880-03 Sikandarʻnāmah-i barrī, [1256?, i.e. 1840?] 880-02 Iskandarnāmah Sharafʻnāmah

Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Library, Isl. Ms. 854 Origin: As appears in colophon on p.393, copied by Muḥammad Bakhsh ibn Muḥammad ʻAẓīm [likely the same copyist who executed Isl. Ms. 852 in 1238/1822] with transcription completed in Ṣafar 1256 [?] [April 1840 ?, corresponding to 1896 in Vikram Samvat as likely suggested earlier in colophon] in Bādpūr [?]. Accompanying materials: a. Photocopy of card with typed notes "17302 | 865 Amritsor, India | 1 Indian manuscript book | Original no. -- K241. Persian Poetry; 1896; green cloth slip cover. | Univ. of Mich., Div. of Fine Arts | Walter Koelz, 1932-33 | March 19, 1934" -- b. Scrap of ruled paper with notes in pencil "Persian Poetry | Date 1896 | Aminpur (place) | copy of Nizami's Iskandar-name" -- c. Card with typed notes and additions in pen "K241 | 17302 | Indian [crossed out] Mogul (?) manuscript book, green cloth slip cover | Persian script | Amritsar." -- d. Short piece of white cotton cord with label attached "17302/K241" -- e. Slip of paper (once folded) with notes and stamp (between pp.206-207). Former shelfmark: Mich. Isl. Ms. temp. no. 3 Binding: Pasteboards faced in untinted laid paper with red-brown leather over spine and edges / turn-ins (paper faced, leather-edged, framed binding), now fitted with light blue (faded to green-blue) custom textile jacket or detachable overcover, stitched to form a sleeve into which each covered board slips (see p.246-247, 453 in Julia Miller, Books will speak plain) ; Type III binding (without flap) ; board linings in untinted laid paper (some recycled) ; sewn in black and white thread (black and white threads twisted together), two stations ; heavy, worked chevron endbands in blue and cream, good condition ; overall in fairly good condition with some staining, abrasion, minor losses of cloth, etc. ; housed in box for protection. Support: non-European (likely Indian) laid paper with roughly 7 laid lines per cm. (horizontal, somewhat indistinct, curving) and no chain lines clearly visible, quite cloudy formation, sturdy though thin and transluscent, light brown in color, burnished. Decoration: Headpiece (ʻunwān / sarlawḥ) at opening on p.4 consisting of rectangular piece (carrying the basmalah in black ink) set between decorative bands and surmounted by dome with vegetal design, mainly in red ; section headings rubricated ; some overlining in red ; written area surrounded by red double rule-border, divisions within also defined by red rules. Script: Nastaʻlīq ; elegant Indian hand ; serifless with inclination to the right and slight effect of words descending to baseline, elongation and somewhat exaggerated thickness of horizontal strokes, mainly closed counters, yāʼ always pointed. Layout: Written in 18 lines per page, with written area divided to two columns ; frame-ruled. Collation: 24 IV (192), III (198) ; almost exclusively quaternions (followed by a ternion) ; opening and final leaf affixed to endpaper and trimmed ; middle of the quire marks in the form of oblique black strokes in the upper outer corner of the right-hand leaf and the lower outer corner of the left-hand leaf (from p.72-73, perhaps prior to that lost to trimming) ; catchwords present ; foliation in black ink, Hindu-Arabic numerals ; pagination in pencil, Western numerals (includes partial 'flyleaves' / free hinges). Colophon: "Scribal," reads "تمت تمام شد نسخه سکندر نامه بری در ماه سفر [صفر ؟] بتاریخ ١۴ ١٨٩۶ بید خط بنده احقر العباد محمد بخش ابن شیخ محمد عظیم مفتی ... در موضع بادپور تحریر یافت سنه ۱۲ ٥۶" Incipit: "خدایا جهان پادشاهی تراست زما خذمت [خدمت] آید خدائی تراست ..." Title from colophon on p.393. Ms. codex. Miller, Julia. Books will speak plain : a handbook for identifying and describing historical bindings. Ann Arbor : The Legacy Press, 2010. Cat. Pers. MSS. Brit. Mus., p.568 Fine copy of the opening part (Sharafʻnāmah or Iskandarʻnāmah-i barrī) of Niẓāmī's celebrated poetic account of the legend of Alexander the Great. Acquired in Amritsar for the Museum of Anthropology by Walter Koelz on his two-year collecting trip in 1932-33 and received in 19 March 1934 ; apparently reached the Library in late 1970s. Persian. Excerpts and former owners' marks on 'title page' (p.3), etc. ; numerous interlinear and marginal glosses.