Mas̲navī-i Ma‘navī (Persian MS 255)
A complete copy of Book Six of the Mas̲navī-i Ma‘navī (Spiritual Couplets) by Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (1207–1273), the sixth volume of a set together with Persian MS 250, Persian MS 251, Persian MS 252, Persian MS 253, and Persian MS 254. Since the set bears dedications to Prince Muḥammad Mu‘aẓẓam Bahādur Shāh, son of the Mughal Emperor ‘Ālamgīr I, who later succeeded his father as Shāh ‘Ālam Bahādur I (r. 1707–1712), he likely commissioned it.
Information about this document
- Physical Location: The John Rylands Library
- Collection: Persian Manuscripts
- Classmark: Persian MS 255
- Alternative Identifier(s): Bibliotheca Lindesiana Shelf Mark: 2/G; Bland 475
- Title: Mas̲navī-i Ma‘navī
- Subject(s): Persian poetry--747-1500; Masnavis, Persian
- Origin Place: Kabul
- Date of Creation: Friday, 2 Ṣafar in the 43rd year of the Mughal Emperor ‘Ālamgīr's reign (1109 AH, 14 Aug. 1697 CE)
- Language(s): Persian
- Note(s): The volume opens with a brief ornate rhyming prose dedicated to an unnamed ḥākim (governor); however the colophon explicitly identifies him as a Prince Muḥammad Mu‘aẓẓam Bahādur Shāh, son of the Mughal Emperor ‘Ālamgīr I, who later succeeded his father as Shāh ‘Ālam Bahādur I (r. 1707–1712). The poem itself commences in the top margin, immediately after a basmalla in red. The text of the book ends at the top of the lower margin of folio 40a, followed by the colophon that continues on to 40b.
- Extent: 40 folios, 7 flyleaves (ff. iv + 40 + iii). Leaf height: 260 mm, width: 154 mm. Written height: 203 mm, width: 112 mm.
- Collation: Primarily quaternions thoughout. 1IV-1(7)4IV(40). Catchwords written at the lower-left margin by the gutter, or lower-left corners on the b sides throughout.
- Material(s): Paper
- Format: Codex
- Condition: In fair condition, with water and insect damage, and many subsequent historical repairs throughout the volume. Small, jagged rectangular cut-out from the upper corner of folio 1, likely to remove the names of former owner Sir Gore Ouseley (1770–1844), with two impressions of the name of another former owner, Bengal indigo merchant John Harvey Danby (d. ca. 1830), blacked out in the header of 1b.
- Binding:
Textblock repaired and resewn after suffering significant water and insect damage, at two unsupported stations. Edges trimmed and coloured yellow. Twined chevron endbands worked at head and tail in silver and possibly indigosilk threads, with the one at the head largely abraded.. Rebound with very thin pasteboardsin full, tight-backed smooth goatskin leather, originally maroon-coloured but due to prolonged exposure to moisture now appears a mottled medium-brown, but the original hue remains evident on the left board and the turn-ins. Internal doublures of the same goatskin leather, with the excess width put down as hinges attached to the first and last flyleaves and a strip of paper adhered over top to disguise the join. Earlier flyleaves of thin-weight, cream-coloured, heavily flocked handmade paper, and a comparatively bright, ivory-coloured, medium-weight, sturdy paper, added when restored, both probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~8 laid lines per cm and few discernible chain lines, the latter also added as flyleaves to other volumes in the set when restored.
Boards originally uniformly decorated together with the other volumes in the set, with recessed gilt paper onlays for the central scalloped mandorlas and detached pendants; however, none remain. Remnants of a paper label adhered to spine, with the volume number written in Persian on the right board exterior in gold ink in nasta‘līq script.Binding height: 262 mm, width: 159 mm, depth: 16 mm.
Handle with caution. Very tight opening, only to about 45º. In fair condition, with extensive staining after exposure to prolonged moisture, especially at the spine and tail edge. Upper grain layer abraded in areas. The moisture caused the interior pasteboards to swell and delaminate internally, and forced the boards to bulge and buckle, with the doublure of the left board separating on the fore-edge. - Script:Written primarily in black nasta‘līq swith red subheaders by Sīrāj al-Dīn bin Sayyid Bāyāzīd Kūrahvī.
