Persian MS 837 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The Farhang-i Jahāngīrī (Dictionary of Jahāngīr), a Persian lexicon compiled, completed, and dedicated to the Mughal emperor Jahāngīr (b. 1569, r. 1605–1626) by Mīr Jamāl al-Dīn Ḥusayn ibn Ḥasan Injū Shīrāzī (d. ca. 1626) in 1603. It relates an overview of Persian grammar, definitions for ancient and middle Persian words, including terms found in the Avesta and commentaries, metaphorical and technical terms, as well as words of composite and foreign origin. This complete copy, albeit undated and unsigned, probably dates to the 18th century India. Former owner James Ross (1759–1831) acquired this manuscript in Dinajpur, Bengal in 1793. This manuscript survived a shipwreck that he endured when he returned home in 1804. He wrote many explanatory notes and translated passages in the margins, which he intended to publish but never completed before his death.

Author: Injū Shīrāzī, Ḥusayn ibn Ḥasan, d. ca. 1626;
انجو جمال الدين حسين

Translator and Inscriber: Ross, James, 1759–1831

Title: Farhang-i Jahāngīrī

Title: فرهنگ جهانگيری

Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): آنگه بر لوح زبانها حرف اول نام اوست آن همیگوید آله این ایزدان تنگری

Explicit: برگ ۲۳۳ر (folio 390b): جلوه یای تحتانی پل پل بزبان عربی نام حق سبخانه و تعالی است.

Colophon: تمت تمام شد.

Colophon: Uninformative colophon.

Language(s): Persian

For two other copies held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 366 and 922.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of evenly formed, thin-weight, straight and cross-grained, ivory-coloured paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with 10 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines. 116 to 142 tinted pink, 249 to 439 tinted blue, 440 to 551 tinted pale apricot.

Extent: 522 folios, 2 flyleaves (ff. i + 522 + i).

Dimensions (leaf): 246 × 160 mm.

Dimensions (written): 169 × 98 mm.

Foliation:

Collation

Undetermined. Catchwords present on the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

handle text with caution. In fair but stable condition, with extensive damage and repair to the margins.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 24 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black naskh.

Decoration

Illumination: Folio 1b bears an illuminated headpiece with gilt palmette foliate scrollwork on an ultramarine and gold lozenges above a central cartouche bearing hte author's name.

Ruling: Folios 1b and 2a ruled in gold outlined with thin black internal single lines, and surrounded by thick dark blue single lines. The margins of folios 2b onwards ruled with double red surrounded by single blue lines.

Additions:
Marginalia: Notes throughout in the hand of former owner James Ross .
Inscriptions: Folio 1a, top, signed by former owner James Ross in both English and Persian, dated 1793, when he was stationed in Dinajpur, Bengal.
Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled class mark ‘2/J’, and class mark ‘Persian MS 43’ with the number crossed out and ‘837’ written aside.

Binding

Possibly rebound in a hybrid British-Indian style in Dinajpur, Bengal in 1793 by former owner James Ross .

European made endpapers with ~11 laid lines per cm and 29 mm between laid lines added at front and back. Single flexible resewing on four cords laced into pasteboard. Edges trimmed and front-bead European-style decorative endbands sewn in tan and white threads at head and tail. Covered in full medium red goatskin leather, tight-backed with four raised bands.

Boards margins decorated with floret dots and single fillet lines in pairs on either side. Spine bears a small printed paper label in Persian.

254 × 183 × 67 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition, with extensive wear and abrasion to the exterior, bumped corners, and chipped headcap. The first right flyleaf a side (f. ia) cut.

Seal(s):

Folio 522a, below the colophon, bears a black rectangular seal impression, intaglio carved in two stacked nasta‘līq script lines, single-ruled, with the name of one ‘Ināyat Allāh Fārūqī dated [1]118 AH (1706–1707 CE):
‘عنایت الله فاروقی ۱۱۸’ 10 × 13 mm.

History

Origin: Probably completed in the Indian subcontinent; undated, but probably 17th century CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

Subsequently owned or inspected by one ‘Ināyat Allāh Farūqī, as per his seal impression by the colophon on folio 522a, dated [1]118 AH (1706–1707 CE).

Probably acquired in Dinajpur, Bengal in 1793 by former owner James Ross (1759–1831), as per his signature on folio 1a, top. Born in Aberdeen, he served in the Bengal Medical Service from 1783 to 1804, when he retired and returned to Britain. 'Literary Intelligence' The Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany (Monday, July 1, 1816), pp. 533–534, describes how this manuscript survived a shipwreck that he endured on his return home, and his desire to publish a translation of this work, and call for financial support, a goal that he regrettably did not attain before his death.

Subsequently obtained from an unidentified source by King's College Professor of Oriental Languages Duncan Forbes (1798–1868), who describes the volume in his published catalogue (p. 19, no. 55), 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.

Subsequently augmented and enhanced 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

Anonymous, 'Literary Intelligence' The Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany (Monday, July 1, 1816), pp. 533–534.

Solomon Bayevsky, 'Farhang-e Jahāngīrī', Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XI, Fasc. 4 (2003) pp. 441–442.

H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office Vol. 1 (London: India Office Library, 1903), col. 343, no. 2481 [British Library IO Islamic 850, &c.].

D. Forbes, Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, Chiefly Persian, Collected Within the Last Five and Thirty years (London: W. H. Allen., 1866), p. 19, no. 55.

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), p. 225, no. 788(i).

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), pp. 496–498 [British Library Add. 16750, &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), cols. 1011–1012, no. 1734 [Bodleian Ouseley Add. 121, &c.].

C. Salemann, 'Bericht über die Ausgabe des Miʿjar i Jamālī', Mélanges Asiatiques 9 (St. Petersburg) 9, (1888): pp. 417–594.

C. Sayle 'Note upon the translator' In Sadi, Gulistān; or, Flower-garden. Translated by James Ross (1759–1831) (London: Walter Scott, [1890]), pp. vii–viii.

Mīr Jamāl al-Dīn Ḥusayn ibn Ḥasan Injū Shīrāzī, Farhang-i Jahāngīrī. Edited by Muḥammad Ṣādiq ʿAlī Ghālib Lakhnavī Lucknow:

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. III, Pt. 1 (London: Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1984), pp. 26–29, no. 24.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Persian Heritage Foundation

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