SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, OTTOMAN TURKEY, DATED THURSDAY 29 SAFAR AH 826 / 11 FEBRUARY 1423 AD

This important manuscript on music is one of only two recorded copies of the work written in the elegant and very assured hand of the famous composer himself.

THE AUTHOR:
'Abd al-Qadir bin Ghaybi al-Hafiz al-Maraghi was born in the mid 14th century in Maragha in North-West Iran. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam he was 'the greatest of the Persian writers on music' (H.G. Farmer, The Encyclopedia of Islam, Leiden: Brill, 1986, vol.I, p.66-67). He died in Herat in March 1435, having spent his life in the close entourages of the prominent rulers of the time - the royal courts of the Jalayirids, the Timurids and the Ottomans. His eventful life illustrates the rich cultural exchanges within the Islamic world at the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century.

The son of a Sufi polymath and musician, Ghiyath al-Din Ghaybi al-Maraghi was accepted at the court of Sultan Shaykh Uways (r.1356-74) in the Jalayirid capital of Tabriz, where he served him and his son Sultan Jalal al-Din Husayn (r.1374-82) after him. After the death of Sultan Jalal al-Din in 1382, al-Maraghi travelled to Baghdad and the court of Sultan 'Ali, one of the late sultan's brothers. When Sultan 'Ali was defeated by another of his brothers, Sultan Ahmad Bahadur (r.1382-1410), al-Maraghi remained at court for almost ten years as chief court musician for the new ruler. It was here that he composed some of his most famous works and series, including thirty intricate musical works known as nawbat-i murattab.

In 1398, five years after Timur's capture of Baghdad, al-Maraghi was forcibly brought to Samarkand as part of Timur's efforts to bring the world's most accomplished artists across all artforms to his capital. He stayed as court musician in the close entourage of Timur and subsequently served Timur's son Miran Shah in Tabriz in 1399. Blamed by Timur for the erratic conduct of his patron, al-Maraghi fled to Baghdad where the Jalayirid Sultan Ahmad had temporarily re-established his rule. After Timur's death in 1405, al-Maraghi joined the court of another of Timur's sons, Shah Rukh (r.1405-1447) in Herat. It is there that he wrote the Maqasid al-Alhan, the present text, between 1418 and 1421, which he dedicated to the Ottoman Sultan Murad II. He left for Bursa to present it in person to the Sultan in 1423.

THE TEXT:
The Maqasid al-Alhan is the second of al-Maraghi's four major works. His first and most comprehensive work is a musical encyclopedia called Jami' al-Alhan composed in 1405 and revised by him ten years later. Two autograph copies dedicated to his son 'Abd al-'Aziz and to Shah Rukh are in the Nuruosmaniye Library in Istanbul and in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. His third and fourth works are a lost treatise on music entitled Kanz al-Tuhaf and a commentary on a famous Arabic treatise on music by Safi al-Din al-Urmazi called Sharh al-Adwar.

Fourteen copies of the Maqasid al-Alhan are known, five of which were written during the author's life:

1. The 'author's copy' in the Razavi Library in Mashhad (539), dated 1418 AD
2. Manuscript in the Bodleian Library in Oxford (1843), dated 21 November 1418 AD
3. The present copy, dated Thursday 29 Safar AH 826⁄11 February 1423 AD
4. Manuscript in the Malik Library in Tehran (832⁄1.), dated 1433 AD
5. Manuscript in the Topkapi Palace Library (R.1726), copied by Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Ilyas in 1434 AD

This manuscript is one of only two recorded copies written in the author's hand; the second is the aforementioned preserved in the Razavi Library in Mashhad. The present manuscript is therefore of extreme importance for the knowledge of this work.

THE COMPOSITION OF THE WORK:
The Maqasid al-Alhan is composed in twelve chapters, with a preface (muqaddima) and a conclusion. The preface includes hadith of the Prophet Muhammad on the beauty of voice.

Chapter 1. The Description of music and its establishments
Chapter 2. The Division of intervals on strings and the reason for cacophony
Chapter 3. The types of tetra-chord and penta-chord instruments
Chapter 4. The twelve main maqams (modes) and rhythmic circles
Chapter 5. The seven tones (awaza), commenting the earlier works of Qutb al-Din Shirazi and Safi al-Din al-Urmawi
Chapter 6. The classification of the twenty-four mode sections
Chapter 7. The harmony in tones
Chapter 8. The layers of the fourth in two scales
Chapter 9. The patterns in rhythmic circles
Chapter 10. The rules of good manners for musicians
Chapter 11. The comparison of the Greek and Arabic names of tones
Chapter 12. The profession of singing

The conclusion includes the names of musical instruments, of leading musical figures and poems on musical compositions.

THE PRESENT COPY:
Al-Maraghi's work is seen as being as important as that of Safi al-Din al-Urmawi (d.1294) who, unlike al-Maraghi, wrote his major work Kitab al-Adwar in Arabic. Al-Maraghi based parts of his work and relied heavily on Safi al-Din's treatises (Fazli Arslan, Safi al-Din al-Urmawi and the Theory of Music, Manchester, 2007, p.2). He is seen as the last of the great theorists of the pre-Ottoman musical tradition. The fact that al-Maraghi composed it for the Ottoman ruler when he himself was in Herat reflects the reputation of the Ottoman court and its interest for belles-lettres and music. The translation of Safi al-Din's Kitab al-Adwar into Turkish and the work on music of al-Maraghi's son named Nakawat al-Adwar dedicated to Sultan Mehmet II, 'Abd al-'Aziz, illustrate this. Al-Maraghi's grandson Mahmud, who lived under Sultan Bayezid II, is also known to have compiled a musical treatise titled Makasid al-Adwar.

The present copy of the Maqasid al-Alhan was studied by the Turkish music historian Rauf Yekta Bey (d.1935) and his notes are visible in the margins of the manuscript. He wrote an important biography of 'Abd al-Qadir Maraghi (Hace Abdulkadir Meragi) which is the second book of a series named Esatiz-i Alhan (Masters of Music) and was partly based on his research on this manuscript. As an autograph copy, the present manuscript is an invaluable contribution to the history of music. Some of the melodies and rhythms invented and described by 'Abd al-Qadir al-Maraghi are still studied, played and listened to today reflecting the rare importance of his work.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Philippe Bora Keskiner for his help researching this lot.