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Lot Essay
During the final years of his reign, Sultan Murad III (r. 1574-95) commissioned one of his most important and impressive projects – a six volume copy of the Kitab Siyar al-Nabi, ‘The Life of the Prophet’. The text was composed by Mustafa bin Yusuf bin ‘Umar al-Mevlevi al-Erzerumi, known as ‘al-Dharir’ (the Blind). Al-Dharir was ordered by the Mamluk Sultan al-Mansur (d. 1376) to translate and expand the 13th century Arabic work of Abu’l-Hassan al-Bakri al-Basri. His finished work was presented to al-Mansur’s successor Sultan al-Salih Salah al-Din in 1388. Murad III’s copy, from which our folios come, was the first illustrated version of the work.
The text was an enormous commission – it was composed in six volumes with a total of 814 paintings – and was only completed in 1595, the first year of the reign of Murad III’s successor, Mehmet III (r. 1595-1603). Volumes I, II and VI remain in the Topkapi Saray Museum, volume III is in the Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library and volume V is apparently lost (Toby Falk (ed.), Treasures of Islam, Geneva, 1985, pp.136-37, no.110). Volume IV was separated from the others and was, for a time, in the private possession of one of the Ottoman princesses. It surfaced in Cairo in the 1930s at which stage approximately 53 folios were sold to various collectors including Major R.G. Gayer Anderson. The larger section of that volume is today preserved in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin and retains the colophon which provides the information that it was completed in 1594-95 by the scribe Mustafa ibn Vali. Mustafa ibn Vali is a scribe who seems to have found favour with Murad III - he appears also to have copied the text of the Tuhfet al-Leta’if, also commissioned by the Sultan (Falk, op.cit., p.136, no.109).
Murad III was an astute patron and during his reign Ottoman painters and calligraphers made some of their most notable achievements. Although the painter responsible for this manuscript did not sign, court documents record that Murad III commissioned a Siyar-i Nabi in AH 1003 from the chief painter Lutfi ‘Abdullah and his assistants (Barbara Schmitz, Islamic Manuscripts in the New York Public Library, New York, 1992, p.239). Falk suggests that six different painters were employed in the illustrations and that they must have included not only Lutfi, but also his associates, Hassan and Osman (Falk, op.cit., p.137).
Folios from the manuscript are in the Topkapi Saray Library, the New York Public Library, the Chester Beatty Library, the British Museum, the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, the David Collection, Copenhagen and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Metropolitan folio shows the angel Gabriel offering a shepherd named ‘Amr ibn Zaid his spear with which to produce water (Maryam D. Ekhtiar, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby and Navina Najat Haidar (eds.), Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011, pp.289-90, no.201). The composition, with the central figure on the back of a camel, is much like the depiction on our folio. Others folios have been sold at auction over the last thirty years, most recently at Sotheby’s, 24 October 2007, lot 29 and 5 October 2011, lot 155.
The text was an enormous commission – it was composed in six volumes with a total of 814 paintings – and was only completed in 1595, the first year of the reign of Murad III’s successor, Mehmet III (r. 1595-1603). Volumes I, II and VI remain in the Topkapi Saray Museum, volume III is in the Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library and volume V is apparently lost (Toby Falk (ed.), Treasures of Islam, Geneva, 1985, pp.136-37, no.110). Volume IV was separated from the others and was, for a time, in the private possession of one of the Ottoman princesses. It surfaced in Cairo in the 1930s at which stage approximately 53 folios were sold to various collectors including Major R.G. Gayer Anderson. The larger section of that volume is today preserved in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin and retains the colophon which provides the information that it was completed in 1594-95 by the scribe Mustafa ibn Vali. Mustafa ibn Vali is a scribe who seems to have found favour with Murad III - he appears also to have copied the text of the Tuhfet al-Leta’if, also commissioned by the Sultan (Falk, op.cit., p.136, no.109).
Murad III was an astute patron and during his reign Ottoman painters and calligraphers made some of their most notable achievements. Although the painter responsible for this manuscript did not sign, court documents record that Murad III commissioned a Siyar-i Nabi in AH 1003 from the chief painter Lutfi ‘Abdullah and his assistants (Barbara Schmitz, Islamic Manuscripts in the New York Public Library, New York, 1992, p.239). Falk suggests that six different painters were employed in the illustrations and that they must have included not only Lutfi, but also his associates, Hassan and Osman (Falk, op.cit., p.137).
Folios from the manuscript are in the Topkapi Saray Library, the New York Public Library, the Chester Beatty Library, the British Museum, the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, the David Collection, Copenhagen and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Metropolitan folio shows the angel Gabriel offering a shepherd named ‘Amr ibn Zaid his spear with which to produce water (Maryam D. Ekhtiar, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby and Navina Najat Haidar (eds.), Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011, pp.289-90, no.201). The composition, with the central figure on the back of a camel, is much like the depiction on our folio. Others folios have been sold at auction over the last thirty years, most recently at Sotheby’s, 24 October 2007, lot 29 and 5 October 2011, lot 155.