Persian MS 864 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The Tuḥfat al-Ḥabīb (Gift of the Friend), an alphabetically arranged anthology of ghazal lyric poems from the 13th to early 16th centuries CE. Compiled by Safavid-era poet Fakhrī Haravī (ca. 1497–1566), pen-named Amīrī, he dedicated it to his patron, then-governor of Herat, Karīm al-Dīn Khvājah Ḥabīb Allāh Savājī (fl. early 16th c). Albeit undated and probably incomplete, this finely copied manuscript bears a illuminated header and appears likely completed in the Mughal empire.

Author: Fakhrī Haravī, Sultān Muḥammad, ca. 1487–1566;
فخرى هروى، سلطان ‌محمد Amirī;
امیری

Dedicatee: Karīm-al-Dīn Khvājah Ḥabīb Allāh Savājī, fl. early–mid 16th century;
کریم الدین خواجه حبیب الله سواجی

Title: Tuḥfat al-Ḥabīb

Title: تحفة الحبيب

Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): ای نام تو دیباچهٔ مجموعهٔ راز * نازند بنام تو همهٔاهل نیاز

Explicit: ای ذخیل سکانت شمار فخری را * که مست بر سر گویت از ⟨ا(؟)⟩

Colophon: No colophon

Language(s): Persian

For another work by this author held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 105.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Medium-weight, straight and cross-grained, externally sized and polished, tan-coloured paper, with some tinted a pale apricot, probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~6 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.

Extent: 267 folios, 4 flyleaves (ff. iii + 267 + i)

Dimensions (leaf): 277 × 169 mm.

Dimensions (written): 153 × 97 mm.

Foliation: Unfoliated.

Collation

Undetermined. Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides, albeit many trimmed.

Condition

Handle text with caution. In fair but stable condition, with moderate water and insect damage and historical repairs throughout. Breaks in the verdigris ruling in the gutter margins.

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 with red subheaders.

Decoration

Headpiece: 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.
111 × 96 mm.

Ruling: Folios 1b and 2a ruled in gold outlined with single internal and double external thin black lines, surrounded by thick single interior verdigris lines and exterior blue lines.

Additions:
Inscriptions:

The first right flyleaf a side (f. ia) numbered ‘D.F. 125’ at top, and priced ‘£5.5–’ at bottom, corresponding to former owner Duncan Forbes' catalogue.
The second right flyleaf a side (f. iib) bears a neatly written pencilled inscription by an unidentified hand that describes the volume:
‘Collection of Sonnets of the Celebrated
Persian Poets Sadi, Jami, Kusru, &c.’
The third right flyleaf a side (f. ia) bears various couplets written in a hasty nasta‘līq hand with shikastah ligratures, a tongue-twister at centre, and a note at bottom that describes the volume as ‘a ruined manuscript, poorly written, and many mistakes’:
‘آدمی زادهٔ بی نشة نمود چه بود نسخه مقبر و بد خط و بسیار غلط.’
The third right flyleaf b side (f. iiib) bears a hastily written pencilled inscription, probably by former owner Duncan Forbes describes the volume:
‘A Collection of
Sonnets of the Celebrated
Persian Poets Sadi, Jami, Kusru, &c.
very finely written.’
The left flyleaf b side (f. ivb) bears various Hindustani and Persian verses written in a hasty nasta‘līq with shikastah ligatures by the same hand as on the third right flyleaf a side (f. ia)

Bookplates and Labels: Left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘2/D’, and white label bearing an earlier Lindesiana class mark ‘Persian MSS No. 70’, with the number crossed out and ‘864’ written aside.

Binding

Probably bound in the Indian subcontinent then subsequently restored for former owner Duncan Forbes .

Sewn at two stations, unsupported. Edges trimmed and yellow and red chevron endbands twined at head and tail. Covered in full dark maroon goatskin leather, tight-backed, over pasteboards, cut flush with the edges, with defined joints and fore-edge and envelope flaps (Type II binding per Déroche). Spine and fore-edge flap subsequently replaced.

Boards decorated with blocked paper onlays for the central mandorlas, detached pendants, cornerpieces, and surrounding board margins. Central decoration ruled in white vertically and horizonatlly across the middles, and with thick-and-thin lines on either side of the paper marginal onlays. Spine titled in gold, probably for the Earl of Crawford.

282 × 189 × 62 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition, with extensive abrasion and significant losses to the paper decoration. Upper endband missing.

Seal(s):

Folio 267a, also possibly on the third right flyleaf a side (f. iiia), but later obliterated, bear a black partial circular seal impression, intaglio carved in four stacked nasta‘līq script lines, double-ruled, read from bottomn upwards, possibly with the name of one Ḥusayn Maḥmud:
~24 mm. diam.

History

Origin: Probably completed in the Mughal Empire; undated, but possibly late 16th to early 17th centuries.

Provenance and Acquisition

Previously owned or inspected by an individual possibly named Ḥusayn Maḥmud as per his seal impressions on the third right flyleaf a side (f. iiia) and folio 267a.

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. 41, no. 125), 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

‘Abd al-Muqtadir, Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in the Oriental Public Library at (Bankipore) Patna, Vol. XI (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1925), pp. 140–141, no. 1101.

D. Forbes, Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, Chiefly Persian, Collected Within the Last Five and Thirty years (London: W. H. Allen., 1866), p. 41, no. 125.

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), pp. 136–37, no. 442(ii).

S. H. Qasemi, 'Faḵrī Heravī, Solṭān-Moḥmammad', Encyclopædia Iranica, Vol. IX, Fasc. 2 (1999) pp. 165–166.

C. Rieu, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1895), pp. 233–234, no. 375 [British Library, 0r. 3244].

A. Sprenger, A Catalogue of Arabic, Persian and Hindustany Manuscripts in the Libraries of the King of Oudh. (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1854), pp. 12, no. 6.

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. 1 Pt. 2 (London: Luzac & Co., 1953), p. 797, no. 1099.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Persian Heritage Foundation

Subjects

Persian literature

Comments

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