Persian MS 860 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: This Gulistān (Rose Garden) of Saʻdī (ca. 1193–1292) opens with lavishly illuminated double-page bears gilt cloudbands surrounding every line of the text on all remaining folios, and still retains an equally lavishly decorated contemporary binding. A scribe named Ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad Khūrshīd completed this manuscript for the Vizier of Awadh under Aṣaf al-Dawlah, Nawwāb Amīr al-Dawla Intiẓām al-Mulk Ḥaydar Bayg Khān Bahādur Nuṣrat Jang (d. 1792), probably in Lucknow on 1202 AH (1787–1788 CE).

Author: Saʻdī سعدى

Title: Gulistān

Title: گلستان

Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): منّت خدای را عز و جل که طاعتش موجب قربت است

Explicit: کهن خرقهٔ خویش پیراستن * به از جامهٔ عاریت خواستن. غالب گفتار سعدی طرب انگیز است و طیبت آمیز و کوته نظران را بدین علت زبان طعن دراز گردد که مغز دماغ بیهوده بردن و دود چراغ بی فایده خوردن کار خردمندان نیست، ولیکن بر رای روشن صاحبدلان که روی سخن در ایشان است پوشیده نماند که درّ موعظه‌های شافی را در سلک عبارت کشیده است و داروی تلخ نصیحت به شهد ظرافت بر آمیخته تا طبع ملول ایشان از دولت قبول محروم نماند الحمدلله ربّ العالمین.

Colophon: بموجب ارشاد کرامت بنیاد طوی الاقتدار عالی نسب و الاتبار نواب امید الدّوله انتظام الملک حیدر بیگخان بهادر نصرتجنگ دام الله اقباله بنده خافظ محمد خورشید تحریر یافت.

Colophon: The double-page colophon commences on the second to last folio with the explicit, followed by the first colophon mentioning that Ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad Khūrshīd completed this manuscript for the Vizier of Awadh under Aṣaf al-Dawlah, Nawwāb Amīr al-Dawla Intiẓām al-Mulk Ḥaydar Bayg Khān Bahādur Nuṣrat Jang (d. 1792). The conclusion continues with a short panegyrc ghazal by the scribe praising his patron, dated 1202 AH (1787–1788 CE).

Language(s): Persian

For other copies of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 16/2, 84/2, 512/2, and 943.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of straight-grained, medium weight, pale apricot-tinted, externally sized and polished, paper, with ~9 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines, with exterior margins and endpapers of comparatively thin, cross-grained, ivory coloured, sized and polished paper, with ~11 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines, both probably handmade in the Awadh.

Extent: ? folios, 6 flyleaves (ff. ii + ? + iv).

Dimensions (leaf): 267 × 160 mm.

Dimensions (written): 0 × 0 mm.

Foliation: Unfoliated

Collation

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

Condition

Handle text with caution. In fair but stable condition.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 20 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 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.

Additions:
Inscriptions:

The right flyleaf a side (f. ia) numbered ‘D.F. 245’ at top, and priced ‘£15.15–’ at bottom, corresponding to former owner Duncan Forbes' catalogue.
The right flyleaf a side (f. ib) and folio 1a, and the final folio b side all bear pasted fragment of a letter. The first features the gilt header header while the second contains a date of 24 Mihr(?) 1224 Faṣlī (1816 CE) and the third the name of one Munīṣ Qizilkhān.
Folio 1a inscribed with a tughrā emblem-shaped dated in a combination of sīyāq and Hindu-Arabic numberals which records its sale on 10 Rajab 1209 AH (31 Jan. 1795):
‘بتاریخ عـه رجب سنه ۱۲۰۹ هجری تجارة رسید ’
This same marking also appears on Rylands Persian MS 94 and 314, hence also probably formerly owned by Ḥaydar Bayg Khān, who died in 1792.

Bookplates and Labels: Left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘F/11’, and white label bearing an earlier Lindesiana class mark ‘Persian MSS No. 66’, with the number crossed out and ‘860’ written aside.

Binding

Probably bound in Lucknow for patron Ḥaydar Bayg Khān after completion of the manuscript in 1202 AH (1787–1788 CE). Subsequently rebacked, probably in London for Duncan Forbes.

Endpapers of the same type as the margins. Resewn on four recessed cords. Edges trimmed and polished but left undecorated, and decorative single-core front-bead endbands of cream and copper-toned silk threads sewn at head and tail. Originally covered in warm brown goatskin leather over pasteboards, without a flap (Type III binding per Déroche). Spine subsequently replaced after restoration, with black straight-grained Morocco goatskin leather.

Original boards extesively decorated with gold blocked paper onlays featuring scalloped cenatral mandorlas, detached pendants, cornerpieces, and cartouches in the outer margins. The intervewning ground hand-painted with floral scrollwork in gold ink. Thick-and-thin ruling divides the interior and exterior margins and surrounds the board edges. Replaced spine panels tooled with single fillet lines and large sunburst dots in the centres, in gold leaf. Interior doublures originally decorated with extensive cut gilt paper découpage scrollwork filigree placed over an ultramarine ground with central mandorlas, detached pendants, and cornerpieces in brilliant orange, and surrounding cartouches of the same over ultramaine grounds. Thick-and-thin ruling divides the interior and exterior margins and surrounds the board edges.

271 × 172 × 42 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition, with exterior onlay lost or lifting, bumped corners, and losses along the edges, with the boards yawning at the fore-edge.

Seal(s):

The final folio b side bears a partial impression of a black talisman intaglio-carved in at least two nasta‘līq script lines, double-ruled, invoking the names of the Prophet's household, in reverse.
? × 20 mm.

History

Origin: Completed by Ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad Khūrshīd completed this manuscript for Nawwāb Amīr al-Dawla Intiẓām al-Mulk Ḥaydar Bayg Khān Bahādur Nuṣrat Jang, probably in Lucknow 1202 AH (1787–1788 CE).

Provenance and Acquisition

After Ḥaydar Bayg Khan's death, probably sold in Lucknow with his library on

While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remains unclear, Duncan Forbes (1798–1868), Professor of Oriental Languages at King's College, acquired it from an unidentified source.

In 1866, he published the volume in his library catalogue (p. 79, no. 245), then sold it to his publishers, W. H. Allen & Co. in London in exchange for an annuity.

Acquired by Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) later that same year.

Subsequently 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.

Record Sources

Bibliographical description based on an index created by Reza Navabpour circa 1993. Identification of provenance based on a manuscript catalogue by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s.

Dating information from Kerney, Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2024 with reference to the volume 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

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. 655–675, nos. 1117–1130 [British Library IO Islamic 876 &c.].

D. Forbes, Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, Chiefly Persian, Collected Within the Last Five and Thirty years (London: W. H. Allen., 1866), p. 79, no. 245.

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), p. 424, no. 1069(ii).

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum1881), pp. 595–605 (esp. p. 596) [British Library BL Add. 24944 &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), col. 525–539, nos. 681–691 [Bodleian MS. Ouseley Add 39].

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey [Online] 2021), Vol. III, Pt. 3 Tales no. 688 [Gulistān].

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Persian Heritage Foundation

Subjects

Comments

Comment on this record