- Foliation:
Foliation marked at top-right corners of the a sides in pencilled Arabic numerals by the cataloguer.
- Layout: Written in 1 to 2 columns, with 19 lines in the centres, primarily couplets, which then proceeds to the top of three-part margins which contain another 44 hemistichs, or 22 couplets. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
- Additions:
Inscriptions:Bookplates: The left doublure: "Bibliotheca Lindesiana" with shelfmark "2/G", and "Bland MSS No. 474".The fourth right flyleaf b side (f. ivb) inscribed "No. 84 Vol. 6" at top, most probably in the hand of Sir Gore Ouseley (1770–1844), that despite a subsequent owner cutting out his signature, nevertheless matches his inscriptions in other manuscripts, and further confirmed by a pencilled notation in another hand (probably subsequent owner Nathaniel Bland (1803-1865)) in the first volume of the set, Persian MS 250.Folio 1 also bears the transliterated title and volume number in Ouseley's hand, with a neatly copied summary of the contents in nasta‘'līq miniscule. - Origin: Completed in Kabul; Friday, 2 Ṣafar in the 43rd year of the Mughal Emperor ‘Ālamgīr's reign (1109 AH, 14 Aug. 1697 CE) by Sirāj al-Dīn ibn Bāyāzīd Kūrahvī Rūdawlī
- Provenance:
Previously owned or inspected by Faz̤l Allāh Shāh Muḥammad as per his seal impression on folio 1a in Persian MS 250, the first volume of the set.
Subsequently acquired by indigo merchant Jonathan Harvey Danby (1767–1830), of Honiton, Devon, who constructed a large factory in Shikarpur, Nadia District (now in West Bengal) in circa 1790 to 1795 (this firm later evolved into Messrs. Robert Watson & Co., the preeminent Victorian-era subcontinental dyeworks), as per his name imprinted at the top of folio 1b, albeit blackened out by a later owner.
Later obtained by Sir Gore Ouseley (1770–1844) as per his clipped signature and an unsigned inscription underneath identifying him on the first volume, Persian MS 250, fifth right flyleaf b side (f. vb).
Subsequently acquired by Persian scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865), after whose death London antiquarian dealer 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 (1843–1908) in 1908 to the John Rylands Library.
- Date of Acquisition: 1908
- Funding: Iran Heritage Foundation and The John Rylands Research Institute
- 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 Jake Benson in 2021 with reference to the volume, in consultation with Prof Mahmood Alam (English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad) regarding the colophon and scribe.
- Author(s) of the Record: Jake Benson, Julian Cook, Andrew Morrison, James Cummings, Yasmin Faghihi
- Excerpts:Incipit, basmallah: برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): مجلد ششم لدفترهای مثنوی و تبیان معنوی که مصباح ظلام و هم و شبهت و خیالت و شک و زیبت باشد و این مصباح را با حسن حیوانی ادراک نتوان کرد.Explicit: برگ ۴۰ر (folio 40a): در دل من آن سخن زان میمنهست * رانک از در جناب دل روزنهستColophon: برگ ۴۰ر-۴۰پ (folio 40a–40b): تمت الکتاب بعون الملک الوهاب علی یدی العبد الضعیف المحتاج الی رحمه ربه غفران خوریم الطلبا سراج الدین ابن سید بایزید کورهوی معموله پرگنه ردولی سرکار و صوبه اوده بجهته یادگاری مشفقی مکرمی منبع فیض و حمایت میان خواجه عنایت گردیده محل بادشاهزاده عالم و عالمیان بهادر شاه در عمل صوبه داری بلده کابل سمت اختتام یافت.تمت الکتاب بعون الملک الوهاب علی یدی العبد الضعیف المحتاج الی رحمه ربه غفران خویدم الطلبا سراج الدین ابن سید بایزید کورهوی معموله پرگنه ردولی سرکار و صوبه اوده بجهته یادگاری مشفقی مکرمی منبع فیض و حمایت میان خواجه عنایت گردیده محل بادشاهزاده عالم و عالمیان بهادر شاه در عمل صوبه داری بلده کابل سمت اختتام یافت. [۴۰پ] و دیم من صفر فی یوم الجمعه سنه جلوس ۴۳ حمداً الله و مصلیاً علی نبیه محمد و آله الطیبین الطاهرین رحمة الله لمن نطر فیه و لمن قراء منه ولمن دعا لکاتبه بالرحمة و الغفران و الصلوة علی نبیه محمد و اله اجمعین برحمتک یا ارحم الراحمین. قد تم کتابتي بعون الوهاب * امید که باشد همگی صدق صورت * ور سهو و خطای نشده باشد واقع * رب اغفر لي إنك انت التواب.Colophon: Completed by Sirāj al-Dīn ibn Bāyāzīd Kūrahvī Rūdawlī, in Kabul (then part of the Mughal Empire) on Friday, 2 Ṣafar in the 43rd year of the Mughal Emperor ‘Ālamgīr's reign (1111 AH, 03 Jul. 1699 CE).
