Persian MS 852 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
For another copy of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 269
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 2 columns with 17 lines per per another 5 distichs obliquely written in the third margin, so 22 lines total. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in hasty miniscule 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 an uninscribed central cartouche, and four vertical radiating lines.
Ruling: Folios 1b and 2a ruled in gold outlined with thin black lines, and surrounded by another single line. The margins of folios 2b onwards ruled with single lines of ultramarine blue.
Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘2/K’, and ‘Bland MSS No. 327’, with the name and number crossed out and ‘Persian’ and ‘123’ written aside.
Binding
Possibly bound in Greater Iran for former owner Edward Galley.
Sewn at two stations, unsupported. Edges trimmed, and chevron endbands of red and green threads twined at head and tail. Covered in three pieces medium-brown goatskin leather over pasteboards, cut flush with the edges, and with a fore-edge and envelope flap (Type II binding per Déroche). Interior doublures and flap lined with a reddish-brown goatskin leather, with the excess widths adhered to the flyleaves to connect the cover to the textblock. Spine subsequently replaced and remounted.
Board exteriors decorated with red leather onlays blocked with blind central mandorals and detached pendants bearing floral designs. Board margins blind tooled with double fillet lines. Fore-edge and envelope flap bear a blind-stamped floral cartouche and a single pendant respectively. Also blind tooled with double and sinlge fillet lines. Paper labels on the right board exterior and spine bear the title in Persian.
216 × 135 × 43 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In poor condition with breaks in the joints and flap. Tight sewing restricts opening to the gutter margins.
1: The first right flyleaf a side (f. ia), top, bears a rectangular impression in three stacked nasta‘līq script lines, single-ruled, read from top down, with the name of one Vafā Bayg possibly dated ‘71’:
‘مرید دلبر وفا بیگ ۷۱’
12 × 15 mm.
2: The second right flyleaf a side (f. iia), top, bears a partly obliterated but legible oval impression in two stacked naskh script lines, double-ruled, read from bottom upwards, with the name of a position, Faqīr bar khvūr-kār:
‘فقیر برخوردار’
20 × 36 mm.
3: Folio 1a, top-left, bears a partly legible Arabic circular impression in four stacked naskh script lines, double-ruled, read from top down, possibly with the name of former owner Muḥammad ibn Majd al-Musnad:
‘من الكتب المتوكل على الله المنان محمد بن مجد المسند جد و اح(؟) ’
~26 mm. diam.
4: a rectangular Anglo-Persian seal impression in two stacked nasta‘līq lines, double-ruled, with the name of former owner Edward Galley:
‘ادورد گلی’
10 × 12 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Subsequently owned by several individuals as per their notations and seal impressions and notes.
Later obtained by Edward Galley (ca. 1750–1804), East India Company Resident at Bushire (Bushehr) between 1780 to 1787, where he possibly aquired this volume. Ultimately Lieutentant-Governor of Surat where he passed away, after his death, Galley's family sold a portion of his library in Surat including volumes obtained by David Price (see Robinson, p. 209). However, they evidently returned to Britain and subsequently sold the remainder through the London firm of Samuel Leigh Sotheby on 30 June 1837, lot 206.
Probably acquired at Galley's sale by London bookseller Henry George Bohn (1796–1884), who then offered it for sale in his 1841 catalogue, no. 13611, for 1£ 5s.
Probably purchased from Bohn by orientalist Duncan Forbes (1798–1868). 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 £4 4s (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.
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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