SHEIKH MUSLIH AL-DIN SA'DI (D. AH 691/1292 AD): BUSTAN
Lot 298

SHEIKH MUSLIH AL-DIN SA'DI (D. AH 691/1292 AD): BUSTAN

COPIED BY AZHAR, TIMURID HERAT, DATED RAJAB AH 860/JUNE-JULY 1456 AD

Closed7 October 2008

Price Realised

GBP 12,500

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SHEIKH MUSLIH AL-DIN SA'DI (D. AH 691/1292 AD): BUSTAN
COPIED BY AZHAR, TIMURID HERAT, DATED RAJAB AH 860/JUNE-JULY 1456 AD
Poetry, Persian manuscript on ivory paper, 143ff. plus 4 fly-leaves, each folio with 15ll. of elegant black nasta'liq arranged in two columns with double gold intercolumnar rules, text panels with gold and blue outer rules, catchwords, headings in thick gold nasta'liq in elegantly illuminated gold and polychrome cartouches, opening folio with gold and polychrome illuminated headpiece and preceding page with shamsa done in similar style, colophon also with similar illumination, signed Azhar and dated Rajab 860, some folios loose in binding, some staining and wear around the edges particularly at the beginning of the manuscript, in contemporary brown morocco with delicately stamped central medallion and spandrels containing animals, floral motifs and cloudbands, the doublures with remains of decoupé arabesques on cobalt and green ground, binding worn
Folio 8¾ x 2¾in. (21.9 x 7cm.); text panel 5¾ x 7in. (14 x 7cm.)

Specialist note

Azhar Tabrizi was a nasta'liq calligrapher who lived in Herat. He held the title Al-Sultani and travelled widely. His recorded works were copied in the cites of Mashhad, Herat, Samarqand and Isfahan and are dated between AH 824 (1421-22 AD) and AH 877 (1472-73 AD) (Mehdi Bayani, Ahval va Asar-e Khosh-Nevisan, Vol. I, Teheran, 1345 sh, pp. 68-74).