Persian MS 88 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
S. H. Qasemi documents 244 manuscripts and printed editions of this work. C. A. Storey also notes various manuscripts and translations into English, German, French, Turkish, and Urdu. For other copies of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 199, 463, 919, 991, and 1017. For a glossary of terms found in this work entitled Rang-i Bahār by ‘Abd al-Bāqī, see Persian MS 477.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 column with 21 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders.
Inscription: The second right flyleaf a side (f. iia) bears the title in Latin script written twice, underneath the number ‘87’
Binding
Probably rebound a hybrid British-Indian style in the Indian subcontinent.
Resewn at five stations on 4 recessed cords (the middle one omitted), laced into pasteboards. Edges trimmed and spattered, but endbands omitted. Endpapers of a heavy, flocked wove paper, with an earlier British-made laid paper with ~10 laid lines per cm and 28 millimeters between laid lines, with prominent watermarks of a crest with a fleur-de-lis, surmounted by a crown, with the initials ‘CW’ underneath , probably manufactured by Charles Willmott (fl. 1790s) at the Sundridge Mill, Kent. 162 × 80 mm. . Covered in full crimson goatskin leather.
Spine titled in gold ‘BAHAR DANISH MS’, likely added to the spine for former owner Alexander Lindsay.
321 × 222 × 38 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In fair condition, with extensive abrasion along the edges, peeling grain layer (revealing marbled paper underneath, hence original boards probably recovered), and boards yawning at the fore-edge. Boxed.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The circumstances by which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, but scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865) subsequently acquired it, after whose death, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts 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.
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 2022 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
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