Persian MS 814 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
مير خواند، محمد بن خواندشاه
عبد الرزاق كمال الدين ابن اسحاق السمرقندى
وصاف الحضره، عبد الله بن فضل الله خواجه عبداله بن فضل الله يزدی
خواند مير، غياث الدين بن همام الدين
داود بن محمد فخر الدين بناكتى
While Forbes accurately describes this work in his catalogue, C. A. Storey and prior electronic records misattribute the work to ‘Alā' al-Dīn ‘Aṭā' Malik Juvaynī (1226–1283), author of the Ilkhanid chronicle Tārīkh-i Jahāngushāy. Clearly a much later member of the prominent Iranian Juvaynī family who emigrated to India, he states in his preface that he relied upon five earlier sources, although curiously, the Tārīkh-i Jahāngushāy does not appear among them:
- Rawz̤at al-Ṣafā (Garden of the Pure) by Mīrkhvānd Muḥammad ibn Khāvandshāh (1433–1498).
- Rawz̤at [Ūlī] al-Albāb (Garden of the Primary Intellects) by Abū Sulaymān Dāwūd ibn Abī al-Faz̤l Muḥammad Banākitī (fl. 1317).
- Maṭla‘ al-Sa‘dayn (The Rising of the Two Auspicous Planets [Jupiter and Venus]) by ʻAbd al-Razzāq Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Isḥāq al-Samarqandī (1413–1482).
- Tārīkh-i Vaṣṣāf (Chronicle of Vaṣṣāf) by ‘Abd Allāh ibn Faz̤l Allāh Vaṣṣāf al-Ḥaz̤rat (ca. 1264–1329).
- Ḥabīb al-Siyar (Beloved of Virtues) by Ghiyās̲ al-Dīn ibn Humām al-Dīn, Khvānd Mīr, (ca. 1475–1535).
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column with 20 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
The majority of the text written in dense miniscule black nasta‘līq with red nasta‘līq and naskh subheaders.
The replaced first and final folios written in comparatively extended black nasta‘līq.
Decoration
Ruling: The first and final replacement folios hastily ruled in single blue and double red lines. The remainder ruled with thick gold lines outlined with thin black single black internal and double external lines, with another comparatively thin interior line of gold, outlined with thin single lines, all bounded by single red interior and dark blue exterior lines.
Inscriptions:
- The right pastedown numbered ‘D. F. 99 98’ and a price of ‘£2.12.6.’ both pertaining to former owner Duncan Forbes.
- Page 1 signed ‘Fanny Birch 1796’ by former owner, Frances Jane Birch in both Persian and English.
Binding
While Frances Jane Birch signed page 1, the later binding style suggest that London binder possibly rebound it for subsequent owner Duncan Forbes.
Thin-weight ivoury-coloured, machine-made wove endpapers, stiff-leaved to terra-cotta coloured machine-made wove paper added at the beginning and end. Resewn on three recessed cords, laced into pasteboards. Edges trimmed, and endbands of blue silk threads twined at head and tail. Covered in full dark maroon artificially embossed diced goatskin leather.
Board margins blind-tooled with thin-and-thick fillet lines and an interior decorative roll featuring a foliate palmette design. Board edges also blind-tooled with zig-zags. Untitled.
254 × 159 × 19 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition with headcaps missing, endbands exposed, and wear along the board edges.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Subsequently acquired by Frances Jane Birch, neé Rider (1773–1828), as per her signature on page 1. Born in Chunipore (Chunipur), she married Robert Comyn Birch (1760–1807) in 1789. After his death in Calcutta (Kolkata), she returned to Britain with this volume.
After Birch's death, her survivors sold some of her effects on 29 July, 1828 through the London firm of Edward Forster. For more on her life, see Péri et al, who notes other manuscripts she formerly owned now held in the Hungarian National and Bodleian Libraries.
Possibly purchased at the Birch sale by Duncan Forbes (1798–1868). Ultimately appointed King's College Professor of Oriental Languages, Forbes later described the volume in his 1866 catalogue, valued at £2 12s 6d (also inscribed on the right pastedown, before he sold his manuscript collection to his publisher W. H. Allen & Co. in exchange for an annuity.
Subsequently sold by that firm to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in 1866 for his 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 2023 with reference to the manuscript in hand, and in consultation with Jan Jelinowski.
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)
Bibliography
Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute and Library
The Persian Heritage Foundation
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