Persian MS 815 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The first and second of three volumes of the Ḥabīb al-Siyar (Beloved of Biographies), uniformly bound as a set of two together with Persian MS 816. Originally completed by the author Ghiyās̲ al-Dīn ibn Humām al-Dīn (ca. 1475–1535) known as Khvāndamīr (1487–1524 CE), in 937 AH (1530–31 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. While unsigned and undated, mid-18th century notations and seal impressions within the volume suggest it dates to earlier that century, and comes from the Indian subcontinent.

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

Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): بسم‌الله الرحمن الرحیم * هست کلید در گنج حکیم | فاتحه فکرت ولطایف اخبار و لالی نثار انبیاء عالی مقدار و شرایف آثار معالی وثار سلاطین ذوی الاقتدار حمید الاثر و حبیب السیر وقتی تواند بود که مونسخ باشد

Explicit: برگ ۵۶۰ر (folio 560a): کفش بادا بسان ابرینان * بر اصحاب فضایل گوهر افشان | ظلال دولتش پاینده بادا * فلک پیوسته او را بنده بادا .

Colophon: تمت تمام شد

Colophon: Uninformative colophon

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, 973, and 974 (3 of 4 vols). For a full analysis, see Bockholt. For English translations of select extracts, see Elliot and Dowson.

Physical Description

Form: codex

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

Extent: 560 folios, 2 flyleaves (ff. i + 560 + i).

Dimensions (leaf): 289 × 192 mm.

Dimensions (written): 218 × 319 mm.

Foliation: Hindu-Arabic numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides throughout.

Foliation: Pencilled Arabic numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides when catalogued.

Collation

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

Condition

In fair condition, with moderate water and insect damage and historical repairs throughout.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 25 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in a hasty but clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders.

Decoration

Ruling: Text margins ruled in double red lines surrounding by single blue lines. Occasional horizontal headers also ruled in double red lines.

Additions:
Inscriptions:

The right pastedown, top: ‘D. F. 76’; bottom, ‘£4.4–’, both pertaining to former owner Duncan Forbes
Folio 1a bears several notes and signatures:
- Top: A partly trimmed note adjacent to seal no. 4, preserved in full in the corresponding volume, reports transfer of to the transfer of the volume to Mīrzā Ḥusayn ‘Alī Amīr on the start of Ẕī-al-Ḥijjah [11]62 (mid-Nov. 1749 CE):
  ‘بسم الله
  بفرزندی نور چشمی بهر از جان میرزا حسین علی ⟨امیر تحویل را⟩ بتاریخ غرة شهر ذی الحچه الحرام سنه ۱۱۶۲.’
- The title and volume number appear underneath, adjacent to seal no. 5, above a price of 60 rupees indicated in Indic sīyāq numerals. An adjacent note declares "known to Mullā Muḥammad Shākir" (‘معرفت مولوي محمد شاكر’).
- Centre-left: An obliterated signature of William Oliver
- The title and volumes noted in pencil in the hand of Duncan Forbes
- The title of the work and author's name appear in a miniscule red nasta‘līq hand.
- Centre:, above seal no. 3, declares acquisition of the volume from one ‘ Mīrzā Muhammad known as Bāqā Mīrzā’: ‘من مملكات العبد الاقل ميرزا محمد بلقب باقا ميرزا’
Folio 560b, bottom, numbered ‘Nº 3’.

Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with pencilled shelfmark ‘2/A’, and an earlier Lindesiana label ‘Persian MSS Nº 21’, with the number crossed out and ‘815’ written aside.

Binding

Probably rebound in London for Duncan Forbes.

Sewn on five recessed cords, laced into pasteboards. Endpapers of heavy-weight British-made wove added at the beginning and end. Edges trimmed and spattered russet brown. Front-bead decorative endbands of peach and green silk threads sewn at head and tail. Covered in half British tan coloured calfskin leather, tight-backed, and faced with predominantly green straight-waved "Spanish"-patterned marbled paper.

Spine panels paletted with triple fillet lines and bear the title and volume number, all in gold. Blind triple fillet lines adjacent to the marbled paper facing. Note that the same binder also evidently completed Persian MS 822 and others, probably for Forbes.

300 × 213 × 59 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition, with exterior abrasion to the board edges and torn headcaps, and opening to the gutter margins restricted.

Seal(s):

Folios 1a bears four black seal impressions, with two obliterated but still identifiable as that of former owner William Oliver, as well as a small black oval seal on 1b, and another small black rectangular impression on 560a.

1: Folio 1a, centre-right, bears a black relief-cut Latin script impression of the initials ‘W*O’ of former owner William Oliver, since obliterated.
21.5 × 26 mm.

2: Folio 1a, bottom-right, also bears an Anglo-Persian, black octagonal seal impression, intaglio-carved in one nastaliq line, double-ruled, with the name of former owner William Oliver dated 1804, since obliterated:
‘ولیم اولر ۱۸۰۴.’ 21.5 × 26 mm.

3: Folio 1a, centre-left, bears a large legible oval seal impression, intaglio-carved in three nasta‘līq lines read from bottom up, with the name of former owner Mīrzā Muḥammad Fidvī, dated 1150 AH (1737–1738 CE), during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Muḥammad Shāh (b. 1702, r. 1719–1748):
‘میر تقی علی فدوی بادشاه غازی محمد فرخ سیر عالمگیر ثانی ’
22 × 31 mm.

4: Folio 1a, top edge, bears a small legible rectangular seal impression, intaglio-carved in two naskh lines read from bottom up, single-ruled, that invokes the Prophet Muḥammad, possibly dated 1144 AH (1731–1732 CE), hence probably a namesake seal for a former owner by that name, adjacent to his trimmed inscription:
‘يا محمد’
9 × 11 mm.

5: Folio 1a, top, bears a small, legible rectangular seal impression, intaglio-carved in two naskh lines read from bottom up, single-ruled, that bears the name of a former owner named Muḥammad Ḥusyan, dated 1152 AH (1739–1740 CE), adjacent to his inscription:
‘محمد حسين’
10 × 12 mm.

6: Folio 1b, top-right, bears a small legible seal oval impression intaglio-carved in two naskh script lines read from bottom, double-ruled, upward bearing an Arabic quote from the Qur'ān, Sūrah Muḥammad verse 2 (47:2), hence probably a namesake seal for a former owner by that name:
‘وَآمَنُوا بِمَا نُزِّلَ عَلَىٰ مُحَمَّدٍ’
10 × 13 mm.

7: A small rectangular black impression in two nasta‘līq lines bears the Shahadah and may represent a namesake seal of someone named Muḥammad:
10 × 13 mm.

History

Origin: Probably completed in the Indian subcontinent; undated, probably early 18th century CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

Subsequently owned, inspected, or transferred by at least six individuals in the Indian subcontinent as indicated by various seal impressions and notations.

Subsequently acquired by William Oliver (d. 1847), an employee of the East India Company and Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, as per his inscription and seal impression on folio 1a, albeit obliterated. An early graduate of Fort William College, he ultimately served on the Madras Presidency Council Board until his retirement in 1836, then returned to Britain, evidently with this volume. However, the dispersal of his manuscript collection after his death remains unclear.

Subsequently obtained from an unidentified source by orientalist Duncan Forbes (1798–1868). Ultimately appointed King's College Professor of Oriental Languages, Forbes described this volume in his 1866 catalogue, valued at £4 4s (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 W. H. Allen & Co. 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 2024 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

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 John Rylands Research Institute

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation

Comments

Comment on this record