Persian MS 919 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: A copy of the Bahār-i Dānish (Spring of Wisdom) authored by ʻInāyat Allāh (d. ca. 1671) in 1061 AH (1651 CE) during the reign of Shāh Jahān, relates the romantic adventures of Jahāndār Sulṭān and Bahravar Bānū, which serves as a frame story interwoven with other tales. One of six copies held in the Rylands, this redaction contains a preface by the author's younger brother and pupil Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ followed by the author's own introduction in which he explains how he adapted the tale frome that he heard a young Brahmin recite.

Author: ʻInāyat Allāh, d. ca. 1671;
‘Ināyat Allāh Kanbū Lāhūrī;
Kanbū, ‘Ināyat Allāh;
عنايت الله;
عنايت الله كنبو لاهوری;
كنبو، عنايت الله

Title: Bahār-i Dānish

Title: بهار دانش

Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): فاتحه کتاب مستطاب افرینش و پیرایهٔ صحیفهٔ دانش و بینش حمد خداوند خردبخش سخن آفرین و صورت نمای معنی ایجاد و تکوین است که بر لطایف ابداع و صنایع اختراع قدرت کامله پس از ماهتاب...

Explicit: برگ ۲۲۶ر (folio 226a): سیه کاری مکن چون خامهٔ خویش * بشو از چشم بر خون نامه‌ٔ خویش | زبان را گوشمالی خاموشی ده * که هست از هرچه کوئی خاموشی به.

Colophon: برگ ۲۲۶ر (folio 226a): تمام شد کتاب بهار دانش نصیف الفضلاء زمان مبان عنایت الله کنبوهی ساکن دار السلطنه لاهور بتاریخ نهم ۹ ماه حنوری سنه ۱۸۹۰ عیسوی روز جمعه.

Language(s): Persian

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 88, Persian MS 199, 463, 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

Form: codex

Support: Textblock comprised of thin-weight, cross-grained, ivory coloured European paper , ivoury-coloured paper handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~9 laid lines per cm and 23 mm between chain lines.

Extent: 228 folios, 2 flyleaves (ff. i + 228 + i).

Dimensions (leaf): 225 × 180 mm.

Dimensions (written): 190 × 127 mm.

Foliation: Foliated in Hindu-Arabic numerals in black ink on the upper-left corners of the a sides, ending at 226a, followed in this record.

Foliation: Pencilled pagination in Arabic numerals at the top-centres.

Collation

Undetermined, but probably quaternions throughout Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

Text in good condition with minor insect or rodent damage along the edges.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 12 to 15 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red.

Additions:
Inscriptions:
Bookplates and Pasted Items: The left pastedown bears the bookplate of one ‘John Hunter’, which closely resembles that of the famed Scottish surgeon of that name who died in 1793, but cannot be his due to the date of completion of this volume two years later in 1795. Below that, ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled shelfmark ‘2/F’, and a Lindesiana label bears the ‘Persian MS 919’.

Binding

Rebound in Britain, probably for former owner John Hunter.

Sewn on two recessed cord supports, laced into pasteboards. Covered in full crimson straight-grained Morocco goatskin leather over pasteboards.

231 × 189 × 41 mm.

Binding in good condition.

History

Origin: Completed in 1795 CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, the bookplate of one John Hunter indicates his former ownership.

While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, London bookseller Henry George Bohn (1796–1884) advertized the volume for sale for £1, 11 shillings and sixpence in his 1866 catalogue, p. 851.

Evidently acquired by Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold the volume to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) for the same price, then accessioned by the Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh Hall, Wigan 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, 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.

Subsequently augmented and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2023 with reference to the manuscript 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, 'ʿInāyat Allāh Kanbū' Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., Vol. III (Leiden: Brill, 1971), pp. 1203–1204.

‘Abd al-Muqtadir, Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in the Oriental Public Library at (Bankipore) Patna, Vol. VIII (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1925), p. 182, nos. 741–742.

