ABU ISMA'IL 'ABDULLAH AL-ANSARI AL-HARAWI (D. AH 481/1089-90 AD): MUNAJAT
A PRIVATE COLLECTION DONATED TO BENEFIT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
ABU ISMA'IL 'ABDULLAH AL-ANSARI AL-HARAWI (D. AH 481/1089-90 AD): MUNAJAT

COPIED BY MIR 'IMAD AL-HASSANI, SAFAVID IRAN, LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details
ABU ISMA'IL 'ABDULLAH AL-ANSARI AL-HARAWI (D. AH 481/1089-90 AD): MUNAJAT
COPIED BY MIR 'IMAD AL-HASSANI, SAFAVID IRAN, LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY
A mystical work in verse, Persian manuscript on paper, 16ff. plus 3 fly-leaves, each folio with 9ll. of elegant black nasta'liq written on gold-speckled paper, text panels within gold and polychrome rules, margins with scrolling floral arabesques reserved on alternating green and orange ground, the opening bifolium with black nasta'liq in gold-speckled white clouds against gold ground, below an illuminated headpiece with interlocking palmettes on a ground of gold and polychrome scrolling floral vine, colophon signed in white cloud on gold background with similar illumination in later stamped and gilded brown morocco with marbled paper doublures
Text panel 5¼ x 2 7/8in. (13.3 x 7.3cm.); folio 9½ x 5½in. (24 x 14.1cm.)

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Lot Essay

The Munajat of 'Abdullah Ansari is a mystical work written in verse and considered one of the masterpieces of Persian literature.

Mir 'Imad was born around the year AH 961/1553-4 AD in Qazwin, the capital of Safavid Iran. He moved to Tabriz where he was apprenticed to the master Muhammad Husayn Tabrizi, moving back to the capital on completion of his studies in AH 981/1573-4 AD. He became an itinerant craftsman, as was the custom among his profession, accepting commissions as he moved from one town to the next. Later in life he set out for the Hajj and remained in the region for several years, working in Aleppo before returning to Iran in AH 1005/1596-7 AD. His great rival as court calligrapher, 'Ali Reza-i Abassi, gradually replaced him in the Shah's favour and, in the increasingly extreme Shi'ite environment of the court of Shah 'Abbas, he was accused of Sufism and Sunnism. He was murdered in AH 1024/1615 AD by an agent of the Shah.

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