Laylā va Majnūn (Persian MS 266)
A clearly-written, albeit unembellished copy of the Laylā va Majnūn by Hātifī, (d. 1520–21), a nephew of ‘Abd al-Raḥman Jāmī (d. 1492), whom composed the opening couplet. Widely esteemed, especially in the Ottoman empire, for his explicit and straightforward manner, he particularly influenced the Azerbaijani Turkish poet Fużūlī. Likely completed in the late 18th to early 19th century in the Indian subcontinent, its first documented owner, Captain H. F. Cane (d. 1828), likely acquired it there.
Information about this document
- Physical Location: The John Rylands Library
- Collection: Persian Manuscripts
- Classmark: Persian MS 266
- Alternative Identifier(s): Bibliotheca Lindesiana Shelf Mark 2/I
- Title: Laylā va Majnūn
- Alternative Title(s): Laylī va Majnūn
- Language(s): Persian
- Subject(s): Persian poetry--1500-1796; Love poetry, Persian
- Author(s): Hātifī, d. 1520–21هاتفی
- Contributor(s): ‘Abd al-Raḥman Jāmī (d. 1492)
- Origin Place: Indian subcontinent
- Date of Creation: late 18th to early 19th centuries CE
- Excerpts:Incipit, basmalla:Incipit: برگ ۱ب (folio 1b):
ملاها تقی جامی نامش * و خواهرزادهٔ ملا عبد الرحمن جامی است.Explicit: برگ ۶۹ب (folio 69a): کردند نداء این کهنویر * کا حسنت احسنت تمّ بالخیر.Colophon: No colophon - Note(s): Sir William Jones published English translations of select passages in Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1788, which together with interpretations of the better-known version of Niẓāmī, influenced British author Issac D'Israeli's English adaptation in turn, which in turn profoundly impacted subsequent oriental-themed romantic-era works by Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.
- Format: Codex
- Material(s): Paper
- Extent: 79 folios, 4 flyleaves (ff. ii + 78 + ii). Leaf height: 236 mm, width: 155 mm. Written height: 155 mm, width: 86 mm.
- Foliation:
Foliation marked in pencil at top-left corner of the a sides in Arabic numerals.
- Collation: Undetermined. Catchwords on b side of nearly every folio.
- Condition: Moderate insect damage along the outer edges, apparently repaired when the volume was rebound. The binding is in excellent condition.
- Layout: Written in 1 to 2 columns, with 7 to 16 lines per page. Ruled with a masṭarah hand guide.
- Script:Nasta‘liq script in black ink, in a medium, clear hand for the majority of the text, with rubricated chapter headingsNasta‘liq script in black ink, in a medium but clear hand that transcribed an unrelated couplet by Sa‘di on folio 79b.Nasta‘liq script in black ink, in a heavy, rudimentary hand that transcribed six unidentified couplets on folio 79b.
- Additions:
Inscriptions:Inscribed by former owner Captain H. F. Cane (d. 1828) on folio 1a: "Lilu Mignoon by Hatefee –H. F. Cane."Folio 69b bears additional Persian couplets.
Bookplates:Left flyleaf, "Bibliotheca Lindesiana" with shelfmark "2/I". - Binding:
While it lacks a binder's ticket, the style matches others restored and rebound for Lord Crawford by Fazakerley of Liverpool, half-bound in dark blue morocco-grain goatskin leather. Paper sides of British-made dark blue moirée Spanish patterned with printed marbled gold veins. Endleaves of late 19th–early 20th c. machine-made cream coloured paper.
Gold fillet lines. Spine features blind and gilt fillet lines with full titling.Binding height: 241 mm, width: 162 mm, depth: 11 mm.
Binding in good condition. - Origin: Probably completed in the Indian subcontinent; undated, but likely late 18th to early 19th centuries CE.
- Provenance: Formerly belonged to Captain H. F. Cane (d. 1828) who inscribed the volume on folio 1a, then later acquired by the Persian scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865), after whose death his oriental manuscripts were sold through Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) in 1866 to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880). 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
- 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. Emended and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2020 with reference to the manuscript.
- Funding: Iran Heritage Foundation and The John Rylands Research Institute
- Author(s) of the Record: Suzanne Fagan, Julian Cook, Jake Benson, Andrew Morrison, James Cummings, Yasmin Faghihi
- Bibliography:See the record for this manuscript on FihristIssac D'Israeli, The Loves of Mejnoun and Leila, a Celebrated Persian Romance. With Notes, Illustrative of the Manners and Customs of the Persians.Calcutta: [s.n.] 1800?William Jones, Lailĭ Majnūn, a Persian Poem of Hātifĭ.Calcutta: Manuel Cantopher, 1788.William Jones, "Lailĭ Majnūn, a Persian Poem of Hātifĭ: Preface” in The Works of Sir William Jones: with the Life of the Author by Lord Teignmouth, vol. 13 (London: John Stockdale, Piccadilly; and John Walker, Paternoster-Row, 1807), 388–97.Elham Nilchian 'Isaac D’Israeli’s Mejnoun and Leila', International Journal of Comparative Literature & Translation Studies Vol. 4, No. 1 (2016): pp. 45–53.
