Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Persian MS 884 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Contents

Summary of Contents: A Persian-Turkish Lughat (Dictionary) by Niʻmat Allāh Rūmī (d. 1562). An Ottoman Ḳāżī (Judge) of İvranīye (Vranje), Musṭafà bin el-Ḥācc Esʿad bin el-Mevlā el-Merḥūm el-Ḥācc ʿAbd a-ʿAzīz bin el-Mevlā el-Merḥūm el-Ḥācc Aḥmed bin el-Mevlā el-Merḥūm Meḥmed el-Kördüsī on 6 Ramaz̤ān 1126 AH (15 Sept. 1714 CE).
Scribe: Musṭafà bin al-Ḥājj Asʿad bin al-Mawlā al-Marḥūm al-Ḥājj ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz bin al-Mawlā al-Marḥūm al-Ḥājj Aḥmad bin al-Mawlā al-Marḥūm Muḥammad al-Kurdusī
Musṭafà bin el-Ḥācc Esʿad bin el-Mevlā el-Merḥūm el-Ḥācc ʿAbd a-ʿAzīz bin el-Mevlā el-Merḥūm el-Ḥācc Aḥmed bin el-Mevlā el-Merḥūm Meḥmed el-Kördüsī
مصطفی بن الحجَ اسعد بن المولا المرحم الحجَ عبد العزیز بن المولا المرحم الحجَ احمد بن المولا المرحم محمد الکردسی
Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): حمد بی قیاس و شکر با س‍پاس آن مالک بی همتا را که ملکش بی انباز است.
Explicit: برگ ۲۳۰پ (folio 230b): یویه ارزومند یهه مثله یهره بهتر مثله.
Colophon: Completed by the Ḳāżī of İvranīye (Vranje), Musṭafà bin el-Ḥācc Esʿad bin el-Mevlā el-merḥūm el-Ḥācc ʿAbd a-ʿAzīz bin el-Mevlā el-Merḥūm el-Ḥācc Aḥmed bin el-Mevlā el-Merūm Meḥmed el-Kördüsī on Sunday morning, 6 Ramaz̤ān 1126 AH (15 Sept. 1714 CE).
Language(s): Persian and Chagatai Turkish

For another copy of this same work, see Rylands Chethams MS 7988.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Textblock of cross-grained, ivory-coloured paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~8 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.
Extent: 230 folios, 2 flyleaves (ff. i + 230 + i).
Dimensions (leaf): 209 × 133 mm.
Dimensions (written): 100 × 76 mm.
Foliation: Foliated with modern pencilled Arabic numerals on the upper-left corners of the a sides throughout, referenced in this record.
Foliation: Hindu-Arabic numerals on the upper-left corners of the a sides, inclusive of the flyleaves.

Collation

Undetermined. Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

In fair condition, with moderate water and insect damage and historical repairs throughout.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 27 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders by the Ḳāżī of İvranīye (Vranje), Musṭafà bin el-Ḥācc Esʿad bin el-Mevlā el-merḥūm el-Ḥācc ʿAbd a-ʿAzīz bin el-Mevlā el-Merḥūm el-Ḥācc Aḥmed bin el-Mevlā el-Merūm Meḥmed el-Kördüsī.

Additions:
Table of Contents: Folios 1b to 3b features an indexed charts of terms discussed.
Inscriptions: Additional texts found on the endpapers:
  • The first right flyleaf a and b sides (ff. ia–ib):
    • Fragments of Turkish and Persian verses, one of which bears the name of ʿĀşıḳ.
    • Arabic prose, partly obscured by a paper hinge adhered to the gutter to reattach the board.
    • Two medical prescriptions, the first a recipe for a drink to cure impotence, consisting of salep, buckthorn(?), cinnamon, cloves and ambergris, measured in drams, followed by the benefits of taking a half dram of of opium (tiryāk) over ten ten days to prevent epilepsy, colics, fever and water poisoning in winter, and to stimulate growth in children.
  • Folio 1a:
    • Seven distichs from an unidentified mas̱navī and two unrelated couplets.
    • A fatvā copied from the original document written by the late Mullā, Ḳudsī Nūrullāh
    • The heading of a model missive addressed to ‘a brother’.
  • Folios 3b to 4b bears a highly rhetorical ornate prose style missive on the curious aspects and the desirability of reform of primary school education for boys ‘in the town of Infancy, in the Childhood quarter’.
  • Folio 4b: An excerpt from a model petition addressed by ʿulemā, imāms and preachers (ḫuṭabā) to an unnamed sultan
  • Folios 229b to 230a an ‘article’ (maḳāle) ascribed to Kātıp Çelebī (1609-1657) on the life of Khiz̤r.
  • Folio 230a bears instructions for a talisman ‘to be written on a piece of paper, put into a bottle and buried near the fireplace on a Saturday morning’
  • Folios 230a–230b features two recipes for aphrodisiacs, measured in drams, the second reportedly prescribed to 'the late Sultan Meḥmed'.

Binding

Brown goatskin leather binding over pasteboards.

Board margins ruled in gold then repeatedly impressed with an S-shaped tool to create a rope or chain design (Turkish: zincirek).

Seal(s):
One seal impression:

An owner’s seal of Meḥmed Ḳādı occurs on the first flyleaf, possibly that of the scribe or his father.

History

Origin: Completed by Musṭafà bin el-Ḥācc Esʿad bin el-Mevlā el-merhūm el-Ḥācc ʿAbd a-ʿAzīz bin el-Mevlā el-Merhūm el-Ḥācc Aḥmed bin el-Mevlā el-Merhūm Meḥmed el-Kördüsī, the Ḳāżī of İvranīye (Vranje); 6 Ramaz̤ān 1126 AH (15 Sept. 1714 CE).

Provenance and Acquisition

Acquired from an unidentified source by Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) for his 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 derived from Jan Schmidt, A Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the John Rylands University Library at Manchester, 2011 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

    M. Götz, Türkische Handschriften, Vol. 2 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1968), pp. 473–478.
    G. P. Greswell, Bibliotheca Chethamensis: Sive Bibliothecæ Publicæ Mancuniensis Ab Humfredo Chetham Armigero Fundatæ Catalogus, Vol. III (Mancunii: Henricus Smith, 1826), p. 164, no. 7988
    C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), pp. 514–515 [British Library Add. 7680].
    E. Sachau and H. Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), cols. 1000–1001, nos. 1697–1699 [Bodleian Ms Laud Or 125].
    C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. III, Pt. 1 (London: Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1984), pp. 70–71, no. 102.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute


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