Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Persian MS 865 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Contents

Summary of Contents: Qiṣṣah-ʼi Ḥātim Ṭāʼī (Tale of Ḥātim Ṭāʼī) a fairy tale concering seven journeys undertaken by him to discover the answer to seven questions asked by Ḥusn Bānū.
Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): " سپاس بیقیاس مر پرور کار جل شانه و هزاران نعت بر آن سرور کانیات احمد مصطفی محمد مجتبی صلى الله علیه و آله و سلّم بعد حمد و ثناء راویان اخبار و ناقلان آثار چنین روایت کرده‌اند در بیان تولد حاتم بن کهلان بن رس بن نخشب بن نظرت بن قحطان بن هود آورده‌اند که هود مردی در آیام... >
Explicit: برگ ۳۱۵پ (folio 315ba): میکذرانید و طی گوشه نشین بود عد از دوازده سال و هفت ماه و نه روز تمام شد این قصه در تمام جهان و جهانیان بادگار بماند.
Colophon: برگ ۳۱۵پ (folio 315ba): من نوشتم صرف کردم روزگار *‌ من نمانم خط بماند یادگار. تمام
Final rubric: برگ ۳۱۵پ (folio 315ba):تمام شد هذا الکتاب نسخه خابم طائی
Language(s): Persian

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

Form: codex
Support: Textblock of thin-weight, cross-grained, externally sized and polished, ivory-coloured paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~12 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines. Interleaved with comparatively medium-weight, cross-grained, bright ivory-coloured wove paper watermarked ‘C Willmott 1823’ made by Charles Willmott (d. 1840) who operated the Sundridge Mill, Kent.
Extent: 160 folios, 2 flyleaves (ff. ii + 160 + iv).
Dimensions (leaf): 217 × 152 mm.
Dimensions (written): 165 × 93 mm.
Foliation: Penciled Arabic numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides throughout followed in this record, as well as pagination in the hand of former owner and translator Duncan Forbes, the latter miscounted, and under by two. Interleaving unfoliated.

Collation

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

Condition

Handle original text with caution. In poor but stable condition, with extensive water, mould, and insect damage and historical repairs throughout. Interleaving in good condition, but beware of the the stiffness in relation to the original.

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.

Additions:
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

Origin:

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

    D. Forbes, Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, Chiefly Persian, Collected Within the Last Five and Thirty years (London: W. H. Allen., 1866), p. 66, no. 200.
    https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6h0CAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA66#
    https://archive.org/details/catalogueofpersi01bodluoft/page/214
    Ethé IOL cols 518–519, nos. 780–783 https://archive.org/details/catalogueofpersi01greauoft/page/n285
    https://referenceworks.https://doi.org/10.1163/2772-7696_SPLO_COM_30703000#V3-0809-237 (NB 238 for Kāshifi, Persian MS 85)
    E.G. Browne, A catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the library of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896), p. 399, Nº CCCXIX. [Cambridge University Library Add. 2669]
    Mar‘ashī Library no. 1754 https://marashilibrary.com/manuscript/سياحت-حاتم-2/
    D. Forbes. The Adventures of Hatim Taï: A Romance. London: Oriental Translation Fund: 1830.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Persian Heritage Foundation


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