- Bibliography:See the record for this manuscript on Fihrist.W. Chittick, The Philosophy of Ecstasy: Rumi and the Sufi Tradition. Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2014.B. Furūzānfar, Sharḥ-i Mas̲navī-i sharīf. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Dānishgāh-i Tihrān, 1347–48 SH (1967–70 CE).L. Lewisohn, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi. Albany: SUNY Press, 1983.Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, The Masnavi of Rumi: A New English Translation with Persian Text and Explanatory Notes. Edited by M. Istiʻlāmī and translated by A. Williams. London: I.B. Tauris, 2020.Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, The Masnavi of Rumi: A New English Translation with Persian Text and Explanatory Notes, Vols. 1–2. Edited by M. Istiʻlāmī and translated by A. Williams. London: I.B. Tauris, 2020.Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, The Mathnawí of Jalálu'ddín Rúmi The Mathnawí of Jalálu'ddín Rúmi. Edited and translated by R. A. Nicholson. London: Luzac & Co., 1925–1940.Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Kullīyāt-i Mas̲navī-i Maʻnavī-i. Edited by B. Furūzānfar, with commentary by M. Darvīsh. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Jāvīdān, 1342 SH (1963 CE).
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- Physical Location: The John Rylands Library
- Collection: Persian Manuscripts
- Classmark: Persian MS 255
- Alternative Identifier(s): Bibliotheca Lindesiana Shelf Mark: 2/G; Bland 475
- Title: Mas̲navī-i Ma‘navī
- Subject(s): Persian poetry--747-1500; Masnavis, Persian
- Origin Place: Kabul
- Date of Creation: Friday, 2 Ṣafar in the 43rd year of the Mughal Emperor ‘Ālamgīr's reign (1109 AH, 14 Aug. 1697 CE)
- Language(s): Persian
- Note(s): The volume opens with a brief ornate rhyming prose dedicated to an unnamed ḥākim (governor); however the colophon explicitly identifies him as a Prince Muḥammad Mu‘aẓẓam Bahādur Shāh, son of the Mughal Emperor ‘Ālamgīr I, who later succeeded his father as Shāh ‘Ālam Bahādur I (r. 1707–1712). The poem itself commences in the top margin, immediately after a basmalla in red. The text of the book ends at the top of the lower margin of folio 40a, followed by the colophon that continues on to 40b.
- Extent: 40 folios, 7 flyleaves (ff. iv + 40 + iii). Leaf height: 260 mm, width: 154 mm. Written height: 203 mm, width: 112 mm.
- Collation: Primarily quaternions thoughout. 1IV-1(7)4IV(40). Catchwords written at the lower-left margin by the gutter, or lower-left corners on the b sides throughout.
- Material(s): Paper
- Format: Codex
- Condition: In fair condition, with water and insect damage, and many subsequent historical repairs throughout the volume. Small, jagged rectangular cut-out from the upper corner of folio 1, likely to remove the names of former owner Sir Gore Ouseley (1770–1844), with two impressions of the name of another former owner, Bengal indigo merchant John Harvey Danby (d. ca. 1830), blacked out in the header of 1b.
