PROVINCIAL MUGHAL, NORTH INDIA, FIRST HALF 18TH CENTURY

The Hamla-i Haydari was written by Mirza Muhammad Rafi’ Bazil (d. 1713-14[?]) and gives a versified account of the life of the Prophet Muhammad and his first successors according to Shi’ism. Born in Safavid Mashhad, Bazil and his family moved to Mughal Delhi to seek patronage in the court of Shah Jahan. The writer served under Aurangzeb, where he gained favour and was later appointed governor of Gwalior. The original text of the Hamla-i Haydari was added to by a number of later authors.

This lavishly illustrated copy of the manuscript contains two seal impressions in the name of Intizam al-Mulk Munazzim al-Dawla Sayyid Fath ‘Ali Khan Bahadur Nasir Jang Tabataba with the date AH 1261/1845-46 AD. Although not a known figure, the titles indicate that he would have likely been a high ranking official. Another manuscript with the same seal was sold Christie’s, South Kensington, 12-13 October 2006, lot 605. That manuscript had a dedication to Ghazi al-Din Haydar, Nawab of Awadh (r. 1814-1818). The present lot carries a further two round seals of the Mughal type belonging to an officer of the Emperor Rafi’ al-Darajat (r. 1719). The emperor ruled from just February to June after being installed on the throne by the powerful Sayyid brothers on 1719.

A slightly later illustrated copy of the Hamla-i Haydari is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. 2015.578). A group of six illustrated folios from a Deccani Hamla-i Haydari formerly in the Collection of Phyllis Oja Jones were sold in these Rooms, 9 October 2015, lot 1-6.