Persian MS 826 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: A complete copy of the Tārīkh-i Firishtah (History of Firishtah), also known as the Gulshan-i Ibrāhīm (Rose-garden of Ibrāhīm), a chronicle by historian Muḥammad Qāsim Hindūshāh Astarābādī (fl. ca. 1585–1625), pennamed 'Firishtah' (Angel). He completed two redactions, one in 1015 (1606–07 CE) and another in 1018 (1609–10 CE) entitled Tārīkh-i Nawras'nāmah, both dedicated to his patron, the ruler of the Deccan Sultanate of Bijapur Ibrāhīm ‘Ādil Shāh II (b. r. ). It features a preface on the pre-Islamic rulers of India followed by the Islamic period in twelve books. Since he relates many eyewitness accounts of his time in the Deccan, scholars till deem it a valuable reference today. This manuscript previously belonged to Captain Jonathan Scott, who notably referenced it to published the very first paraphrased English translation of select passages in 1794.

Author: Firishtah, Muḥammad Qāsim Hindū Shāh Astarābādī;
فرشته، محمد قاسم هندوشاه استرآبادی

Title: Tārīkh-i Firishtah

Title: Gulshan-i Ibrāhīmī

Title: تاريخ فرشته

Title: گلشن ابراهیمی

Language(s): Persian

For other copies of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 378 and 379 (2 vols.), 380, and 1014–1016 (3 vols).

Physical Description

Form: codex

Dimensions (leaf): 419 × 240 mm.

Dimensions (written):

Foliation: Hindu-Arabic numerals written on the upper-left corners of the a sides throughout.

Collation

Quaternions throughout. Catwords on the lower-left corners of most b sides throughout.

Condition

Text in good condition, with water stains at the fore-edge and occasional historical repairs.

Layout

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

Hand(s)

Written in several black hands with red subheaders, ranging from clear nasta‘līq to hasty shikastah, some of which pick up part-way through a page, indicating a group of scribes collaborated to complete the volume.

Additions:
Marginalia: Notes throughout in various hands, including Persian and pencilled English, the latter possibly by Jonathan Scott.
Inscriptions: The first right flyleaf a side (f. ia) bears a note by former owner George Cecil Renouard (1780–1867) on his acquisition of the volume:
‘This book was brought from India by Captain Jonathan Scott
who translated the History of the Dekkan (Dakkin for Dakshina, i.e. South)
in 2 vols, Shrewsbury, 1794. This book was sold with many others to
Priestley the bookseller in Holborn from whom I bought it in 1830 or
thereabouts for £30 or more. The printed Table of contents is taken from
Priestley's Catalogue.
G. C. Renouard 27 May 1863’. (NB, the exact Priestley catalogue awaits identification).
Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate, with the shelf mark ‘1/A’ and an earlier Lindesiana label with a prior class mark, ‘Persian MS 32’ subsequently crossed out and ‘829’ written aside.

Binding

Probably repaired and rebound in the Indian subcontinent, possibly for former owner Jonathan Scott (1574–1829).

Resewn at 2 stations, unsupported, edges trimmed, with twined chevron endbands in yellow and green silk at head and tail. Covered in full maroon goatskin leather, tight-backed, over pasteboards, flush-cut with the edges, but without a lap (Type III binding per Déroche), with internal doublures of the same leather, their excess widths adhered as hinges connecting to the first and last flyleaves to the cover, with strips of paper applied over top to disguise the joins.

423 × 249 × 75 mm.

Binding in good condition

Accompanying Material

Between folios 176b and 177a lies a loose binion, partly slit, with a Persian transcription of a passage, possibly in Scott's hand, paper watermarked R & T (or R & J?) 1820.

History

Origin: Completed by an unidentified scribe in the Indian subcontinent; undated, but probably mid-18th century CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

Acquired in the Indian subcontinent between circa 1767 and 1785 by Jonathan Scott (1574–1829) when he served there, then brought with other manuscripts to London where he sold them through the firm of Leigh and Sotheby on 5 Mar. 1808 where bookseller Richard Priestley (fl. 1803–1809) purchased it for £3, 13 shillings, and sixpence.

In ‘1830 or thereabouts’, Priestley sold the volume to scholar George Cecil Renouard (1780–1867) for ‘£30 or more’, as per the latter's note on the first right flyleaf a side (f. ia) dated 27 May 1863.

After Renouard's death, booksellers Williams & Norgate acquired Renouard's oriental manuscripts and sold fourteen volumes to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) on 9 Apr. 1867 for £7, 9 shillings.

Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands, on behalf of the John Rylands Library, in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford.

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 2023.

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

J. Briggs, 'Essay on the Life and Writings of Ferishta'. Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1829): pp. 341–361.

H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India, As Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, Vol. VI (London: Trübner & Co., 1875), pp. 207–236, no. LI.

H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office, Vol. 1 (London: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903), cols. 113–118, nos. 291–302 [British Library, IO Islamic 1408, etc.].

Firishtah, Ferishta's History of Dekkan from the first Mahummedan conquests. Translated by J. Scott. Shrewsbury: Printed by J. and W. Eddowes for John Stockdale, Picadilly, London, 1794.

Firishtah, Tarikh-i-Ferishta, or, History of the rise of the Mahomedan power in India, till the year A.D. 1612. Translated by Major-General John Briggs. Vols. I, II, III, and IV. London: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1829.

Firishtah, Tarikh-i-Ferishta, or, History of the rise of the Mahomedan power in India, till the year A.D. 1612, by Mahomed Kasim Ferishta, of Astrabad. Edited and collated from various manuscript copies on the spot, and examined with the best maps by Major-General John Briggs, F.R.S. ... assisted by Munshi Mir Kheirat Ali Khan Mushtak of Akberabad, Vols. I and II. Bombay: Lithographed at the Government College Press, 1831.

G. P. Greswell, Bibliotheca Chethamensis: Sive Bibliothecæ Publicæ Mancuniensis Ab Humfredo Chetham Armigero Fundatæ Catalogus, Vol. III (Mancunii: Henricus Smith, 1826), p. 164, no. 7992 [Rylands Persian MS 1013–1015].

G. R. G. Hambly, 'Ferešta, Tārīḵ-e', Encyclopædia Iranica, Vol. IX, Fasc. 5 (2003), pp. 533–534.

Leigh and S. Sotheby, A catalogue of a very elegant collection of Persian and Arabic manuscripts, finely illuminated; likewise, a very fine collection of Oriental Paintings, being chiefly portraits of the Eastern Emperors, and other distinguished persons, the Property of Jonathan Scott, LL.D. Private Secretary to Warren Hastings, Esq. (Governor General of Bengal,) and also late Oriental Professor of East India Collection, at Hertford, Likiewise his firearms (London: Leigh and Sotheby, 1808) p. 11, no. 117 [British Library S.C.S.59(1), Mic.B.740/Part1/reel18].

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), pp. 145–147, no. 471.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), pp. 225–228 [British Library Add. 6569–6571, &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), col. 116, no. 217 [Bodleian MS Hunt 265].

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. I, Pt. 2, Fasc. 3 (London: Luzac & Co., 1953), pp. 445-450, no. 617.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

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