Persian MS 940 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
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Persian Manuscripts
Contents
An unidentified brief Persian statistical account of India.
Leaves 33-53 only
Incipit: (basmalla) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): راجه جیپور و در راه کثرت کوهستان و ریگستان تربیه که در تحریر نآید از پراکپوره شیش کرده جنوب بهابراموضع(؟) کلان است...Explicit: برگ ۵۳پ (folio 53b): فصل هفتم اذ میرته تا حضرت اجمیر شماع از میرته است کرده شرق مایل اکنی رین وال قصبه کلان است در عمل راجه خوب پور و در راه کثرت ریگستان و متصل ذین پال چ وارست کوهستان نزدیک بمایان ارزین(؟) و ال...Colophon: No colophon.Language(s): PersianPhysical Description
Form: codexSupport: Written on medium-weight, buff-coloured, heavily flocked, externally sized, and highly polished, paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~10 laid lines per cm and few discernible chain lines.Extent: 32 folios, 4 flyleaves.Dimensions (leaf): 240 × 176 mm.Dimensions (text): 182 × 118 mm.Foliation: Hindu-Arabic numerals in ink appear on upper-left corners of the a sides throughout.Foliation: Modern pencilled Arabic numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides throughout.Collation
4IV(32) Catchwords on the lower-left corners of the b sides throughout.Condition
Text in good condition.Layout
Written in a single column in up to 13 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear but dense black nasta‘līq with headers and vocabulary in red.
Additions: Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ and ‘Persian MSS No. 940’ written aside.Binding
Probably bound for former owner Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880).
Resewn on four stations on recessed cords laced into pasteboards. Endpapers of ivory-coloured, cross-grained, French mould-made paper which while unwatermarked, matches other volumes as that sold by a Parisian firm founded by Pancrace Michallet in circa 1850, with 10 laid lines per cm and 29 mm between laid lines. Edges trimmed, spine lined, then covered, 'to the book' hollow-backed, in in morocco-grained black bookcloth, without endbands.
Spine titled ‘STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF INDIA’ and ‘ABOUT 1770’ at the tail.
262 × 145 × 14 mm.
Binding in good condition, albeit with the first right flyleaf (f. i) stained.
History
Origin: Probably 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, then moved to 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
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Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
Subjects
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