Persian MS 853 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: This nearly complete Dīvān of of Amīr Khusraw Dihlavī (ca. 1253–1325) regrettably lacks the initial illuminated folio, but preserves the other half, as well as two other double-page openings in pristine condition. Originally conceived as a three-volume set, then later rebound in one volume, the manuscript actually contains five dīvāns. The first three concerns stages in life: Tuḥfat al-Ṣig̲h̲ar (Gift of Youth), poems on adolescence Wasaṭ al-Ḥayāt (Midlife), G̲h̲urrat al-Kamāl (Onset of the Perfect), poems of maturity, completed in 693 AH. The Baqīyah-'i Naqīyah (Remnants of the Pure) completed not earlier than 715 AH, contains an elegy on his patron Sulṭān ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn of Delhi (d. 1315), as well as the Nihāyat al-Kamāl (Extent of the Perfect), and other minor works appear in both the centres and surrounding margins, as well as selections of qaṣīdah (ode), ghazal (lyric poems), and rubā‘ī (quatrains). A scribe named Hilālī completed the Vasaṭ al-Ḥayāt (Midlife) on 21 Ṣafar 1007 (23 Sept. 1598), hence the second-oldest copy of this work held in the Rylands. A subsequent ownership notation in Isfahan suggests a Safavid-era origin of the manuscript.

Author: Amīr Khusraw Dihlavī, ca. 1253-1325;
امير خسرو دهلوى

Scribe: Hilālī;
هلالی

Title: Dīvān-i Amīr Khusraw Dihlavī

Title: ديوان امير خسرو دهلوى

Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱ر (folio 1a): جان را تعالی گبریا یاده و توانی * آلاده که صناع حکمش از قطرهٔ | آبی صد هزاران نقش چین ...

Explicit: برگ ۵۵۶ر (folio 556a): میسمنا(؟) ملکااگر درین دیوان همه * خلاف دین سخن گرفت خسرو مسکین | بحق اشهد أن لا إله إلا الله* بدین احمد مرسل رسول بارسین

Colophon: 203a (lower-left margin) تم تمت تمام شد کتاب وسط الحنان بوقت نهم رور روز چهارشنبت بتاریخ بیست و یکم شهر صفر سنه ۱۰۰۷ کتبه هلالی

Colophon: Folio 203a: Hilālī completed the Vasaṭ al-Ḥayāt (Midlife) on 21 Ṣafar 1007 (23 Sept. 1598 CE).

Language(s): Persian

For other copies of the Amīr Khusraw's Dīvān held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 32, 66, 86, 109, the earliest manuscipt of this work held in the Rylands.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock comprised of a combination of straight and cross-grained, externally sized and polished, butter-coloured paper, probably handmade in the Safavid Empire, with ~7 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.

Extent: 556 folios, 3 flyleaves (ff. ii + 556 + i).

Dimensions (leaf): 286 × 170 mm.

Dimensions (written): 228 × 108 mm.

Foliation: Hindu-Arabic numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides throughout.

Foliation: Pencilled Arabic numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides when catalogued.

Collation

Undetermined. Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

Handle text with caution. In poor condition, with moderate water and insect damage and historical repairs throughout, and many internal and external margins suffering breaks due to corrosive verdigris.

Layout

Written in 2 columns with 18 lines in the centres of the pages, and another 26 hemistichs in the exterior margins, for 31 couplets per page total. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders by Hilālī.

Decoration

The remnants of a finely executed illuminate double-page opening opens the volume, which also preserves two others in pristine condition.

Illumination:
Folio 1a bears the left surviving half of a double-page opening, heavily damaged, the possibly restored for Galley, given his signature and seal impression over the repaired upper-left corner.
Folios 204b to 205a and 388b to 399a bear elaborate double-page openings, with a scalloped dome headpieces that feature palmette foliate scrollwork on gilt and ultramarine grounds with uninscribed central cartouches, surmounted by delicate vertical radiating lines, with illuminated marginal triangles, and floral scrollwork margins in gold, with lines outlined in gold cloud bands with hatched interstices.

