Persian MS 867 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
Two earlier manuscripts survive, dated 843 and Ṣafar 964 respectively, for which see Dirāyatī and Dirāyatī.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column with 11 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Copied in neat minuscule in primarily black nasta‘līq script with headers breaks and marks in red, blue and gold, by Muḥammad bin Ḥasan Kātib Iṣfahānī
Decoration
Illumination: Folio 1b bears a rectangular headpiece with a lower comprment containing a cartouche with a basmala, and upper register of violet palemttes separating upper black and lower gold arches, all surmounted by a with gilt palmette foliate scrollwork on an ultramarine ground and an uninscribed central cartouche, and five vertical radiating lines and half lines at right and left.
67 × 67 mm.
Ruling: Folios 1b and 2a ruled in interior thin and exterior thick gold lines, outlined with thin single black lines, with double thin lines on the exterior of the latter, with corrosive copper verdigris applied between them, and all surrounded by single blue lines. , and surrounded by another single line. The margins of folios 2b onwards ruled with single gold lines outlined with thin single interior and double exterior blakc lines.
Folios 10a and b inscribed with .
Bookplates and pasted items: The right pastedown bears remnants of pasted blue paper torn out.
The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘2/J’, and earlier Lindesiana label ‘Persian MSS No. 73’, with the name and number crossed out and ‘Persian’ and ‘867’ written aside.
Binding
Probably rebound in Britain for a former owner before Quaritch acquired and advertised it in 1869, since he describes the present binding.
All spine folds trimed and adhesive bound. Comparatively heavy wolve endpapers added to the beginning and end. Edges ploughed and head coated with light graphite and polished. Green starch-filled bookcloth endbands adhered at head and tail. Covered in half claret coloured 'Morrocco' leather with predominantly red swirl patterned marbled sides with dark blue, dark green, black and ochre veins.
Spine blind paletted with thick and thin lines at head and tail, with the same along the paper on the sides. tooled
192 × 117 × 25 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In poor condition with all folios loose or breaking.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Subsequently acquired by an Ottoman-era owner, who inscribed his tamgha mark on 1a.
While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) acquired it from an unidentified source then advertised it in his Nov-Dec. 1869 catalogue, no. 2274, for 30 shillings, indicated on the final left flyleaf b side (f. iib), then sold to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) for the Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh Hall, Wigan. .
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, derived from a manuscript catalogue by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s, concisely published as Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898, and B.W. Robinson, Persian Paintings in the John Rylands Library: A Descriptive Catalogue (London, 1980).
Subsequently augmented and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2025 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 Soudavar Memorial Foundation
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