Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Persian MS 822 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Contents

Summary of Contents: A complete copy of the Muntakhab al-Lubāb (Selections of the Intellects) by Muḥammad Hāshim Khāfī Khān (ca. 1663–1731). Comprised of three books, the first covers pre-Mughal dynasties up to the Lodi Sultanate. The second relates the history of the Timurid dynasty and their Mughal descendants up to the reign of Emperor Akbar, including the Sur interregnum; The third volume covers the reigns of Jahangīr to the 14th year of the reign of Muḥammad Shāh (b. 1702, r. 1719–1748), in 1742. Since the events he records from 1669 to 1742 reflect his own experiences and events that he personally witness, historians deem it an invaluable source on the later Mughal period.
Incipit: (basmalla) صقحه‌ی ۱ (page 1): جهان جهان شکره و سپاس افزودن از قیاس پادشاهی را سزاست که بمقتضای حکمت بالغه وجود جهانداران...
Explicit: صقحه‌ی ۸۰۶ (page 806): ...بعد افغان کشی زیاد فوجها جایچا(؟) برای اخراخ(ج) افغان و فوج روم یقین نمود بعد مدت است و نه سال سریر آرای ملک موروثی گردید
Colophon: صقحه‌ی ۸۰۶ (page 806): تمت الکتاب المسمی بمنتخب اللباب
Colophon: Uninformative colophon.
Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Textblock of medium-weight, straight-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: 808 pages, 2 flyleaves (ff. i + 404 + i).
Dimensions (leaf): 380 × 229 mm.
Dimensions (written): 301 × 138 mm.
Foliation: Arabic page numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides by former owner Duncan Forbes.

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 moderateinsect damage and historical repairs throughout, and many fold-outs that require careful unfolding to consult.

Layout

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

Hand(s)

Written in hasty, bold, black nasta‘līq with red subheaders.

Additions:
Marginalia: notes in the margins in various hands throughout.
Inscriptions: The right pastedown, top: ‘D. F. 3.-’; bottom, ‘£5.15.6.’, both pertaining to former owner Duncan Forbes
Folio 1a, top, bears a crossed out signature, the title written in Latin characters in pencil in an unidentified hand, with the number ‘5’ written below.
Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with pencilled shelfmark ‘1/A’, and an earlier Lindesiana label ‘Persian MSS Nº. 28’, with the number crossed out and ‘822’ 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. White, black and green striped fabric endbands adhered to head and tail. Covered in half British tan coloured calfskin leather, tight-backed, and faced with predominantly green straight-waved "shell"-patterned marbled paper.

Spine panels paletted with triple fillet lines in gold with blind tripple fillet lines on either side, and a russet-coloured goatskin leather label bearing the title lettered in gold. Blind triple fillet lines adjacent to the marbled paper facing. Note that the same binder also evidently completed Persian MS 815 and 816 and others, probably for Forbes.

391 × 250 × 55 mm.

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

History

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

Provenance and Acquisition

Subsequently acquired by an unidentified, possibly British owner, as per a signature on 1a, subsequently crossed out.

While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, orientalist Duncan Forbes (1798–1868) obtained it from an unidentified source. 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

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation


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