- Language(s)
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Persian ; Arabic
- Published
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[ca. 1807].
- Summary
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Abū Naṣr al-Farāhī's versified Arabic-Persian vocabulary followed by a collection (majmūʻah) of poetry in Persian, beginning with rubāʻīyāt and including works attributed to Mīrzā Muḥammad Ismāʻīl and Rashīd al-Dīn Vaṭvāṭ, somewhat haphazardly copied toward the end.
- Note
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Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center, Isl. Ms. 866
Origin: As appears in colophon on fol.38a, first work copied by Bābā [?] Valad Āghā Shihāb. Copying finished Jumādá I 1222 [July-August 1807]. Anthology lacks a formal colophon, though a few dates appear (1206 [1791 or 2], 1211 [1796 or 7] p.241), likely also early 19th century.
Accompanying materials: a. Slip in hand of Meredith-Owens marked "MO 11" describing contents and suggested dating reads "MO 11 Niṣāb al-ṣibyān of Abū Naṣr Farāhī. A rhymed Arabic-Persian vocabulary. Followed by a verse anthology and the Dīvān of Mīrzā Muḥammad Ismāʻīl of Shīrāz. Undated but probably XIXth century" b. Slip reading "Persian MSS (Heyworth-Dunne?) with Meredith-Owens notes" c. Slip reading "counted for 1968/69 Annual Report"
Former shelfmark: Mich. Isl. Ms. temp. no. 15
Binding: Pasteboards (quite spongy) covered in brown (with orange tones) leather ; Type III binding (without flap) ; board linings in black leather ; white and pink threads ; two sewing stations ; endbands in yellow with a chevron pattern ; in poor condition, with much wear, repair on spine ; lower cover has fully detached at spine ; extensive page repairs at beginning of ms. unfortunately obscure text in many places and make transcription of incipit difficult ; quite soiled with dirt, wax, food, and other stains ; housed in box for protection.
Support: European laid paper of several types with watermarks including scrollwork with initials below (p.22, etc.), three hats (top hats) with feathers (p.50, 52, etc.), three hats (tre cappelli, p.198, 284, etc.), and lion passant guardant (p.436, 438, etc.) ; front and back flyleaves (each an inserted single bifolium) in still other European laid paper with no watermarks visible.
Decoration: Textual dividers in the form of red circles (similar to numeral ٥) appear in first work at the end of each line ; first work rubricated with section headings, textual dividers, etc. in red ; anthology partially rubricated with titles, section headings, dedications, etc. in red.
Script: Supplied in two main hands ; first work in Naskh ; large, neatly executed, Persianate or Indian hand ; virtually serifless though occasional left-sloping barbed head-serif on alif of lām alif ligature and occasional final lām ; occasional right-sloping barbed head-serif on bar of kāf mashkūlah ; many closed counters ; line thickness changes though hand appears not to (though opening and a few leaves at the center have slightly different character) ; essentially fully pointed, often with two dots often positioned one above the other rather than beside ; many mistakes in the pointing ; partially vocalized ; often final letters or entire final word of each line is superscript ; anthology is supplied in several hands of a kind of shikāstah nastaʻlīq script ; serifless ; interesting hāʼ mudghamah looking like two inverted commas one atop the other ; sweeping descenders ; free use of ligatures ; words sloping to baseline ; final letters or final word of each line often superscript ; line thickness, size, and hand all change frequently.
Layout: First work written in 9 lines per page ; anthology ruled in two columns with number of lines per page varying widely from 4 to 12 ; frame-ruled (impression of ruling board quite evident).
Collation: ii, V(10), V+2(22), V(32), III(38), IV+1(47), 2 IV(63), 2 I(67), 2 IV(91), IV+2 (101), IV-1(108), IV(116), I(118), I+1(121), IV(129), IV-1(136), 3 IV(160), I(162), IV+1(171), IV(179), I(181), IV(189), VI(201), IV(209), 5 (214), III+2(222), II(226), ii ; catchwords present in first work, but appear irregularly in anthology ; several folia in anthology are left blank or partially blank, indicating division of contents and not missing text ; pagination in pencil, Western numerals (supplied during cataloguing).
Colophon: [Niṣāb al-ṣibyān] "Scribal," triangular, reads: "تمام كتاب نصاب بتاريخ شهر جمادى اول بخط حقير فقير اغا بابا [؟] ولد اغا شهاب سنة ١٢٢٢"
Explicit: [Niṣāb al-ṣibyān] "ناس و انس و اناس ادمیان پدر مادر ادم و حوا"
Incipit: [Niṣāb al-ṣibyān] "الحمد لله رب العالمين [والصلاة] والسلام على خير خلقه محمد ... اما بعد حنين گويد ... ابو نصر فراهي حسد حافده وحفد حاسده ما حركت الشمال لنخل الدقيق ... صبيانرا پيش از تعلم لغت عرب رغبت مى افتد باشعار فارسي ..."
Title supplied by cataloguer.
Ms. composite codex.
Oval seal impression repeated twice on fol.1a (p.1), quite illegible ; rectangular seal impression on fol.20b (p.40), quite illegible ; interior of lower cover, paper label in red and black reads "PROBSTHAIN & CO., Oriental Booksellers, 14, Bury St., Brit. Museum, London, W.C." ; marginal corrections appear throughout ; invocation "يا حفيظ" appears on p.243, 273, and 288.
- Physical Description
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226 leaves :
paper ;
153 x 105 (110-120 x 58-90) mm. bound to 155 x 105 mm.