Persian MS 816 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The second of two volumes of the Ḥabīb al-Siyar (Beloved of Biographies), uniformly bound with Persian MS 815. 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): یا رب به ثنای خود سخن سازم کن * در گلشن حمد نغمه پردازم کن

Explicit: برگ ۵۶۰ر (folio 560a): بارقام اسلام ده اختتام * کتاب بقای مرا و السّلام.

Colophon: No 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), 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.

Folio 1b

Title: Juz'-i Avvāl

Title: جزء اوّل از مجلد سیم در ذکر خانان ترستان و بیان حکومت جنگز خان و اولاد او در بلاد ایران و توران

Folio 96b

Title: Juz'-i Duvum

Title: جزء دوم از مجلد سیم در ذکر بعضی از طبقات ولاة که معصر جنگز خان لباس پادشاهی پوشیده اندوکاس عنایت بی نهایت الهی نوشیده

Folio 149b

Title: Juz'-i Sivum

Title: جزء سیم از مجلد ثالث در ذکر صادراتافعال و ارادت احوال حضرت صاحب قران امیر تیمور گورگان و بیان شمه از وقایع اولاد و احفاد آن پادشاه گیتی ‌ستان تا این زمان

Folio 411b

Title: Juz'-i Chahārum

Title: جزء جهارم از مجلد سیم در ذکر طلوع افتاب دولت و اقبال شاهی و یبان واختصاص آنحضرت باصناف الطاف و عنایات الهی

Folio 485a

Title: Khātimah

Title: اختتام در ذکر بدایع و غرایب ربع مسکون و عجایب و وقایع جهان بوملمون

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock comprised of two types of straight and cross-grained, lightly externally sized and polished, paper, both probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent, one with ~8 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.

Extent: 512 folios, 4 flyleaves (ff. ii + 512 + ii).

Dimensions (leaf): 287 × 193 mm.

Dimensions (written): 226 × 132 mm.

Foliation: Hindu-Arabic numerals added to the top-centres of the a sides throughout.

Collation

Undetermined. Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides, albeit many trimmed when rebound.

Condition

Handle text with caution. In poor condition with many breaks in the marginal ruling both in the gutters and at the fore-edge, resulting from corrosive copper verdigiris pigment. Folios 61 and 124 both crumpled. Otherwise, moderate stains and historical repairs throughout.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 27 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq 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.

Ruling: Folios 1b and 2a text margins ruled with a wide band of gold outlined with thin single internal and double external black lines, with interior single narrow lines of gold outlined with single black lines on either side, with verdigris single lines between, now degreaded, and all surrounded by single dark blue lines. The margins of folios 2b onwards siimilarly ruled, but with the addition of a single vermilion interior lines.

Additions:
Marginalia: notes in the margins in various hands throughout.
Table of Contents: see Accessory Materials
Inscriptions:

The right pastedown: top, ‘D.F. 77’; bottom: ‘£4.4.-’, both pertaining to former owner Duncan Forbes
The second right flyleaf a side (f. iia), top bears a price of 45 rupees indicated in Indic sīyāq numerals repeated twice along with the title and volume number in hasty nasta‘līq tree times, and once in pencil in the hand of former owner Duncan Forbes.
The title of the work and author's name appear in a miniscule red nasta‘līq hand.
Folio 1a bears several notes and signatures:
- Top: Below the title and volume number, a note declares "known to Mullā Muḥammad Shākir" (‘معرفت مولوي محمد شاكر’) above a price of 60 rupees indicated in Indic sīyāq.
- Top-left: adjacent to the oblierated seals, a price in an obliterated
- Centre-left:, 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’
- Centre-left:, a partially legible notation to the left of seal no. 3 states 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.’
- Centre:, an obliterated signature of William Oliver
- Below seal no. 3, a nearly complete note describes acquisition of the volume in Agra on ‘7 Sha‘bān’ with the year cut off.
- Bottom, a lengthy note in shikastah describes the work and acquisition of the volume by one Ghālib Muḥammad Ṭāhir on 22 Shavvāl in the fourth year of the reign of Muḥammad Shāh (b. 1702, r. 1719–1748) (1134 AH/ 5 Aug. 1722 CE) in Murshidabad, Bengal.
Folio 511b, bottom, numbered ‘Nº 4’.

Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with pencilled shelfmark ‘2/A’, and an earlier Lindesiana label ‘Persian MSS Nº 22’, with the number crossed out and ‘816’ 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.

299 × 212 × 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 six seal impressions, four obliterated with two identifiable as that of former owner William Oliver, a small oval seal on 1b, and one small rectangular impression on 512a.

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 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.

5: 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.

Accompanying Material

A separate piece of thin-weight, cross-grained, cream-coloured paper with ~7 laid lines per cm and adhered to the second right flyleaf b side (f. iib) bears the table of contents written in Persian, omitted in the companion volume.
Between 87b and 88a a torn endleaf bears a note in an unidentified hand:
‘N. B. A few leaves here about must be touched up by M^r Tucket’.

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 four individuals in the Indian subcontinent as indicated by 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

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