MUGHAL INDIA, 17TH CENTURY

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KANZ AL-TUHAF AL-MUSIQI (THE CASKET OF MUSIC RARITIES)
MUGHAL INDIA, 17TH CENTURY
On music theory, musical instruments, Persian manuscript on paper, 45ff. plus two fly-leaves, each folio with 15ll. of black nasta’liq script, important words and phrases in red, text within blue and black-ruled gold frame, opening folio with illuminated headpiece, catchwords, 16 folios with original diagrams, colophon with date of Shawwal 90002 (sic), heavily restored, later added notes to reverse of folio 1 with date of AH 1130 and in European green morocco binding with old library label
Text panel 6 ¼ x 3in. (15.8 x 7.7cm.); folio 8 5/8 x 4 ¾in. (22 x 12.2cm.)

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Lot Essay

The author of this treatise on music is not known but was probably composed during the 14th century in Iran. It includes an introduction and four chapters, with depictions of musical instruments such as the ‘ud, nay, rubab, qanun, etc. The author refers to Safi al-Din al-Urmawi (d. 1284 AD) and focuses on the definition of sound, melody, rhythm and intervals with a list of twelve maqams. Each of these maqams is associated with a poem by well-known authors such as Sa’di and Anwari.

Another copy of this work is at the university of Glasgow (MS Farmer 413)

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