- Binding:
Textblock repaired and resewn after suffering significant water and insect damage, at two unsupported stations. Edges trimmed and coloured yellow. Twined chevron endbands worked at head and tail in silver and possibly indigosilk threads, with the one at the head largely abraded.. Rebound with very thin pasteboardsin full, tight-backed smooth goatskin leather, originally maroon-coloured but due to prolonged exposure to moisture now appears a mottled medium-brown, but the original hue remains evident on the left board and the turn-ins. Internal doublures of the same goatskin leather, with the excess width put down as hinges attached to the first and last flyleaves and a strip of paper adhered over top to disguise the join. Earlier flyleaves of thin-weight, cream-coloured, heavily flocked handmade paper, and a comparatively bright, ivory-coloured, medium-weight, sturdy paper, added when restored, both probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~8 laid lines per cm and few discernible chain lines, the latter also added as flyleaves to other volumes in the set when restored.
Boards originally uniformly decorated together with the other volumes in the set, with recessed gilt paper onlays for the central scalloped mandorlas and detached pendants; however, none remain. Remnants of a paper label adhered to spine, with the volume number written in Persian on the right board exterior in gold ink in nasta‘līq script.Binding height: 262 mm, width: 159 mm, depth: 16 mm.
Handle with caution. Very tight opening, only to about 45º. In fair condition, with extensive staining after exposure to prolonged moisture, especially at the spine and tail edge. Upper grain layer abraded in areas. The moisture caused the interior pasteboards to swell and delaminate internally, and forced the boards to bulge and buckle, with the doublure of the left board separating on the fore-edge. - Script:Written primarily in black nasta‘līq swith red subheaders by Sīrāj al-Dīn bin Sayyid Bāyāzīd Kūrahvī.
- Foliation:
Foliation marked at top-right corners of the a sides in pencilled Arabic numerals by the cataloguer.
- Layout: Written in 1 to 2 columns, with 19 lines in the centres, primarily couplets, which then proceeds to the top of three-part margins which contain another 44 hemistichs, or 22 couplets. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
- Additions:
Inscriptions:Bookplates: The left doublure: "Bibliotheca Lindesiana" with shelfmark "2/G", and "Bland MSS No. 474".The fourth right flyleaf b side (f. ivb) inscribed "No. 84 Vol. 6" at top, most probably in the hand of Sir Gore Ouseley (1770–1844), that despite a subsequent owner cutting out his signature, nevertheless matches his inscriptions in other manuscripts, and further confirmed by a pencilled notation in another hand (probably subsequent owner Nathaniel Bland (1803-1865)) in the first volume of the set, Persian MS 250.Folio 1 also bears the transliterated title and volume number in Ouseley's hand, with a neatly copied summary of the contents in nasta‘'līq miniscule. - Origin: Completed in Kabul; Friday, 2 Ṣafar in the 43rd year of the Mughal Emperor ‘Ālamgīr's reign (1109 AH, 14 Aug. 1697 CE) by Sirāj al-Dīn ibn Bāyāzīd Kūrahvī Rūdawlī
- Provenance:
Previously owned or inspected by Faz̤l Allāh Shāh Muḥammad as per his seal impression on folio 1a in Persian MS 250, the first volume of the set.
Subsequently acquired by indigo merchant Jonathan Harvey Danby (1767–1830), of Honiton, Devon, who constructed a large factory in Shikarpur, Nadia District (now in West Bengal) in circa 1790 to 1795 (this firm later evolved into Messrs. Robert Watson & Co., the preeminent Victorian-era subcontinental dyeworks), as per his name imprinted at the top of folio 1b, albeit blackened out by a later owner.
Later obtained by Sir Gore Ouseley (1770–1844) as per his clipped signature and an unsigned inscription underneath identifying him on the first volume, Persian MS 250, fifth right flyleaf b side (f. vb).
