Riyāḍ al-shuʻarāʼ (Persian MS 58)
A partial manuscript of the Riyāz̤ al-Shu‘arā’ (Gardens of Poets) by ʻAlī Qulī Khān Dāghistānī(1712–1756), pen named 'Wālih'. Born in Isfahan, he the author left Iran after the abidcation of his patron, the Safavid ruler Shāh Ṭahmasp II in 1732, he left Iran for India, where he found favour with the Mughal ruler Muḥammad Shāh (b. 1702, r. 1719–1748) and composed this work in 1161 AH (1748 CE), which he both compiled from earlier sources and then added his own observations. While the complete work contains 2,496 alphabetically arranged biographical accounts, this volume only contains approximately the first half, from the letters alif to sīn.
Information about this document
- Physical Location: The John Rylands Library
- Collection: Persian Manuscripts
- Classmark: Persian MS 58
- Alternative Identifier(s): Bland 68; Lindesiana Shelf Mark 2/H
- Title: Riyāḍ al-shuʻarāʼ
- Alternative Title(s): Riyāz̤ al-Shu‘arā’; ریاض الشعراء
- Origin Place: Location not indicated, but probably India
- Date of Creation: late 18th to early 19th century
- Language(s): Persian
- Note(s): For another copy of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 57.
- Extent: 240 folios, 13 flyleaves (ff. vi + 240 + vii). Leaf height: 225 mm, width: 165 mm. Written height: 192 mm, width: 115 mm.
- Collation: Catchwords on the lower-left b side of nearly every folio.
- Material(s): Handmade paper
- Format: Codex
- Condition: In overall excellent condition albeit folio 5 detached from its repair hinge in the gutter.
- Binding:
Possibly restored and rebound in a European manner in Calcutta (Kolkata) for former owner Turner Macan.
Resewn on three sawn-in cords, laced into the pasteboards. Edges ploughed then finely spattered in brownish-red. European-style front-bead decorative endbands sewn in silk threads at head and tail. Recovered in full crimson straight-grained morocco goatskin leather.
Diagonal blind double fillet lines at the corners, in the manner of European half bindings, as well as at head and tail of the spine. Spine titled "TUSKIREH I DAGHISTANEE" in gold.Binding height: 220 mm, width: 157 mm, depth: 16 mm.
Binding in fair condition, with surface abrasion. - Script:Text primarily copied in black nasta'līq with the names of poets and genres in red.
- Foliation:
Foliation in Hindu-Arabic numerals at the top-left corner of every a side. Folio 2a mismarked "1", albeit with correct numbers up to folio 188a; however, thereafter marked 199a to 250a, hence off by 10.
- Layout: Written in 1 column with 15 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
- Additions:
Table of Contents:Right paste-down: Pencilled list of names of poets and the folios on which they appear, probably in the hand of former owner Nathaniel Bland
Marginalia:Folio 21a (and elsewhere): some textual emendation in another Persian hand.Folio 149a (and elsewhere): English marginal annotations, likely in the hands of former owners Turner Macan and Nathaniel Bland
Inscriptions:Bookplates:Left paste-down: " Bibliotheca Lindesiana" with shelfmark "2/H" and "Bland MSS No. 68".First right flyleaf a side (f. ia): A description of the work in English in an unknown hand written in irongall ink:
"Tuzkireh-i-Daghistanee Mousoom bu Riazet-oos Shoara Written by Allee Kulee Khan-i-Daghistanee Mutakhalus be Vala 43 Biographical Notices of the Persian Poets with Selections from their Works."Final right flyleaf a side (f. via):
"Tazkireh-i-Daghistanee by Alee-Koolee-Khan Mutakhalus bi Vala-i-Daghistanee. Macan" by former owner Turner Macan (1792-1836), and another in pencil "who quotes this ms in his introdn to the Calcutta edn of Firdusi." probably by Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865). - Origin: Location not indicated, but probably India; undated, but likely late 18th to early 19th century.
