Persian MS 865 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
A prior record for this volume misattributed authorship to Ḥaydar Bak̲h̲sh Ḥaydarī, who authored a Hindustani translation. Many variant Persian redactions of these stories survive in wide circulation. For other copies held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 85, 302, and 561. This manuscript most closely follows British Library IO Islamic 2472, see Ethé; Cambridge University Library, Add. 2669 (ex-Browne); Bodleian MS. Bodl. Or. 780; see Sachau and Ethé; and, MS.S.Digby.Or.49. For others, see Storey.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column with 15 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders.
Inscriptions: Interleaving bears many notes in the hand of former owner and translator Duncan Forbes, who also autographed the first flyleaf a side, top-left and price of ‘£3.3’ at bottom-right.
Bookplates: Left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘1/I’, and white label bearing an earlier Lindesiana class mark ‘Persian MSS No. 71’, with the number crossed out and ‘865’ written aside.
Binding
Probably repaired, interleaved, and rebound in a hybrid British-Indian style for former owner and translator Duncan Forbes.
Thin cream-coloured wove endpapers added to the beginning and end, then resewn on five recessed cords, laced into pasteboards. Edges trimmed and dark brown and cream front-bead European-style endbands sewn over a flat core at head and tail.
Board and flap exteriors hastily blind tooled with single fillet lines in pairs for the central and outer margins. Spine bears pasted small printed paper label with the title in Persian.
227 × 168 × 50 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In fair condition, with extensive exterior abrasion, especially to the spine, board edges, with the flap cracking. Tight sewing restricts opening to the gutter margins.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Possibly acquired in circa 1823, in Calcutta (Kolkata) by Duncan Forbes (1798–1868),from an unidentified source, given the date of 1823 on the interleaving, and extensive work on the text prior to publication of his translation in 1830 on the endpapersHe not only referenced this volume for his published translation of this text, but also explicitly identifies it again as such in his published catalogue (p. 66, no. 200), before he sold his manuscript collection to his publisher W. H. Allen & Co. in exchange for an annuity. Subsequently sold by that firm to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in 1866.
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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