Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Persian MS 76 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Contents

Summary of Contents: This late 14th-century Kulliyāt (Collected Works) of Jalayirid-era panegyric poet Salmān Sāvajī (d. 1376) contains not only the author's Dīvān, but also his Jamshīd and Khurshīd, and Dah'nāmah (Ten Tales). Completed by scribe ‘Aṭā' Allāh ibn Shaykh ‘Alī in Greater Iran, possibly Shiraz, in 799 AH (1396–97 CE), just twenty years after the author's death.
Title: Kulliyāt
Title: کلیات
Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱پ (Folio 1b): هر دل که در هوای جمالش مجال یافت * عنقای همتش دو جهان زیر بال یافت.
Explicit: برگ ۷۱پ (Folio 71b): بدسم حضرت سلطان عهد شیخ او پیش که عهد سلطنتش باد بتصل بر دام شد این ربیع معانی جمادی الثانی سنه ثلاث و ستین ر سبع مایة تمام و الله اعلم بالصواب.
Colophon: برگ ۲۸۷ر (Folio 287a): تمت الدیوان الصاحب الاعظم افتخار و املح الشعر العالم حسان الزمان سحبان البیان جمال الملة و الدین خواجه سلمان علیه الرحمة و الغفران علی ید العبد المحتاج الی فضل الله ابن الشیخ علي عطا الله فی یوم الاحد حادی عشرین سعبان المعظم سنه تسع و تسعین و سبعمایه.
Explicit: برگ ۳۱۳ر (Folio 313a): همیشه روزگار پادشاه اسلام فرخ همایون باد و از نوایب و مصایب مصون و محروس بمحمد و آله الطاهرین.
Colophon: برگ ۳۱۳ر (Folio 313a): تمت کتاب حدایق السحر فی علم الشعر علی ید العبد المحتاج الی فضل الله ابن الشیخ علي عطا الله اصلح الله شانه اللهم اغفر لکاتبه و لصاحبه و لقاریه و لمن نطرفیه امن برب العالمین.
Colophon: Two colophons, one on 287a dated Sunday 21 Sha‘bān 799 AH (28 May 1397 CE), and another on folio 313a signed by the scribe ‘Aṭā' Allāh ibn Shaykh ‘Alī.

In his addendum on first right flyleaf b side (f. ib), former owner Sir Gore Ouseley misinterprets the date of completion of the work by the author given in the explicit on 71b, Sunday 21 Sha‘bān 763 AH (23 Jun. 1362 CE), as a date of completion of that portion of the manuscript, then repeated by Michael Kerney in his handlist. For a copy of this poet's Dīvān, see Rylands Persian MS 531.

Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Text block of ivory-coloured, sized and polished paper likely handmade in Greater Iran.
Extent: 314 folios, 8 flyleaves (ff. iv + 314 + iv).
Dimensions (leaf): 263 × 170 mm.
Dimensions (written): 244 × 140 mm.
Foliation: Incomplete modern pencilled Arabic numerals on the upper-right corners of the a sides.

Collation

Undetermined. Catchword throughout on the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

Handle with caution. Text in poor condition.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 20 lines in the centres of the pages, with another 44 hemistichs in the surrounding margins, for 64 lines totalled. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in black nasta‘līq script with gold headers by ‘Aṭā' Allāh ibn Shaykh ‘Alī.

Decoration


Illumination: Folio 1b, top header bears a gold Kufic basmala on an ultramarine ground.

Ruling: Vertical columns, horizontal section breaks, and margins ruled in gold single lines outlined with thin black single lines.

Additions:
Inscriptions: The the right flyleaves (ff. ivb–ib) bears a description of the manuscript and the work's author, signed by former owner Sir Gore Ouseley, Hall Barn Park, Feb. 1838, written from left-to-right.
Bookplates:
  • Right doublure: ‘Sir Gore Ouseley’.
  • Left doublure: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with shelfmark ‘F/4’, and ‘Bland MSS No. 298’.

Binding

Probably bound in India then subsequently restored for former owner Sir Gore Ouseley.

Resewn on five recessed cords laced into the original boards. Edges trimmed, coloured red, with tall front-bead endbands sewn at head and tail in brown and white silkthreads. Original boards of smooth, polished dark red goatskin leather, with internal doublures of the same. New flyleaves added when restored, and the original board rebacked in British tan coloured calfskin leather.

Original boards blocked in gold with scalloped central mandorlas, detached pendants, and corners featuring floral scrollwork designs, the last with prominent irises. Rebacked spine fully paletted in gold and titled
‘KULIAT
I
SELMAN’.

Binding in sound by fair condition, with some abrasion to the exterior decoration and the rebacked spine.

Seal(s):
Folios 1a and 287a bear several black seal impressions, a round, obliterated, possibly 15th-century Timurid one, with two others legible, both intaglio-carved in nasta‘līq script in three stacked lines:

1: A small round, scalloped seal impression, single ruled, with the name of a former owner or associate, Farīdūn Aḥmad:

‘بفریدون المستهر المعتمد احمد علی الله الصمد’

~12 mm. dia.

2: An elongated hexagonal seal impression, double-ruled, bears the name of a former owner or associate, Sayyid Muḥammad:

‘غلام خاندان محمد سید استاء غبار اشرع احمد’

11.5 × 17 mm.

History

Origin: Possibly completed by ‘Aṭā' Allāh ibn Shaykh ‘Alī in Shiraz; 799 AH (1396–97 CE).

Provenance and Acquisition

Probably previously owned by Farīdūn Aḥmad and another individual named Sayyid Muḥammad, as per their seal impressions on 1a.

Subsequently acquired by Sir Gore Ouseley (1770–1844).

Later obtained by scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865), after whose death, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in 1866.

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.

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2021 with reference to the volume in hand, and in consultation with Elaine Wright, Curator of Islamic Collections, Chester Beatty Library (retired), regarding potetntial attributions for the manuscript.

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.

Digital Images

Manchester Digital Collections (full digital facsimile).

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute


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