Persian MS 809 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The first of three volumes of the Ḥabīb al-Siyar (Beloved of Biographies), uniformly bound with Persian MS 810 and 811. Originally completed in 937 AH (1530–1531 CE) by Ghiyās̲ al-Dīn ibn Humām al-Dīn (ca. 1475–1535) known as Khvāndamīr (1487–1524 CE), a maternal grandson of Timurid-era historian Mīrkhvānd (1433–1498), he presents a general history spanning the pre-Islamic period until the reign of Shāh Ismāʿīl I, which dedicates to then-governor of Herat, Karīm al-Din Khvājah Ḥabīb-Allāh Sāvajī (fl. early-mid 16th c.), hence the title. The entire work consists of a preface, an introduction, followed by three volumes, containing four sections each appended with lists of names of prominent figures associated with specific periods, followed by an epilogue.

Author: Khvānd Mīr, Ghiyās̲ al-Dīn ibn Humām al-Dīn, ca. 1475-1535? خواند مير، غياث الدين بن همام الدين

Title: Ḥabīb al-siyar

Title: حبيب السير

Language(s): Persian

For other copies of this work held in the Rylands see, Persian MS 165, 398 and 399 (3 volumes bound in two), 809, 810, 811 (3 vols), 815, 816, (3 vols. bound in 2), 971, and 972, as well as 973, and 974 (2 vols). For a full analysis, see Bockholt. For English translations of select extracts by Henry Lushington, see Elliot and Dowson.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of medium-weight, straight-grained, heavily flocked, buff-coloured, sized and polished paper probably handmade in the Britain with ~10 laid lines per cm and 26 mm between chain lines.

Extent: 517 folios, 6 flyleaves (ff. iii + 517 + iii).

Dimensions (leaf): 268 × 155 mm.

Dimensions (written): 173 × 91 mm.

Foliation: Foliated in black Hindu-Arabic numerals on the upper-left corners of the a sides throughout.

Collation

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

Condition

Handle text with caution. In fair but stable condition, with extensive water damage, stains, and historical repairs throughout.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 17 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black naskh with red subheaders.

Replacement folios written in a comparatively large thin black naskh with violent subheaders.

Decoration

Headpiece: folio 1b bears an scalloped domed header.
97 × 91 mm.

Binding

Evidently rebound as a set for former owner Archibald Swinton after his return to Britain in 1766. Abbreviated resewing on six cords, laced into pasteboard, edges trimmed and marbled with a loose serpentine pattern drawn over a stone design in yellow, green, black, and red. Decorative front-bead decorative endbands sewn in red and yellow silk threads. Covered in full, bright green calfskin leather, tight-backed and tight-jointed, with 'French Curl'-patterned marbled endpapers.

Spine fully gilt, with Swinton's arms blocked on gold on black skiver leather label applied to the top panel with the title and volume panels in the same. Thick-and-thin dotted lines on the board margins.

289 × 171 × 53 mm.

Handle with caution. Exterior and board edges abraded, and joints cracked.

Seal(s):

Seals

3 (Spine):Swinton's arms blocked in gold on a skiver leather label adhered to the upper panel of the spine, features a boar tethered to an oak tree:

18 × 17 mm.

History

Origin: estimated by Kerney 1000 AH

Provenance and Acquisition

Subsequently acquired by Captain Archibald Swinton (1731–1804), who served in the East India Company from 1752 to 1766, initially served as a surgeon then later as an interpreter and emissary for Lord Robert Clive (1725–1774), the first Governor of the Bengal Presidency. After amassing a significant collection of manuscripts and works of art, he returned to Britain where he evidently commissioned the rebinding of the first six volumes of this set together with another that closely matches (Rylands Persian MS 182)

After Swinton's death, James Christie Jr (1773–1831) sold his collection in London on 6 June 1810 (see catalogue, p. 4, ‘2d Set’), where a person named ‘Nichol’, possibly London antiquarian John Nichol (1745–1826), purchased it for £1 11 shillings and sixpence.

Possibly sold by Nichols to Edward Sheffield Montagu (1794–1823) whose seal appears impressed in third volume, dated 1815. He studied oriental languages at Fort William in circa 1816–1818, and ultimately served in the Bengal Civil Service as the deputy Persian secretary, but then tragically tragically died young, aged 29 at the Cape of Good Hope on 29 Oct. 1823. So, it seems his widow probably thereafter returned to Britain with his manuscripts then sold them.

Subsequently acquired from an unidentified source by orientalist and University of Oxford Boden Professor of Sanskrit Horace Hayman Wilson (1786–1860).

After Wilson's death, the London firm of Sotheby and Wilson sold his library on 28–31 Jan. 1861; however, this volume does not appear in that catalogue. It seems that bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) acquired the set then sold it for £5 to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880), on 27 March 1862 for the 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.

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2024with 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

S. Bashir, 'A Perso-Islamic Universal Chronicle in Its Historical Context: Ghiyas al-Din Khwandamir's Habib al-siyar', in History and Religion: Narrating a Religious Past, edited by J. Rüpke, S. Rau, and B. C. Otto (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015) pp. 207–223.

P. Bockholt, Ein Bestseller der islamischen Vormoderne Zur Verbreitung von Ḫvāndamīrs Ḥabīb as-siyar von Anatolien bis auf den indischen Subkontinent (Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2022), pp. 127, tbl. 5, no. 130; Appendix, pp. 252–255.

P. Bockholt, ‘Khvāndamīr’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE (2020).

H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India, As Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, Vol. IV (London: Trübner & Co., 1872), pp. 154–212, no. XXVI (with translated excerpts contributed by Henry Lushington.

H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office, Vol. I (London: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903), cols. 25–30, nos. 79–99 [British Library IO Islamic 1788, &c.].

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), pp. 261–262, no. 923(ii).

S. Rafiee-Rad, 'Persian Manuscripts in Samuel Robinson’s Collection in The John Rylands Library', Manuscripta: A Journal for Manuscript Research, Vol. 61, No. 2 (2017): pp. 253–256 [Rylands Persian MS 971–974].

F. Richard, 'Jean-Baptiste Gentil, collectionneur de manuscrits persans', Dix-Huitième Siècle, No. 28 (1996): pp. 91–110.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), pp. 98–102 [British Library Add. 23508, &c.].

E. Sachau and H. Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), cols. 33–38, nos. 70–82 [Bodleian MS. Elliot 142].

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. 1 Pt. 1 (London: Luzac & Co., 1927), pp. 101–102, 104–109, no. 125 (3).

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

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