[Haft paykar].
[هفت پيکر].

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Niẓāmī Ganjavī, 1140 or 1141-1202 or 1203, author.

Contributor:

Phillipps, Thomas, Sir, 1792-1872, former owner.

Schoenberg, Lawrence J., former owner.

Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

Persian

Subjects (All):

History.

Iran.

Bahrām V, King of Iran, -438.

Iran--History--To 640--Poetry.

Storytelling.

Genre:

Poetry.

Manuscripts, Persian -- 16th century.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

codices (bound manuscripts)

romances (medieval narratives)

Fiction.

History.

Penn Provenance:

Sold by bookseller Thomas Thorpe (London) to Sir Thomas Phillipps, ms. 10465 (stamp, first flyleaf; paper label on spine).

Sold at auction at Sotheby's by the Trustees of the Robinson Trust as part of a collection of Persian, Turkish, and Arabic manuscripts owned by Sir Thomas Phillipps, 25 November 1968, lot 233, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.

Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.

Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2016.

Physical Description:

68 leaves : paper, color illustrations ; 248 x 158 (166 x 88) mm bound to 248 x 166 mm

Other Title:

Title from flyleaves: Kitāb-i Bahrām-i Gūr.

Title from flyleaves: کتاب بهرام گور.

Place of Publication:

[Iran], [between 1500 and 1599]

Language Note:

Persian.

Summary:

Lacunose 16th-century copy of a 12th-century romance about the life of Bahrām Gūr, a fifth-century Sasanian king of Iran; the title Haft paykar (in English, Seven beauties or Seven images) refers to the seven princesses that Bahrām marries, each of whom tells the king a story. The text is part of a quintet, or khamsah, of masnavīs—a genre of Persian narrative poetry—by the Persian poet Niẓāmī Ganjavī. It recounts the life of Bahrām Gūr, from his birth to his disappearance in a cave at the narrative's conclusion. The word tam (the end), is written at the end of the romance (f. 68v). Some leaves are out of order in the codex. The correct order, using the current foliation, is 1-12, 24-43, 13-22, 44-68. A section of text is missing, including the end of the Wednesday narrative, all of the Thursday (sandal, or soft brown) narrative, and the beginning of the Friday narrative (following f. 54), One of the leaves, sharing the same layout as the other folios, belongs to a different text from Niẓāmī's quintet, Khusraw o Shīrīn (f. 23). This, along with the absence of a colophon at the end of this manuscript, suggests that the codex likely belonged to a larger set. (Neha Tiwari, University of Pennsylvania)

Contents:

1. f.1r–10v: [Prologue]

2. f.11r–12v: [From Bahrām's birth to his ascension to the throne]

3. f.13r–18r: [On Saturday, Bahrām sits in the black dome of the first princess, continued] (misbound, text follows from f. 43v)

4. f.18r–21r: [Sunday, the yellow dome of the second princess] (misbound)

5. f. 21r–22v: [Monday, the green dome of the third princess] (misbound)

6. f. 24r–31v: [From Bahrām's birth to his ascension to the throne, continued] (misbound, text follows from f.12v)

7. f. 33r–36r: [Bahrām and his slave girl] (misbound)

8. f. 36r–37v: [Bahrām defeats the Khāqān of Chīn] (misbound)

9. f.37v–39r: [Bahrām marries the seven princesses] (misbound)

10. f.41v–43v: [Saturday, the black dome of the first princess] (misbound)

11. f.44r–46r: [Monday, the green dome of the third princess, continued] (misbound, text follows from from f. 22v.)

12. f. 46r–50v: [Tuesday, the red dome of the fourth princess]

13. f. 50v–54v: [Wednesday, the turquoise dome of the fifth princess] (lacking end)

14. f. 55r–59r: [Friday, the white dome of the seventh princess] (lacking beginning)

15. f.59r–60v: [Battle with the Khāqān of Chīn and the account of Bahrām's vizier]

16. f. 60v–62v: [Bahrām goes on a hunt and meets an old shepherd]

17. f. 62v–65r: [Accounts of the seven victims]

18. f. 65r–65v: [Bahrām appoints the shepherd as king]

19. f. 65v–68v: [Conclusion].

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Foliation: Paper, viii + 68 + viii; [1-68]; the original order of the text, using the current foliation, is 1-12, 24-43, 13-22, 44-68; leaves missing between f. 54 and f. 55.

Layout: 17 lines in the central text block (with a division marked between the halves of the couplet on each line), followed by 18 lines written diagonally in the margins, which are ruled along the top, outer, and bottom edges of the columns on each page. Several folios contain corrections or notes along the outermost margins; these are written horizontally along the vertical edges when corresponding to vertical columns or diagonally when corresponding to diagonal sections. Catchword on each leaf, lower left verso.

Script: Written in neat nastaʻlīq script; pointed.

Decoration: Illuminated headpiece without a title (f. 1v); columns and diagonal sections in margins outlined in gold; outer margin of text block framed in gold, green, and blue; headings in red ink.

Binding: Red morocco with blue painted frame and tooled design of circles along the frame, detached. Doublure same as board covers.

Origin: Written in Iran in the 16th century.

Fragile; worm damage (suggesting at least a phase of the manuscript's history in South Asia), particularly in gutters; oxidation causing long, straight cuts at the ruled margins of several leaves.

Local Notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Cited as:

Niẓāmī Ganjavī, Haft paykar (LJS 422). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries.

OCLC:

779626678

Online:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page