Persian MS 87 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
Note that Kerney misidentifies this as an anonymous work, while both Sprenger and Ivanow micalculate the chronogram as 1139 AH (1726 CE), when it actually corresponds to 1142 AH, as written in the adjacent margin in Hindu-Arabic numerals within this manuscript.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column with 14 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear nasta‘līq script with red subheaders.
Binding
Probably originally bound soon after completion, with the spine later replaced, probably for former owner Alexander Lindsay.
Wove endpapers and stiff-leaved straight-waved 'Spanish'-patterned marbled papers added to the beginning and end, then resewn on three recessed cords laced into the original pasteboards. Edges trimmed, coloured yellow, and front-bead decorative endbands of white and dark indigo silk threads sewn at head and tail. Originally covered in full maroon goatskin leather over pasteboards with squares along the edges and without a flap (type III binding per Déroche). Spine subsequently replaced in artificially pebble-brained Morocco goatskin leather.
Original boards bear onlays central mandorlas bering foliate scrollwork with trefoils, detached pendants of maple or hemp leaves, and cornerpieces serrated leaves and trefoils all blocked in silver leaf, subsequently tarnished. After rebacking, spine palleted with a decorative roll of cruciform chain links and quatrefoils within alternating sunbursts and solid insular dots, with rope tools ond dotted scalloped lines with bifoils on either side. title panel lettered:
‘RUMŪZ
AL
TĀHIRĪN’.
249 × 251 × 27 mm.
Binding in good condition with minor abrasion to the exterior and tight opening to the gutter margins.
1:Partial seal impression in two stacked nasta‘līq script lines, double-ruled that possibly reads:
‘غلا
خا’
‘Khā⟨lid?⟩ Ghu⟨lām?⟩...?’
15 × 14 mm.
2:Partially legible flooded seal impression in three stacked lines read from bottom to top, bears the name of former owner Nawwāb Muḥammad ‘Abd al-Ḥusayn Khān Rā’īs al-Umarā’ Ḥāfiẓ al-Mulk, Sirāj al-Dawlah, Sirāj al-Mamālik Bahādur, Sardār Jang (fl. early 19th c.), dated 1215 AH (1800–1801):
‘رئيس الامرأ عبد الحسين محمد ١٢١٥’
‘Ra'īs al-Umarā' ‘Abd al-Ḥusayn Muḥammad 1215’ 18 × 23 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Owned or inspected by another person, possibly named Khālid... Ghulām as per his seal impression on folio 1a.
While the circumstances under which this manuscript arrived in Britain remains unclear, scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865) acquired the volume for his library at Randalls Park, Leatherhead.
After Bland's death, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in June, 1866, paid in two instalments of £450 and £400, and then moved to Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh Hall, Wigan.
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 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 Persian Heritage Foundation
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