A. Ashraf, A Catalogue of the Persian Books and Manuscripts in the Library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1890), p. 48, nos. E 34–36.

M. Dirāyatī and M. Dirāyatī, Fihristgān: Nuskhahʹhā-yi Khaṭṭī-i Īrān (Fankhā) (Union catalogue of Iran manuscripts), Vol. 6 (Tehran: Sāzmān-i Asnād va Kitābkhānah-i Millī-i Jumhūrī-i Islāmī-i Īrān, 1391 S. H. [2012–13 CE]), pp. 155–158 [Mashhad Maybudī MS no. 137, &c.].

Henry George Bohn, General Catalogue, Part 2, Sect. 3 London: Bohn, 1866), p. 851.

H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office, Vol. 1 (London: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903), cols. 529–532, nos. 806–817 [British Library, IO Islamic 1408, etc.].

M. A. Hukk, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in Edinburgh University Library (Hertford: Printed for the University of Edinburgh by S. Austin & Sons, 1925) pp. 106–107, nos. 121–122 [University of Edinburgh Or. Ms. 357].

ʻInāyat Allāh, Tales, translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi. In two volumes. [Translated by Alexander Dow] Dublin: Printed for P. and W. Wilson, H. Saunders, W. Sleater, B. Grierson, D. Chamberlaine, J. Potts, J. Williams, and C. Ingham, 1769.

ʻInāyat Allāh Kanbū Lāhūrī, Bahar-Danush; or, Garden of Knowledge. An Oriental Romance. Translated by Jonathan Scott. Shrewsbury: Printed by J. and W. Eddowes, 1799.

ʻInāyat Allāh Kanbū Lāhūrī, Bahār-i Dānish. Edited by Ḥasan Z̲ū al-Faqārī and ʿAbbās Saʿīdī. Tehran: Rushdʹāvarān, 1392 SH (2013 CE)

[Matthew Lumsden], Selections for the use of the students of the Persian Class, Vol. II: Comprising a portion of the Bahaure Daunish and the Deewaune Saudee (Calcutta: Persian Press of the College of Fort William, 1809), pp. 1–176.

D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), pp. 203–204, no. 715(ii).

‘A. Nawshāhī, Fihrist-i Nuskhahā-yi Khaṭṭi-yi Fārsi-yi Pākistān (Fihrist-i 8000 nuskha-yi khaṭṭi-yi kitābkhānahā-yi shakhṣī va dawlatī), Vol. 3 (Tehran: Mīrās̱-i Maktūb, 1398 SH [2017 CE]), pp. 1529–1532.

S. H. Qasemi, A Descriptive Catalogue of Persian Translations of Indian Works (New Delhi: National Mission for Manuscripts, 2014), pp. 189–201, nos. 1955-2203.

S. Rafiee-Rad, 'Persian Manuscripts in Samuel Robinson’s Collection in The John Rylands Library', Manuscripta: A Journal for Manuscript Research, Vol. 61, No. 2 (2017): pp. 289–291 [Rylands Persian MS 991].

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. II (London: British Museum, 1881), pp. 765–766 [British Library Add. 18409].

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. 434–435, nos. 466–472 [Bodleian Ouseley 233, etc.].

I. H. Siddiqui 'ʿEnāyat-Allāh Kanbo', Encyclopædia Iranica, Vol. VIII, Fasc. 4 (1998), pp. 429–430.

C. A. Storey [Online] (2021), Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. III, Pt. 3 Tales no. 728.

P.P. Subrahmanya, A descriptive catalogue of the Islamic manuscripts in the Government Oriental manuscripts library, Madras, Vol. I (Madras: Government Press, 1939), pp. 394–397, nos. 323–326

Ḥ. Z̲ū al-Faqārī, 'Bahār-i Dānish' Dā'irat al-Ma‘ārif-i Buzurg-i Islāmī, Vol. 13 (Tehran: Dā'irat al-Ma‘ārif Buzug-i Islāmī, 1383 SH (2004-05 CE), p. 93.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

Subjects

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