Persian MS 844 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: This volume entitled Sukhanān-i Anṣarī (Speeches of Anṣārī) contains mainly lines of poetry culled from various works by ʻAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad Anṣārī Haravī (1006–1089). Unfortunately incomplete, unsigned, and undated, secondary inscriptions attribute this volume to famed calligrapher Mīr ‘Alī Tabrīzī (fl. 1340–1420), but this appears false, as it was probably completed in the sixteenth century then restored in the seventeenth or eighteenth century.

Author: Anṣārī al-Harawī, ʻAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad, 1006-1089 Hirawī, Khawājah Abdullāh Anṣarī Pīr-i Anṣār أنصاري الهروي، عبد الله بن محمد خواجه عبدالله انصارى

Dubious author: Mīr ‘Alī Tabrīzī, fl. 1340–1420

Title: Sukhanān-i Anṣarī

Title: Sukhanān-i Pīr-i Harāt

Title: سخنان انصاري

Title: سخنان پیر هرات

Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): الحمد لله رب العالمین و الصلوة و السلم علی محند و آله اجمعین. این سخنانیست که حصرت قطب الاوتاد الشیخ الکبیر الاستاد خواجه عبدالله انصاری قدس الله سره در هر بانی فرموده‌اند تا هرکس از هر سحن در خور...

Explicit: یا رب! دل پاک و جان آگاهم ده * آه شب و گریهٔ سحرگاهم ده | در راه خود اول ز خودم بی‌خود کن * بی‌خود چو شدم ز خود به خود راهم ده.

Colophon: No colophon

Language(s): Persian

In his catalogue, former owner Duncan Forbes spuriously attributes this volume to famed calligrapher Mīr ‘Alī Tabrīzī, probably on the basis of secondary inscriptions in the volume, but this appears false.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Central text of medium-weight, cross-grained, cream-coloured, externally sized and polished paper, probably handmade in Greater Iran, with ~7 laid lines per cm and few discernible chain lines. Subsequently remargined, probably in the Indian subcontinent with heavily-flocked medium-weight peach coloured paper with ~6 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines, and applied margins of blue paper covering the joins.

Extent: 77 folios, 7 flyleaves (ff. iv + 77 + iii)

Dimensions (leaf): 285 × 198 mm.

Dimensions (margins): 195 × 119 mm.

Dimensions (written): 177 × 100 mm.

Foliation: Hindu-Arabic numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides which commence on folio 2Aa hence under by one.

Collation

Undetermined. Catchwords occasionally appear in a different hand on the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

Text in poor condition, with significant water and insect damage, discolouration, and historical repairs throughout.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 10 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders.

Decoration

Illumination: Folio 1b bears a scalloped domed headpiece with gilt palmette foliate scrollwork on an ultramarine ground and a partly inscribed central cartouche, and four vertical radiating lines.

Margins: Folios 1b to 32 aAttached margins of pink paper bear lavish gold landscapes, with blue paper pasted over the joins also embellished with floral scrollwork in gold, and ruled with thin double black lins on both sides and surrounded by single dark blue lines.

Additions:
Inscriptions: 10a and b inscribed with
Labels and Bookplates:The right pastedown numbered ‘D. F. 262’, priced 2/6/12 at bottom, both consistent with Forbes' catalogue, together with partially decipherable pencilled handwriting, probably in Crawford's hand.

The first right flyleaf b side (f. ib) bears a large strip of paper printed ‘Art Warehouse’ and inscribed ‘Nº 262’, consistent with Forbes' catalogue, with the same noted aside in pencil.
The first right flyleaf b side (f. ib) bears a dated note in English by former owner William Rous Newlyn (1823–1863): ‘W.R. Newlyn
2nd Master Interpret
19 th Nat. Infty
Cuddopoh (cuddapore?)
18^th July 1847.’ The left pastedown bears the ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with pencilled shelfmark ‘F/4’, and an earlier Lindesiana label ‘Persian MSS No. 50’, with the number crossed out and ‘844’ written aside.

Binding

Probably rebound in the in the

Ruled paper added to the beginning and end as endleaves, watermarked with a large circle continaing the initials ‘HR’ surmounted by an orb and dove and countermarked with an unidentified square marking. 69 × 37 mm. 11 × 11 mm. Resewn on three recessed cords laced into pasteboards. Edges trimmed and yellow and red chevron endbands twined over round cores at head and tail.

Spine tooled

295 × 113 × mm.

Handle binding with caution. In

History

Origin: Possibly completed in Greater Iran; undated, but probably 16th century CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

Acquired by one Nathaniel Archer who signed in Persian.

Subsequently obtained by William Rous Newlyn (1823–1863) CUddapah (Kadapa) in July, 1847. He passed away Kamtee, Nagpur on 15 Jul. 1863, aged 39 years. After his death, his widow Sarah Derville Stonehouse neé Pinson (1827–1888) probably returned to Britain with this volume then promptly sold it.

Shortly thereafter acquired by orientalist Duncan Forbes (1798–1868) from an unidentified source. Ultimately appointed King's College Professor of Oriental Languages, Forbes described this volume in his 1866 catalogue, valued at £2 12s 6d (also inscribed on the first right flyleaf b side (f. ib)), 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 2025 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

S. de Laugier de Beaureceuil, 'ʿAbdallāh Anṣārī' Encyclopædia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. II (1985), pp. 187–190.

D. Forbes, Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, Chiefly Persian, Collected Within the Last Five and Thirty years (London: W. H. Allen., 1866), pp. 83–84, no. 262.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation

Subjects

Sufism--Early works to 1800

Comments

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