Persian MS 863 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
خواجه محمد زمان شیرازی
For other copies of works by this author held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 291, 292, 293, 294, 549, 573, and 908.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 and 2 columns with 17 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq by Khvājah Muḥammad Zamān Shīrāzī
Decoration
Three illuminated headpieces:
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.
Inscriptions: The first right flyleaf a side numbered ‘D. F. 147’ and priced ‘£4.4’ in pencil at bottom, both pertaining to former owner Duncan Forbes' catalogue.
Folio 1a signed by former owner Edward Galley.
Bookplates and labels: Folio 229b bears an early Bibliotheca Lindesiana label:
‘Persian MSS No. 69’, with the number crossed out and ‘853’ written aside.
The left pastedown bears ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with pencilled shelfmark the ‘F/6’ and
Binding
Probably bound in Greater Iran.
Resewn at two stations, unsupported. Edges trimmed, stained brown, and chevron endbands of yellow and green threads twined at head and tail. Covered in two pieces of shagreen leather over pastebaords, which overlap, tight-backed, on the spine, with defined joints, and a fore-edge and enevelope flap (Type II binding per Déroche). Internal doublures of reddish-brown goatskin leather.
Boards bear recessed gold-blocked red goatskin leather onlays for the central scallopped mandorlas that feature a pair of ducks, detached pendatns with lotus blossoms, the lattwer also appears on the flap. Board margines ruled with dsingle lines with flourishes that criss-cross the contral decoration, and surround it, along with thick-and-thin lines along the board edges. Spine bears a printed paper label with the title in Persian.
235 × 138 × 35 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition.
1: Folio 1a, top-centre, bears a small rectangular impression in three stacked naskh lines, read from bottom up, single-ruled, which invokes the twelfth Imām Muḥammad Mahdī, hence possibly a namesake seal for a man of that name:
‘یا امام محمد مهدی’
9 × 10 mm.
2: Folio 1a bears a single impression of Edward Galley's small oval seal, intaglio carved in one nasta‘līq script line, double-ruled:
‘ادورد گلی’ 11 × 13 mm.
3: Folio Folio 1a bears one faint oval seal impression of a basmala in three stacked lines of thuluth script against a floral scrollwork ground, read from bottom up, double-ruled, bears a date of 1105 AH (1693–1694 CE):
14 × 23 mm.
5: Folio 1b also bear two small rectangular impressions in two stacked thuluth lines read from bottom up, single-ruled, which features Qur'ān Sūrah Yā-Sīn, 36:58:
, may also be a namesake seal for a man named ‘Abd al-Raḥīm:
‘سَلامٌ قَوْلًا مِنْ رَبٍّ رَحِيمٍ’
13 × 15 mm.
6: Folio 1a also bears another slightly smaller rectangular impression in three stacked thuluth lines read from the middle upwards then bottom, double-ruled, which also features Qur'ān Sūrah Yā-Sīn, 36:58:
, may also be a namesake seal for a man named ‘Abd al-Raḥīm:
‘سَلامٌ قَوْلًا مِنْ رَبٍّ رَحِيمٍ’
11 × 14 mm.
6: Folio 1a bears another small rectangular impression in two stacked nasta‘līq lines read from top down, double-ruled, with a namesake seal for someone named Muḥammad ‘Azīz against a floral scrollwork ground:
‘محمد عزیز مهر کرده مرا’
8 × 10 mm.
6: Folio 1a bears another very small partial rectangular impression in two stacked nasta‘līq lines read from top down, double-ruled, with an excerpt from Qur]ān Surah Ghāfir (The Forgiver, 40:44) with the name of one ‘Abd al-Raḥīm against a floral scrollwork ground:
‘أُفَوِّضُ أَمْرِي إِلَى اللَّهِ عبد الرحيم’
8 × 10 mm.
8: Folios 1b, top above the headpiece, and 229a, bottom by the colophon, bear very small oval impressions in one nasta‘līq with the name ‘Azīz against a floral scrollwork ground, dated 1148 AH (1735–1736 CE):
‘ عزیز ۱۱۴۸’
7.5 × 11 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Subsequently owned or inspected by at least four individuals, 3 of whom left namesake seal impressions on folios 1a and 1b dated 1105 AH (1693–94 AH) and another of Sayyid Abū al-Fatḥ Mustaqīm, dated 1175 AH (1761–62 AH), as well as ownership notes by Ḥājjī Muhammad Ṣarrāf Iṣfahānī and his son Muḥammad Ṭālib on folios 1a and the latter again on 402b.
Later acquired by Edward Galley (ca. 1750–1804), East India Company Resident at Bushire (Bushehr) between 1780 to 1787, where he probably obtained 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 214.
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. 13638, described in the present binding for 2£ 12s 6d.
Probably purchased from Bohn by orientalist Duncan Forbes (1798–1868). Ultimately appointed King's College Professor of Oriental Languages, Forbes described this volume in his 1866 catalogue, valued at £6 16s and 6d , 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 Persian Heritage Foundation
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