Persian MS 823 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

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Persian Manuscripts

Contents

Summary of Contents: Author Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn Baranī (fl. 1284–1356) first completed his Tārīkh-i Fīrūz Shāh (History of Fīrūz Shāh) when 74 years old in 758 AH (1357 CE). From an prominent Delhi family, he personally knew influential figures and poets including Amīr Khusraw and Ḥasan Dihlavī. Intended to continue an earlier history of the Delhi Sultanate Ṭabaqāt-i Nāṣirī (Stages of Nāṣīr) completed by Minhāj Sirāj Jūzjānī (1193–1266) in circa 1259–1260 CE, the work covers the reigns of Balban to Fīrūz-S̲h̲āh’s sixth year, or nearly a century between 664–758 AH/1265–1357 CE. A scribe named Makhan La‘l completed this manuscript, which contains many variant lines in comparison with others, Farrukhabad 26 Sha‘bān 1230 AH (3 Aug. 1815 CE).
Author: Z̤iyāʼ al-Dīn Baranī, fl. 1284–1356 ضياء الدين برنى
Scribe: Makhan La‘l;
مکہن لعل
Title: Tārīkh-i Fīrūz Shāh
Title: تاریخ فیروز شاه
Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b):
Explicit: برگ ۱پ (folio 1b):
Colophon: برگ ۱پ (folio 1b):
Colophon: Completed by Makhan La‘l at Farrukhabad 26 Sha‘bān 1230 AH (3 Aug. 1815 CE).
Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Textblock of medium-weight, cross-grained, lightly externally sized and highly polished, ivory-coloured paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~9 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.
Extent: 342 folios, 4 flyleaves (ff. ii + 342 + ii).
Dimensions (leaf): 247 × 203 mm.
Dimensions (written): 211 × 125 mm.
Foliation: Modern Arabic numerals pencilled on the upper-left corners of the a sides throughout.

Collation

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

Condition

Text in good condition.

Layout

Written in 1 to 3 columns with up to 17 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders by Makhan La‘l.

Additions:
Inscriptions:
Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with pencilled shelfmark ‘2/F’, and an earlier Lindesiana label ‘Persian MSS No. 29’, with the number crossed out and ‘823’ written aside.

Binding

Probably rebound in Britain for an unidentified former owner.

Heavy weight wove endpapers added to the beginning and end then resewn on three recessed cords laced into pasteboards. Edges trimmed, and woven cloth endbands adhered to head and tail Covered in full sheepskin leather, tight-backed, over false bands.

Spine labels probably added for former owner Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford as the typeface conforms with others completed for him. Titled ‘TAREEKHI
FEROOZSHAHI
PERSIAN’.

260 × 220 × 53 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition, albeit extensively abraded on the spine and board edges, with cracked joints, and broken headcaps.

Accompanying Material

Note between folios 76b–77a.

History

Origin: Completed by Makhan La‘l at Farrukhabad; 26 Sha‘bān 1230 AH (3 Aug. 1815 CE).

Provenance and Acquisition

While the circumstances under which this manuscript arrived in Britain remain unclear, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) probably acquired from an unidentified source then sold it to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in the 1860s, who then accessioned into the 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 2025 with reference to the volume 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

    The Táríkh-i Feroz-sháhí of Ziaa al-Din Barni, commonly Ziaa-i Barni. Edited by Saiyid Ahmad Khán, under the Supervision of Captain W. Nassau Lees Calcutta: W.N. Lees’ Press, 1860–1862
    H. M. Elliot and J. Dowson, The History of India, As Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, Vol. III (London: Trübner & Co., 1871), pp. 99–268, no. XV.
    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. col. 90, no. 211 [British Library IO Islamic 177].
    P. Hardy, 'Baranī, Żīāʾ-al-Dīn' Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III, Fasc. 7 (1988), pp. 753–754.
    C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. III (London: British Museum1883), p. 919–920 [British Library Or. 2039].
    C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. I Pt. 1 (London: Luzac & Co., 1927), pp. 505–508, no. 666.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation

Subjects

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