Persian MS 866 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
While the scribe does not indicate a place of completion in the colophon, his niṣbah indicates that he hails from Transoxiana, then under Timurid hegemony, shortly after Timur's death the year prior. In his most recent edition, M. Kumaylī describes three other earlier manuscripts dated 737, 778, and 800 AH respectively; however, he did not consult this manuscript. This popular work appeared in many printed editions, for which see Nawshāhī and Mushār. Scholar Nathaniel Bland first drew attention to the work in English in a lecture delivered to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1853.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Primarily written in a single column in 19 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Copied primarily in a hasty but clear, partially dotted black naskh with occasional unicursal ta‘līq ligatures, by Sirāj al-Dīn Māvarā al-Nahrī.
Decoration
bears an illuminated headpiece that bears the entire title written within two stacked cartouches in bold white s̱ulus̱ (now partially oxidized), against a gold leaf ground, overpainted in dark blue.
98 × 134 mm. .
Marginalia: Notes in various hands in the margins throughout.
Inscriptions: The third right flyleaf a side (f. iiia) and folio 1a bears ownership notes in Turkish dated 5 Sha‘bān 1110 AH (6 Feb. 1699 CE):
‘سنه ۱۱۱۰ ماه شعبان معظم بشنجی گجسی جمعه گجسه بزم کلثوم قالین سینرینده رسول اکرم صلی الله تعالی علیه و سلم حضرتلرنی گروب و صحاءِنه دحی گورمشدر و رسولی بلانقاب گورمشلردر. ’ Folios 281b and 282a reference dreams that someone had in 1 Jumādà II 905 AH (3 Jan. 1500 Julian): این واقع را در اوایل جمادی الثانی ۹۰۵ دیدم شب ... (بخش اول آخرین کلمه به علت بریده شدن لب صفحات مشخص نیست)
Folio 347a bears an incomplete table of contents.
Labels and Bookplates: The final left flyleaf a side (f. va) labelled ‘Persian MSS No. 866’.
The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with pencilled shelfmark ‘F/11’.
Binding
Rebound in 1873 probably by Stephen Austin & Sons in Hertford, (possibly by a member of the Henington family of bookbinders, whom previously completed fine bindings commissioned by the East India Company), arranged through Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) for Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880), along with eight other manuscripts, including Persian MS 843 and 848. This firm previously worked for East India College at Haileybury until it closed in 1858. They employed the same dies on a Prakit grammer held in the British Library, C188a73. Resewn on five recessed cords all-along, then laced into the pasteboards. Edges trimmed and gilt, with European-style front bead decorative enbands worked in cream and dark green silk at head and tail. Recovered in full pebble-grained dark maroon morocco goatskin leather, with fore-edge flap (type II binding per Déroche et al), with straight-grained black basil sheepskin leather lining the flap interior and maroon coated paper endpapers.
Covers decorated with Islamic-inspired recessed central medallion, attached pendants and corners intaglio-engraved with arabesque palmette scrollwork designs all blocked in heavy gold leaf, joined by single-fillet lines and surrounded by double-fillet lines along the perimeters of the boards, also in gold. Unlike the other volumes, this one bears an outlined arabesque decorative roll along the board margins. Gilt spine palleted with four sextfoil scroll panel lines with double-fillet lines either side and at head and tail. Likely later titled for former owner Alexander Lindsay:
‘KITÁBU T-T'ABÍR.
PERSIAN MS.’
and dated ‘A.H. 808 ’.
270 × 191 × 61 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In good condition, with slight abrasion to joints and headcaps, and corners of the flyleaves bent. Boxed.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Previously owned by an individual who recorded dreams on 1 Jumādà II 905 AH (3 Jan. 1500 Julian) in Persian and another who notes acquisition in Ottoman Turkish on 5 Sha‘bān 1110 AH (6 Feb. 1699 CE).
While the circumstances under which this manuscript arrived in Britain remain unclear, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) probably acquired from an unidentified source then offered it for sale in his 1865 catalogue, no. 838, for £2 10 shillings, before he sold it to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford and 8th Earl of Balcarres (1812–1880) on 10 Oct. of that year, who then accessioned into the Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh Hall, Wigan, then had it rebound in 1873.
Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Earl of Balcarres (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 2025 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
Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
The Soudavar Memorial Foundation
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