Subsequently acquired by Persian scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865), after whose death London antiquarian dealer 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 (1843–1908) in 1908 to the John Rylands Library.
- Date of Acquisition: 1908
- Funding: Iran Heritage Foundation and The John Rylands Research Institute
- 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 Jake Benson in 2021 with reference to the volume, in consultation with Prof Mahmood Alam (English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad) regarding the colophon and scribe.
- Author(s) of the Record: Jake Benson, Julian Cook, Andrew Morrison, James Cummings, Yasmin Faghihi
- Excerpts:Incipit, basmallah: برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): مجلد ششم لدفترهای مثنوی و تبیان معنوی که مصباح ظلام و هم و شبهت و خیالت و شک و زیبت باشد و این مصباح را با حسن حیوانی ادراک نتوان کرد.Explicit: برگ ۴۰ر (folio 40a): در دل من آن سخن زان میمنهست * رانک از در جناب دل روزنهستColophon: برگ ۴۰ر-۴۰پ (folio 40a–40b): تمت الکتاب بعون الملک الوهاب علی یدی العبد الضعیف المحتاج الی رحمه ربه غفران خوریم الطلبا سراج الدین ابن سید بایزید کورهوی معموله پرگنه ردولی سرکار و صوبه اوده بجهته یادگاری مشفقی مکرمی منبع فیض و حمایت میان خواجه عنایت گردیده محل بادشاهزاده عالم و عالمیان بهادر شاه در عمل صوبه داری بلده کابل سمت اختتام یافت.تمت الکتاب بعون الملک الوهاب علی یدی العبد الضعیف المحتاج الی رحمه ربه غفران خویدم الطلبا سراج الدین ابن سید بایزید کورهوی معموله پرگنه ردولی سرکار و صوبه اوده بجهته یادگاری مشفقی مکرمی منبع فیض و حمایت میان خواجه عنایت گردیده محل بادشاهزاده عالم و عالمیان بهادر شاه در عمل صوبه داری بلده کابل سمت اختتام یافت. [۴۰پ] و دیم من صفر فی یوم الجمعه سنه جلوس ۴۳ حمداً الله و مصلیاً علی نبیه محمد و آله الطیبین الطاهرین رحمة الله لمن نطر فیه و لمن قراء منه ولمن دعا لکاتبه بالرحمة و الغفران و الصلوة علی نبیه محمد و اله اجمعین برحمتک یا ارحم الراحمین. قد تم کتابتي بعون الوهاب * امید که باشد همگی صدق صورت * ور سهو و خطای نشده باشد واقع * رب اغفر لي إنك انت التواب.Colophon: Completed by Sirāj al-Dīn ibn Bāyāzīd Kūrahvī Rūdawlī, in Kabul (then part of the Mughal Empire) on Friday, 2 Ṣafar in the 43rd year of the Mughal Emperor ‘Ālamgīr's reign (1111 AH, 03 Jul. 1699 CE).
- Bibliography:See the record for this manuscript on Fihrist.W. Chittick, The Philosophy of Ecstasy: Rumi and the Sufi Tradition. Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2014.B. Furūzānfar, Sharḥ-i Mas̲navī-i sharīf. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Dānishgāh-i Tihrān, 1347–48 SH (1967–70 CE).L. Lewisohn, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi. Albany: SUNY Press, 1983.Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, The Masnavi of Rumi: A New English Translation with Persian Text and Explanatory Notes. Edited by M. Istiʻlāmī and translated by A. Williams. London: I.B. Tauris, 2020.Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, The Masnavi of Rumi: A New English Translation with Persian Text and Explanatory Notes, Vols. 1–2. Edited by M. Istiʻlāmī and translated by A. Williams. London: I.B. Tauris, 2020.Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, The Mathnawí of Jalálu'ddín Rúmi The Mathnawí of Jalálu'ddín Rúmi. Edited and translated by R. A. Nicholson. London: Luzac & Co., 1925–1940.Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Kullīyāt-i Mas̲navī-i Maʻnavī-i. Edited by B. Furūzānfar, with commentary by M. Darvīsh. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Jāvīdān, 1342 SH (1963 CE).