- Provenance:
Previously owned by Turner Macan (1792-1836), Persian translator for the British East India Company, and instructor at Fort William College, who published the first critical edition of the Shāhnāmah of Firdawsī in 1829.
During a visit to Britain in Nov. 1833, Macan evidently sold an unspecified number of manuscripts to scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865) for £91, 3 shillings, and sixpence (see Bland papers, British Library, Add. 30378, no. 199), so the latter may have obtained this volume at that time. However after Macan's death, his family also sold some volumes in Calcutta (Kolkata) through the firm of Jenkins, Low & Co., but another subsequent sale by Evans in London on 12 Dec. 1838 omits this title.
After Bland's death, London Bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in 1866.
Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913). - Acquisition:
Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands in 1908 to the John Rylands Library.
- Date of Acquisition: 1908
- Funding: Iran Heritage Foundation and The John Rylands Research Institute; The Soudavar Foundation
- Data Source(s):
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 James White in 2017 with reference to the volume in hand.
Further amended and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2021 with reference to the manuscript in hand.
- Author(s) of the Record: Suzanne Fagan, Jake Benson, Julian Cook, Andrew Morrison, James Cummings, Yasmin Faghihi, James White
- Excerpts:Incipit: برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): تذکره محفل خاطر قدس ماثر صاحبدلان آگاهExplicit: برگ ۲٥۰ر (folio 250a): هم خواست نداند که تو خواهند ماییColophon: No colophon.
- Bibliography:See the record for this manuscript on FihristNathaniel Bland Papers. British Library, Add. 30378, no. 199.Nathaniel Bland, 'On the earliest Persian Biography of Poets, by Muhammad Aúfi, and on some other Works of the class called Tazkirat ul Shuârá', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. IX. (1848): pp. 143–147, no. VII.D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), p. 484, no. 1864 (i).C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), p. 371 [BL Add. 16729].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. 239, nos. 377 and 378 [Bodl. Elliott 402 and 423].Aloys Sprenger, A Catalogue of Arabic, Persian and Hindustany Manuscripts in the Libraries of the King of Oudh. (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1854), p. 132, no. 18.ʻAlī Qulī Khān Vālih, Taz̲kirah-ʼi Riyāz̤ al-shuʻarāʼ. Edited by and Muḥsin Nājī Naṣrābādī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Asāṭīr, 1384 SH (2005–06 CE).
First released on Fihrist in 2014. Expanded version with digital facsimile released on MDC
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- Physical Location: The John Rylands Library
- Collection: Persian Manuscripts
- Classmark: Persian MS 58
- Alternative Identifier(s): Bland 68; Lindesiana Shelf Mark 2/H
- Title: Riyāḍ al-shuʻarāʼ
- Alternative Title(s): Riyāz̤ al-Shu‘arā’; ریاض الشعراء
- Origin Place: Location not indicated, but probably India
- Date of Creation: late 18th to early 19th century
- Language(s): Persian
- Note(s): For another copy of this work held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 57.
- Extent: 240 folios, 13 flyleaves (ff. vi + 240 + vii). Leaf height: 225 mm, width: 165 mm. Written height: 192 mm, width: 115 mm.
- Collation: Catchwords on the lower-left b side of nearly every folio.
- Material(s): Handmade paper
- Format: Codex
- Condition: In overall excellent condition albeit folio 5 detached from its repair hinge in the gutter.
- Binding:
Possibly restored and rebound in a European manner in Calcutta (Kolkata) for former owner Turner Macan.
Resewn on three sawn-in cords, laced into the pasteboards. Edges ploughed then finely spattered in brownish-red. European-style front-bead decorative endbands sewn in silk threads at head and tail. Recovered in full crimson straight-grained morocco goatskin leather.
Diagonal blind double fillet lines at the corners, in the manner of European half bindings, as well as at head and tail of the spine. Spine titled "TUSKIREH I DAGHISTANEE" in gold.Binding height: 220 mm, width: 157 mm, depth: 16 mm.
