Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

Persian MS 939 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Contents

Summary of Contents: A brief, incomplete excerpt of an unidentified work on moral duties appears likely completed in the 18th century
Title: unknown
Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): بود که کسان بادشاه رسیدند بیدار کردند و زبان دزار کرده میگفند نیکو گر فتم که برای آوردن عیسی آمده بودی و بیعم در خواب شدی القصه ندر شاه آوردند و گفتند که از ینجا بحیله حلاص شده در صحرابخواب بود…
Colophon: No colophon.
Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Probably written on medium-weight, buff-coloured, heavily flocked, externally lightly sized, and gently polished, paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~12 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.
Dimensions (leaf): 204 × 163 mm.
Foliation: Unfoliated

Collation

One quire. No catchwords.

Condition

Text in good condition.

Layout

Written in a single column with 19 lines per page. uled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq.

Binding

Probably bound for former owner Alexander Lindsay.

Pamphlet stiched at three stations through large single quire. Covered in a semi-limp Spanish waved-patterned marbled paper wrapper adhered to the outer quire. Flush-cut edges, no endpands.

204 × 163 × 15 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition, with the fore-edge chipped.

History

Origin: Unsigned but possibly completed in the Indian subcontinent; ; undated, but probably 18th century CE.

Provenance and Acquisition

While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) acquired it from an unidentified soure 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 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.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation


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