i Islāmī-i Īrān, 1391 S. H. [2012–13 CE]), pp. 897–910 [Qom, Gulpāyagānī no. 1/6970-150/35, etc.] 1232/3, &c.].

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), pp. 25b–26b [BL Add. 23578].

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

Islamic law--Interpretation and construction--Early works to 1800

Comments

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