Binding in fair condition, with surface abrasion. - Script:Text primarily copied in black nasta'līq with the names of poets and genres in red.
- Foliation:
Foliation in Hindu-Arabic numerals at the top-left corner of every a side. Folio 2a mismarked "1", albeit with correct numbers up to folio 188a; however, thereafter marked 199a to 250a, hence off by 10.
- Layout: Written in 1 column with 15 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
- Additions:
Table of Contents:Right paste-down: Pencilled list of names of poets and the folios on which they appear, probably in the hand of former owner Nathaniel Bland
Marginalia:Folio 21a (and elsewhere): some textual emendation in another Persian hand.Folio 149a (and elsewhere): English marginal annotations, likely in the hands of former owners Turner Macan and Nathaniel Bland
Inscriptions:Bookplates:Left paste-down: " Bibliotheca Lindesiana" with shelfmark "2/H" and "Bland MSS No. 68".First right flyleaf a side (f. ia): A description of the work in English in an unknown hand written in irongall ink:
"Tuzkireh-i-Daghistanee Mousoom bu Riazet-oos Shoara Written by Allee Kulee Khan-i-Daghistanee Mutakhalus be Vala 43 Biographical Notices of the Persian Poets with Selections from their Works."Final right flyleaf a side (f. via):
"Tazkireh-i-Daghistanee by Alee-Koolee-Khan Mutakhalus bi Vala-i-Daghistanee. Macan" by former owner Turner Macan (1792-1836), and another in pencil "who quotes this ms in his introdn to the Calcutta edn of Firdusi." probably by Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865). - Origin: Location not indicated, but probably India; undated, but likely late 18th to early 19th century.
- Provenance:
Previously owned by Turner Macan (1792-1836), Persian translator for the British East India Company, and instructor at Fort William College, who published the first critical edition of the Shāhnāmah of Firdawsī in 1829.
During a visit to Britain in Nov. 1833, Macan evidently sold an unspecified number of manuscripts to scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865) for £91, 3 shillings, and sixpence (see Bland papers, British Library, Add. 30378, no. 199), so the latter may have obtained this volume at that time. However after Macan's death, his family also sold some volumes in Calcutta (Kolkata) through the firm of Jenkins, Low & Co., but another subsequent sale by Evans in London on 12 Dec. 1838 omits this title.
After Bland's death, London Bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in 1866.
Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913). - Acquisition:
Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands in 1908 to the John Rylands Library.
- Date of Acquisition: 1908
- Funding: Iran Heritage Foundation and The John Rylands Research Institute; The Soudavar Foundation
- Data Source(s):
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 James White in 2017 with reference to the volume in hand.
Further amended and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2021 with reference to the manuscript in hand.
- Author(s) of the Record: Suzanne Fagan, Jake Benson, Julian Cook, Andrew Morrison, James Cummings, Yasmin Faghihi, James White
- Excerpts:Incipit: برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): تذکره محفل خاطر قدس ماثر صاحبدلان آگاهExplicit: برگ ۲٥۰ر (folio 250a): هم خواست نداند که تو خواهند ماییColophon: No colophon.
- Bibliography:See the record for this manuscript on FihristNathaniel Bland Papers. British Library, Add. 30378, no. 199.Nathaniel Bland, 'On the earliest Persian Biography of Poets, by Muhammad Aúfi, and on some other Works of the class called Tazkirat ul Shuârá', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. IX. (1848): pp. 143–147, no. VII.D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), p. 484, no. 1864 (i).C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), p. 371 [BL Add. 16729].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. 239, nos. 377 and 378 [Bodl. Elliott 402 and 423].Aloys Sprenger, A Catalogue of Arabic, Persian and Hindustany Manuscripts in the Libraries of the King of Oudh. (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1854), p. 132, no. 18.ʻAlī Qulī Khān Vālih, Taz̲kirah-ʼi Riyāz̤ al-shuʻarāʼ. Edited by and Muḥsin Nājī Naṣrābādī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Asāṭīr, 1384 SH (2005–06 CE).
