Persian MS 879 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The Shash Fatḥ-i Kut'h-i Kāngrah (Six Conquests of the Fort of Kangra) chronicles the successful expedition led by the Mughal prince Khurram, later Shāh Jahān (1592–1666 r. 1628–1658) against the rebel Sūraj-Mal, in 1027 AH (1618 CE), during the thirteenth year of the reign of Emperor Jahāngīr (b. 1569, r. 1605–1626). The author, Muḥammad Jalāl al-Dīn Ṭabāṭabā'ī Zavvārihʹī Ardistānī pen named 'Jalālā' (fl. 1628–1672), chronicles the resulting capture of the fort of Nagarkot́ or Kōt Kāńŕgā, in six different narratives. Remargined and restored, this unsigned and undated manuscript appears likely completed eighteenth-century South Asia.

Author: Ṭabāṭabā'ī Zavvārihʹī Ardistānī, Muḥammad Jalāl al-Dīn 'Jalālā', fl. 1628–1672 طباطبايى زواره‌اى اردستانى، محمد جلال الدين

Title: Shash Fatḥ-i Kut'h-i Kangrah

Title: شش فتح کتہ کنگره

Incipit: (basmalla) > برگ ۱ر (folio 1a): حضرت حکیم علی الاطلاق جل جلاله در ازل آزال پیش از آنکه کار کنان دیوان جالال و جمال در اعمال کشور ایجاد بر سرکار آیند و نقشبندان کارگاه قضا و قدر درنگارخانه ابداع نقشی بروی کار آرند آن وقت که وقت از حلیه بعین عاری بود

Explicit: برگ ۲۹ر (folio 29a): دست بر تسخیر آن نیافته ابکار بسر نبرده‌اند آری طلسم دشوار هرکار باسم اعظم نامداری شدهٔ و عقده سردر کمی بکوشش ناخن پذیر سروری بگشایش گرائیده هر گرهی را که نه سر نی بنی است آن گره اندر گرو ناختی است.

Colophon: برگ ۲۹ر (folio 29a): تمت تمام شد بیده الضعیف الحقیر فقیر

Colophon: Uninformative colophon.

Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Original text written on thin-weight, straight-grained, buff-coloured, heavily flocked, externally sized, and highly polished, paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~12 laid lines per cm and few discernible chain lines. Remargined in thin-weight, apricot-coloured paper, with catch words and marginal noted mounted over top.

Extent: 29 folios, two flyleaves (ff. i + 29 + i)

Dimensions (leaf): 288 × 190 mm.

Dimensions (text): 230 × 108 mm.

Foliation: Modern pencilled Arabic numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides throughout, which counts the first sewn folio as the first right flyleaf (f.i), hence under by one.

Collation

1IV+1(8)1IV(17)1III+1(24)1II-1(29) Catchwords on the lower-left corners of the b sides cut and pasted from the original manuscript throughout.

Condition

Handle with caution. Text in fair but stable condition, with extensive insect damage and historical repairs throughout. Surrounding margins in stable condition.

Layout

Primarily written in a single column in 19 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear but dense black nasta‘līq with headers and vocabulary in red.

Additions: Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with pencilled shelfmark ‘1/C’, and ‘Persian MSS No. 85’, with the number crossed out and ‘879’ written aside, together with the title.

Binding

Probably bound in the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century CE.

Flyleaves added to the beginning anf end, countermarked PORRATA (see Churchill) possibly manufactured in Portugal, measuring 12 × 83 mm. Sewn on three recessed cords, with two laced into pasteboards. Edges trimmed, endbands omitted. Covered in a hemmed binding of red goatskin leather adhered to the spine and board edges, faced with blue shell marbled paper.

Right board and left board exteriors labelled with the title.

296 × 196 × 11 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In fair condition with etensive abrasion to the exterior. Head and tail caps missing.

History

Origin: Probably completed in the Indian subcontinent; 18th century CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) probably acquired and then sold it to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) and sent it 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

A. S. Bazmee Ansari, 'Kāńgŕā', Encyclopaedia of Islam 2, Vol. 4. (1978), pp. 542–543.

W. A. Churchill, Watermarks in Paper: in Holland, England, France, etc., in the XVII and XVIII centuries and their interconnection (Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, 1935), p. ci, no. 135.

H. M. Elliot and J. Dowson, The History of India, As Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, Vol. VI (London: Trübner & Co., 1872), pp. 517–531, Appendix Note D..

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), p. 223, no. 282(ii).

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. I Pt. 2 (London: Luzac & Co., 1935), p. 566, no. 723.

R. Husain, 'The Zafarnama-i-Kāngrā, or an account of the conquest of Kangra during the reign of Jahangir'. Journal of the United Provinces Historical Society, Vol. II (1919): pp. 56-62.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

Iran--History

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