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Persian MS 897 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: The first part of three complete volumes, bound in two (together with Persian MS 898), of the Siyar al-Mutaʼakhkhirīn (Review of Modern Times), a general history of India. The author, Ghulām Husain Khān Ṭabaṭāḅāī, a son of Patna Vice-Regent Sayyid ‘Alī Khān and cousin of Alīvardī Khān, Nawwab of Bengal (b. 1676 r. 1740–1756), composed this text in circa 1780–1784, and dedicated it to Governor-General of Bengal, Warren Hastings. This first volume includes an introduction and covers the history of the subcontinent from ancient times until the reign of the Mughal Emperor ‘Alamgīr I.

Author: Ghulām Husain Khān, Ṭabaṭāḅāī, b. 1727 or 8 غلام حسين بن هدايت علی خان بن السيد عليم الله بن السيد فيض الله الطباطبائی الحسينی

Title: Siyar al-Mutaʼakhkhirīn

Title: سير المتأخرين

Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): الحمد لله رب العالمین و نصلی علی نبیه الکریم و آله المعصومین اما بعد...

Explicit: برگ ۲۰۵آر (folio 205Aa): و خبت اقتدار ماذنا حقوق بین ندگی و نیکو خدمتی‌های او برده.

Colophon: برگ ۲۰۵آر (folio 205Aa): در سنه یکهزار و دوصد و بیست و چهار هجری صورت انجام و پیرایه یافت.

Colophon: 1224 AH (1809–10 CE)

The author subsequently added an introduction to the work, found in this volume, which he apparently largely plagiarized from either the anonymous Mukhtaṣar al-Tavārīkh or Khulāṣat al-Tavārīkh by Sūjan Rāʼi, active 1690–1698 (the former also likely the source of the latter). 'Nota-Manus' (pseudonym of M. Raymond, a. k. a. Haji Mustapha, d. 1791) published an English translation of the first volume in 1789, but apparently died before completing the entire work. Colonel John Briggs (d. 1875) later revised and expanded it for the Oriental Translation Fund, published in 1832.

Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Medium-weight, straight-grained ivory-coloured English handmade paper, with >1mm between the laid lines and ~26 mm between chain lines, with a Britannia watermark and countermarked ‘J. Whatman 1808’ manufactured by the Whatman Paper Mill in Maidstone, Kent, then owned and operated by William Balston (1759–1849).

Extent: 305 folios (ff. i + 305 + i).

Dimensions (leaf): 312 × 189 mm.

Dimensions (written): 260 × 157 mm.

Foliation:

Foliated on folios 1b to 233b in Hindu-Arabic numerals inscribed on the upper-right corners of the b sides in black ink.

Foliation:

Later European foliation in pencilled Arabic on the upper-right corners of the b sides from folios 134Ab to 205Aa, bcommence with 134 instead of 234, hence thereafter off by 100; however, they are followed for this record.

Collation

Possibly binions throughout. Catchwords thoughout on the lower left corners of the b sides.

Condition

Textblock in good condition.

Layout

Written in a single column with 22 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Copied in clear nasta‘līq script in black ink with subheaders and marks in red.

Some emendations and associated marginalia in nasta‘līq script in black ink.

Additions:

Inscription: folio 305b ‘1st vol. 304 leaves Vol. 1 is very rare 3/? £2-10-0.’
Bookplates: the left paste-down bears the ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with shelf mark ‘2/B’, and earlier class mark‘Persian 103–104’.

Binding

Sewn at three stations, probably on sawn-in cord supports, laced or frayed out onto the pasteboards. Edges finely speckled in blue and black. Folded striped red and white fabric stuck-on endbands applied at head and tail. Covered in an British-style, tight-backed binding in full British tan coloured calfskin leather, with a smooth spine and defined joints, untitled and untooled. Endleaves of comparatively heavy English handmade paper, >1mm between laid lines and 30 mm between chain lines.

Calf boards spattered and marbled to the book by the binder after covering.

319 × 199 × 54 mm.

Binding in good condition but restricted opening to the gutter margin.

History

Origin: 1224 AH (1809–10 CE)

Provenance and Acquisition

Acquired by Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880).

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 and his Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2021 with reference to the volume.

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.

Digital Images

Manchester Digital Collections (full digital facsimile)

Bibliography

Persian MS 898 (Vol. 2)

A. F. L. Beeston, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstânî, and Pushtû Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Part III (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954), p. 7 no. 2471 [Bodl.. Ms. Ind. Inst. Pers. 25-26].

E. G. Browne, A Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1896), p. 176, no. 101 [Camb. Add. 408].

H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India, As Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, Vol. VIII (London: Trübner & Co., 1877), pp. 194–198, no. CXII.

H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, Vol. I (Oxford: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903) col. 157, no. 416 [BL IO Islamic 3319].

Gholam Hussein-Khan, The Siyar-ul-Mutakherin: A History of the Mahomedan Power in India During the Last Century. Revised translation by John Briggs. London: Oriental translation fund, 1832.

Ghulam Husain Khan, A Translation of the Sëir Mutaqherin; or View of Modern Times, Being an History of India, from the Year 1118 to Year 1194 (This Year Answers to the Christian Year 1781-82) of the Hidjrah, Containing, in General, the Reigns of the Seven Last Emperors of Hindostan, and in Particular, an Account of the English Wars in Bengal ... To Which the Author Has Added Critical Examination of the English Government and Policy in Those Countries, Down to the Year 1783. Translated by 'Nota-Manus' [pseudonym of M. Raymond, a.k.a. 'Haji Mustapha']. Calcutta: Printed by J. White, 1789.

D. S. Margoliouth, Catalogue of the Oriental Manuscripts in the Library of Eton College (Oxford: Horace Hart, Printer to the University, 1904, p. 24, no. 199 (shelf/item: 16/14) [Eton Pote 436].

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), pp. 157–158, no. 517.

W. H. Morley, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Historical Manuscripts in the Arabic and Persian Languages (London: John W. Parker & Son, 1854), pp. 105–108, nos. CV–CIII [RAS Persian 110–113].

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), p. 280 [BL Add. 6577-6578].

E. Sachau and H. Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Vol I. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), col. 133, no. 254 [Bodl. Ouseley 330/3].

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. 2 Pt. 3 (London: Luzac & Co., 1939), pp. 635–639.

Robert Travers, 'The connected worlds of Haji Mustapha (c. 1730–91): A Eurasian cosmopolitan in eighteenth-century Bengal, The Indian Economic & Social History Review Vol. 52, No. 3 (2015): pp. 297–333.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

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