Persian MS 832 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column with 16 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders.
Bookplates: The left doublure: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with pencilled shelfmark ‘1/F’, and an earlier Lindesiana label‘Persian MSS No. 38’, with the number crossed out and ‘832’ written aside.
Binding
Probably rebound in the Indian subcontinent in a hybrid British-Indian style, possibly for former Henry George Keene.
Resewn on two recessed cord supports, laced into pasteboards. Edges trimmed, spattered pale gray, and decorative front-bead endbands sewn at at head and tail. Covered in full smooth-grained maroon goatskin leather.
Boards diced on the exteriors, with the margins repeatedly stamped with a rosette in blind. Spine panels divided with single fillet lines in gold, with a green leather label titled:
‘LIFE OF
CHRIST IN
PERSIAN’.
244 × 149 × 42 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition, with the upper headcap torn and headband broken.
Folios la beas a single black octagonal intaglio-carved in two stacked nasta‘līq lines read from top down with the name of former owner Henry George Keene (1781-1864), dated 1801:
‘هنری جارج کین ۱۸۰۱’
16 × 19.5 mm.
21 × 25 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Subsequently owned by at least three people, given two obliterated inscriptions, and one dated 5 Rabī II year 18. on folio 1a
Later obtained Henry George Keene (1781-1864), who impressed his Anglo-Persian seal on la dated 1801.
Brought to London by Keene while on furlough, and sold to Methodist minister Rev. Adam Clarke (1762–1832), as per his note dated 1803. After his death, his son J. B. B. Clarke (d. 1855) inherited the volume and describes its present state in a catalogue published in 1835, p. 149, no. 69.
The next year on 20 June 1836, Clarke's son auctioned his father's collection through the London firm of Sotheby & Son where bookseller John Cochran purchased it for £1 13 shillings.
Probably sold by Cochran to bookseller William Baynes and Son who advertise it in their catalogue for £4 13 shillings that same year, with the same entry pasted on the left doublure.
Probably sold by William Baynes and Son to King's College Professor of Oriental Languages Duncan Forbes (1798–1868). Forbes later described the volume in his 1866 catalogue, valued at £6 16s 6d, before he sold his manuscript collection to his publisher W. H. Allen & Co. in exchange for an annuity. Subsequently sold by that firm to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in 1866
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 2023 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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