OTTOMAN TURKEY, DATED 3 JUMADA AH 1232⁄21 March 1817 AD

Details

HOROSCOPE (AHKAM-I KULLIYE) PREPARED FOR THE OTTOMAN SULTAN MAHMUD II
OTTOMAN TURKEY, DATED 3 JUMADA AH 1232⁄21 March 1817 AD
Ottoman manuscript on highly burnished thick light cream paper, 13ff., each folio with 23ll. of tight black naskh, text arranged in one or two columns or within tables, titles and important phrases and words picked out in gold, red, blue, green and orange, headings in larger gold or polychrome thuluth, text in thick gold frame, in brown binding
Text panel 8 1⁄2 x 5 3⁄4in. (21.6 x 14.5cm.); folio 12 1⁄2 x 8 5⁄8in. (31.6 x 21.8cm.)

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Lot Essay

This is a copy of the Ruznama prepared on Nawruz 1232, on the evening of third Friday, on 3 Jumada al-awwal (March 21st 1817) for Sultan Mahmud II by Chief Astrologer Mehmed Rakim. The Ruznama, which was always prepared on the eve of the vernal equinox consisted of predictions for the sultan as well as for the leading members of the state, as well as a calendar of the Islamic and Julian months for the coming year, along with prognostications. Copies were distributed to officials of the empire.
Two other copies of similar royal horoscope manuscripts sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2021, lot 85 and 7 April 2011, lot 348.

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