Ruling: Vertical column dividers, horzontal breaks, and surrounding margins ruled in thin gold lines outlined with single black lines. Inner text margins wider gold lines outlined with a single internal and double external black lines, bounded by verdigris internior single lines and blue single exterior lines, with the same repeated again for the outewr margins.

Additions:
Inscriptions:

The right pastedown numbered ‘D. F. 85’ and a price of ‘£8/8’ pertaining to former owner Duncan Forbes.
Folio 1a, top signed by former owner Edward Galley adjacent to his seal impression.

Bookplates: The left doublure: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with pencilled shelfmark ‘1/F’, and an earlier Lindesiana label ‘Persian MSS No. 59’, with the number crossed out and ‘853’ written aside.

Binding

Possibly rebound in either Bushehr or Surat for former owner Edward Galley. Resewn on three cord supports laced into pasteboards. Edges trimmed and front-bead endbands sewn at

Sewn. Edges trimmed, and chevron endbands of yellow and silver threads twined at head and tail.

296 × 186 × 74 mm.

Binding in good condition.

Seal(s):

Folio 1a bears a single impression of Edward Galley's smaller seal, intaglio carved in one nasta‘līq script line, double-ruled:
11 × 13 mm.

History

Origin: Completed by Hilālī, possibly in the Indian subcontinent; 21 Ṣafar 1007 (23 Sept. 1598) AH.

Provenance and Acquisition

Subsequently owned by someone possibly named Hamza al-Dīn Hājjī ibn Husām al-Dīn in Jumādà I 1179 AH (mid-Oct. to mid-Nov. 1765) and another who records purchasing the volume in Isfahan.

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 237.

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. 13624, for 5£ 5s, and described as ‘Ameer Khosroos' Poetical Works, small folio, a maginificent Persin Manuscript, written in a beauitful hand on 1088 pages, and elaborately ruled with blue and gold. the paper is of a delicate pink hue. The first two pages contain large illuminated Anwans of exquisite finish and brilliancy. In sound and fine condition, in native binding.’

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 £8 8s (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

Henry G. Bohn, A Catalogue of Books (London, Bohn, 1841), p. 1152, no. 13624.

H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office, Vol. I (London: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903), cols. cols. 701–702, nos. 1196–1200 [British Library IO Islamic 345, &c.].

D. Forbes, Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, Chiefly Persian, Collected Within the Last Five and Thirty years (London: W. H. Allen., 1866), p. 29, no. 85.

Amīr Khusraw Dihlavī, In the Bazaar of Love: the Selected Poetry of Amīr Khusrau. Translated by S. Sharma and P. Losensky. New York: Penguin Books, 2011.

P. Hardy, 'Amīr Ḵẖusraw' Encyclopedia of Islam, 2^nd ed., Vol I (), pp.pp.

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), p. 616–617 [British Library Add. 24983, &c.].

B. W. Robinson, 'R.A.S. MS 178: An Unrecorded Persian Painter', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 2 (1970): p. 209.

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. 560–562, nos. 756–771 [Bodleian MS. Elliot 191].

A. Schimmel, 'Amīr Ḵosrow Dehlavī' Encyclopædia Iranica, Vol. 1, Fasc. 9 (1985), pp. 963–965.

S. Sharma, Amir Khusraw: the Poet of Sultans and Sufis. Oxford: One World, 2006.

S. Leigh Sotheby., Catalogue of a portion of the library of a prominent orientalist, deceased : also, a collection of oriental manuscripts, from the library of a late governor of Surat: to which is added, the miscellaneous and philological library of John Belfour, Esq. ... which will be sold by auction by Mr. Leigh Sotheby, at his house, 3, Wellington Street, Strand, on Friday, June 30th, and following day, at one o'clock, precisely (London: S. Leigh Sotheby, (2013), p. 12, no. 227.

C. A. Storey Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. I, Sect II, Fasc. 3 (London: Luzac & Co.1939), pp. 495–499 (no. 665 (3).

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation

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