Persian MS 822 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
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.
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
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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