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 266
- Alternative Identifier(s): Bibliotheca Lindesiana Shelf Mark 2/I
- Title: Laylā va Majnūn
- Alternative Title(s): Laylī va Majnūn
- Language(s): Persian
- Subject(s): Persian poetry--1500-1796; Love poetry, Persian
- Author(s): Hātifī, d. 1520–21هاتفی
- Contributor(s): ‘Abd al-Raḥman Jāmī (d. 1492)
- Origin Place: Indian subcontinent
- Date of Creation: late 18th to early 19th centuries CE
- Excerpts:Incipit, basmalla:Incipit: برگ ۱ب (folio 1b):
ملاها تقی جامی نامش * و خواهرزادهٔ ملا عبد الرحمن جامی است.Explicit: برگ ۶۹ب (folio 69a): کردند نداء این کهنویر * کا حسنت احسنت تمّ بالخیر.Colophon: No colophon - Note(s): Sir William Jones published English translations of select passages in Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1788, which together with interpretations of the better-known version of Niẓāmī, influenced British author Issac D'Israeli's English adaptation in turn, which in turn profoundly impacted subsequent oriental-themed romantic-era works by Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.
- Format: Codex
- Material(s): Paper
- Extent: 79 folios, 4 flyleaves (ff. ii + 78 + ii). Leaf height: 236 mm, width: 155 mm. Written height: 155 mm, width: 86 mm.
- Foliation:
Foliation marked in pencil at top-left corner of the a sides in Arabic numerals.
- Collation: Undetermined. Catchwords on b side of nearly every folio.
- Condition: Moderate insect damage along the outer edges, apparently repaired when the volume was rebound. The binding is in excellent condition.
- Layout: Written in 1 to 2 columns, with 7 to 16 lines per page. Ruled with a masṭarah hand guide.
- Script:Nasta‘liq script in black ink, in a medium, clear hand for the majority of the text, with rubricated chapter headingsNasta‘liq script in black ink, in a medium but clear hand that transcribed an unrelated couplet by Sa‘di on folio 79b.Nasta‘liq script in black ink, in a heavy, rudimentary hand that transcribed six unidentified couplets on folio 79b.
- Additions:
Inscriptions:Inscribed by former owner Captain H. F. Cane (d. 1828) on folio 1a: "Lilu Mignoon by Hatefee –H. F. Cane."Folio 69b bears additional Persian couplets.
Bookplates:Left flyleaf, "Bibliotheca Lindesiana" with shelfmark "2/I". - Binding:
While it lacks a binder's ticket, the style matches others restored and rebound for Lord Crawford by Fazakerley of Liverpool, half-bound in dark blue morocco-grain goatskin leather. Paper sides of British-made dark blue moirée Spanish patterned with printed marbled gold veins. Endleaves of late 19th–early 20th c. machine-made cream coloured paper.
Gold fillet lines. Spine features blind and gilt fillet lines with full titling.Binding height: 241 mm, width: 162 mm, depth: 11 mm.
Binding in good condition. - Origin: Probably completed in the Indian subcontinent; undated, but likely late 18th to early 19th centuries CE.
- Provenance: Formerly belonged to Captain H. F. Cane (d. 1828) who inscribed the volume on folio 1a, then later acquired by the Persian scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865), after whose death his oriental manuscripts were sold through Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) in 1866 to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880). 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
- 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. Emended and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2020 with reference to the manuscript.
- Funding: Iran Heritage Foundation and The John Rylands Research Institute
- Author(s) of the Record: Suzanne Fagan, Julian Cook, Jake Benson, Andrew Morrison, James Cummings, Yasmin Faghihi
- Bibliography:See the record for this manuscript on FihristIssac D'Israeli, The Loves of Mejnoun and Leila, a Celebrated Persian Romance. With Notes, Illustrative of the Manners and Customs of the Persians.Calcutta: [s.n.] 1800?William Jones, Lailĭ Majnūn, a Persian Poem of Hātifĭ.Calcutta: Manuel Cantopher, 1788.William Jones, "Lailĭ Majnūn, a Persian Poem of Hātifĭ: Preface” in The Works of Sir William Jones: with the Life of the Author by Lord Teignmouth, vol. 13 (London: John Stockdale, Piccadilly; and John Walker, Paternoster-Row, 1807), 388–97.Elham Nilchian 'Isaac D’Israeli’s Mejnoun and Leila', International Journal of Comparative Literature & Translation Studies Vol. 4, No. 1 (2016): pp. 45–53.
