Persian MS 842 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

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Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: Renowned Safavid-era calligrapher Sulṭān Muḥammad Khandān (fl. early 16th c.) completed this copy of the Dīvān of Ḥāfiẓ (ca. 1315–1390) in Herat in 937 AH (1530 CE). This volume features most of the ghazal lyric poems set within lavishly illuminated margins, although it omits quatrains typically found in other copies.

Author: Ḥāfiẓ, 14th cent.;
Ḥāfiẓ Shīrāzī;
Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī;
حافظ شيرازى

Scribe: Sulṭān Muḥammad Khandān;
سلطان محمد خندان

Title: Dīvān

Title: دیوان

Colophon: Completed by Sulṭān Muḥammad Khandān in Herat in 937 AH (1530 CE).

Language(s): Persian

One of ten copies of this work held in the Rylands, for others see Persian MS 14, 34, 50, 262, 263, 288, 563, 945, 946, and 1001–1003 (3 vols).

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of cross-grained, externally sized and polished, ivoury-coloured paper probably handmade in the Safavid Empire .

Dimensions (leaf): 257 × 161 mm.

Layout

Hand(s)

Copied in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders by Sulṭān Muḥammad Khandān.

Binding

× × mm.

History

Origin: Completed by Sulṭān Muḥammad Khandān in Herat; 937 AH (1530 CE).

Provenance and Acquisition

While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) subsequently acquired it from an unidentified source 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 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

C. H. de Fouchécour, 'Ḥāfiẓ', Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, (2018)

Ḥāfiẓ, Persian Lyrics or Scattered Poems from the Diwan-i-Hafiz: With Paraphrases in Verse and Prose a Catalogue of the Gazels As Arranged in a Manuscript of the Works of Hafiz in the Chetham Library at Manchester and Other Illustrations. Translated by John Haddon Hindley London: Printed at the Oriental Press by Wilson & Co, 1800.

Ḥāfiẓ, The Dīvān Translated by Col. W. H. Clarke, 2 Vols. Calcutta: Government of India Central Printing Office, 1891.

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), p. 168, no. 561.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), pp. 627–632 [British Library Add. 7759, &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. 578–592, nos. 815–853 [Bodleian MS Ouseley 148, &c.].

E. Yarsharter et al, 'Hafez', Encyclopædia Iranica, Vol. XI, Fasc. 5 (2002), pp. 461–507.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

Persian poetry--747-1500

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