Mirkhwand Muhammad b Amir Burhan al-Din Khawand Shah (d.AH 903/1497-8 AD): Raudat al-Safa (two volumes)

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Mirkhwand Muhammad b Amir Burhan al-Din Khawand Shah (d.AH 903/1497-8 AD): Raudat al-Safa (two volumes)
Safavid Persia, probably Herat, early 16th century

a well-known work of general history, Persian manuscript on buff paper, 467ff. plus two flyleaves, each with 31ll. of fine black naskh, gold margin between black rules, blue outer rule, occasional words in red or overlined in red, (some staining and smudging, some damages and repairs to page edges, first and last pages replaced), illuminated heading at start of volume II, plain black morocco binding
folio 12½ x 8½in. (31.8 x 21.7cm.)
text 9¼ x 6in. (23.5 x 15.2cm.)

Lot Essay

The author, better known as Mirkhwand, or Mir Khavand came from a family of Sayyids in Bukhara. He spent most of his life in Herat where he found a generous patron in Mir Ali Shah, to whom the present work is dedicated. He died in AH 903/1497 AD with the last half of the seventh part of this work unfinished.
Browne comments that it is "perhaps the best-known work of this sort in Persia". The first volume contains the history of patriarchs, prophets and pre-Islamic kings of Persia; the second volume deals with the history from Muhammad to approximately 1468 AD.

A note dated AH 1296/1878-9 indicates that this copy was entered in th library of Prince I'tizad al-Saltaneh in the same year; impressions were made of the Prince's oval nasta'liq signet seal as well as the that of the librarian, Muhammad Rida and others.

Browne, E.G.: A Literary History of Persia, Cambridge, 1977, vol.III, pp.431-433

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