Persian MS 828 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The Muqaddimah (Preface) to the Ẓafarnāmah (Book of Victory) composed by historian Sharaf al-Dīn ʻAlī Yazdī (d. 1454) in 822 AH (1419–1420 CE), and frequently referred to by another title, the Tārīkh-i Jahāngīr (History of the World-Seizer). He later completed the entire work in 828 AH (1424–1425 CE) for the Timurid prince and bibliophile, Ibrāhīm Sulṭān b. Shāh Rukh (1394–1435) to chronicle the life and exploits of his patron's father Shāh Rukh Mīrzā (b. 1337, r. 1405–1447) and grandfather Tīmūr (b. 1336, r. 1370–1405), founder of the Timurid dynasty (1370–1507). The preface does not always appear in copies of the Ẓafarnāmah (Book of Victory), but as a separate standalone work, as in this manuscript. A scribe named Qā'im Muḥammad possibly completed this undated volume in the in Bengal in the early 18th century CE.

Author: Sharaf al-Dīn ʻAlī Yazdī, d. 1454 شرف الدين على يزدى

Patron, Subject and Dedicatee: Ibrāhīm Sulṭān b. Shāh Rukh, 1394–1435

Scribe: Qā'im Muḥammad

Title: Muqaddimah-'i Ẓafarnāmah

Title: مقدمهٔ ظفرنامه

Title: Tārīkh-i Jahāngīr

Title: تاریخ جهانگير

Title: Iftitāḥ-i Ẓafarnāmah

Title: افتتاح ظفرنامه

Incipit: (basmala) صقحه‌ی ۱ (page 1): افتتاح تاریخ جهانداری و ابتدای نامه ظفر و بختیاری حمد و سپاس حضرت پادشاهی تواند بود...

Explicit: صقحه‌ی ٢٣۴ (page 234): تمت المقدمه بعون الله و لوهاب(؟). حرره احقر العباد قايم محمد عفی عنه

Colophon:

Language(s): Persian

For other copies of the Ẓafarnāmah held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 166, 167, 226, 372, 829, 830, and 899.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of cross-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: 234 pages folios, 4 flyleaves (ff. ii + 167 + ii).

Dimensions (leaf): 226 × 128 mm.

Dimensions (written): 162 × 78 mm.

Foliation: Unfoliated, with a final page pencilled Arabic page numeral added to the upper-left corners of the a side of the final folio 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 poor condition, with extensive water and insect damage and historical repairs throughout.

Layout

Written in 1 to 2 columns with column with 17 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders by Qā'im Muḥammad.

Decoration

Illumination: page 1 bears a damaged scalloped domed headpiece with gilt palmette foliate scrollwork on an ultramarine ground and a basmala within the central cartouche, avertical radiating lines, now abraded.

Ruling: Margins ruled in gold outlined with thin single interior and double exterior black lines throughout.

Additions:
Inscriptions: The left pastedown bears a description of the work in both pencil and ink of former owner Duncan Forbes.
The first right flyleaf a side (f. ia) numbered ‘D. F. 205’ and priced ‘£3.3’, both pertaining to bears Forbes' catalogue, along with mathematical calculations.
The the third left flyleaf b side (f. iiib) bears a French note in the hand of Jean-Baptiste Gentil with a response underneath by Duncan Forbes.
Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with pencilled shelfmark ‘1/J’, and an earlier Lindesiana label ‘Persian MSS No. 34’, with the number crossed out and ‘828’ written aside.

Binding

Possibly bound in Bengal in the mid-18th century CE.

Resewn on two recessed cords. Edges trimmed, and striped fabric headbands adhered to head and tail, probably when rebacked in Europe.

Board exteriors decorated with dark yellow ochre paper onlays blocked with central mandorals and detached pendants bearing floral designs. Board margins rulled with interior double and exterior triple lines. Rebacked spine panels divided with tripple fillet lines in gold. Also blind tooled with double and sinlge fillet lines. Small typed Persian naskh paper label on the spine.

223 × 141 × 26 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition, with extensicve wear to the exterior, and abrasion to the rebacked spine.

Seal(s):

The first right flyleaf a side (f. ia) bears a rectangular black seal impression, intaglio-carved in three stacked nasta‘līq lines, double-ruled, read from top, the bottom to the middle, with the name of Jean-Baptiste Joseph Gentil dated 1182 AH (1768–69 CE):
‘مدیر الملک رفیع الدوله جنتیل بهادر ناظم جنگ ۱۱۸۲’
18 × 22 mm.

History

Origin: A scribe named Qā'im Muḥammad possibly completed this undated volume in Bengal; undated but possibly early 18th century CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

Later acquired by French military figure Jean-Baptiste Gentil (1726–1799 CE), as per his seal impression on the second right flyleaf a side (f. iia). He fought the British East India Company in Pondicherry, Bengal, and Awadh, the latter fighting on behlaf of Shuja‘ al-Dawlah.

After Gentil returned to France in 1778, he offered it up for sale, together with other manuscripts, under the guise of the late ‘Chevalier de Caunun, Ancien Gouverneur de Chandernagor’ on 9 July 1789.

While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, John Haddon Hindley subsequently acquire it and offered it for sale through the London> firm of Leigh and Sotheby on 10 Mar. 1793, where he evidently sold it as it is omitted from his subsequent sale on 6 Jun. 1805.

Subsequently obtained from an unidentified source by orientalist Duncan Forbes (1798–1868). Ultimately appointed King's College Professor of Oriental Languages, who described this volume in his 1866 catalogue, no. 205, valued at £3. 3s (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, and in consultation with Prof Charles Melville, University of Cambridge, regarding the Hindley then Ford's acquisition of Gentil's manuscripts.

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

Anonymous, Notice de manuscrits persans, après le décès de M .C ***, Maréchal des Camps et Armées du Roi, Ancien Gouverneur de Chandernagor. ([Paris?], Leclerc Pere & fils, 1789), p. 7 no. LVII.

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. 78, no. 173 [BL IO Islamic 984] [British Library IO Islamic 842(8), 2082, &c.].

D. Forbes, Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, Chiefly Persian, Collected Within the Last Five and Thirty years (London: W. H. Allen., 1866), pp. 67–68, no. 205.

Leigh and Sotheby, A catalogue of the curious and very valuable library of books, and classical and oriental manuscripts, of the Rev. John Haddon Hindley... (London: Leigh and Sotheby, 1793), p. 43, no. 1263.

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), p. 441, no. 1681.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), p. 173 [British Library Add. 25024].

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. 87, no. 153 [Bodleian MS. Ouseley 263].

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. 1 Pt. 1 (London: Luzac & Co., 1927), pp. 271, no. 347 and pp. 283–288, no. 356.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation

Subjects

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