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Lot Essay
The colophon of this important manuscript indicates that it was copied in Shiraz in 1466-67 AD. The very fine illumination on the opening page follows the early 15th century Timurid style typically produced in Tabriz and Herat, rather than the new style of Aq Qoyunlu Shiraz and Tabriz that developed in the second half of the century. The early style was marked by a "polished manner in which foliate arabesque scrolls and palmettes were often combined with interlocking cartouches" but the stylistic evolution was gradual, and styles overlapped in use (David James, After Timur: Qur'ans of the 15th and 16th centuries, London 1992, p.14). Closely related illumination from Herat, dated AH 874⁄1470 AD is found on a manuscript in the Chester Beatty Library (Per 144.2), while our fine gilded kufic bismilla finds comparison to that on a volume in the Khalili Collection that has "all the hallmarks of a Royal Aq Qoyunlu Qur'an" (QUR128; James, op.cit., cat.8).
Indeed, the finesse of the illumination here may be compared to those in manuscripts dedicated to or associated with the previous Qara Qoyunlu Turkoman ruler of Shiraz, Abu'l Fath Pir Budaq (r.1456-60, d.1466), a prolific patron of the arts of the book. Manuscripts associated with Pir Budaq include two in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art (1986 and 1987) and one in the Topkapi Palace Museum (H.761), Istanbul, all exhibited in the 2005 Royal Academy exhibition on Turkish art (David J. Roxburgh (ed.), Turks. A Journey of A Thousand Years, 600-1600, exhibition catalogue, London, 2005, nos.212-213, 215). The Venetian traveler Josafa Barbaro wrote of Shiraz in 1467, "the state capital under the new rule of the Aq Qoyunlu Turkmen, was surround by high walls, had 200,000 inhabitants, good houses, excellent mosques, and a flourishing trade" (Alireza Shapur Shahbazi, ‘Shiraz i. History to 1940', Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2004, Online). Supporting a courtly attribution is the very fine hand of our otherwise unrecorded scribe, 'Ali bin Mahmud al-Tabrizi.
The scribe Al-Tabrizi notes that he copied the manuscript "at the head of the tomb of Shaykh Abu 'Abdullah Khafif”, the 10th century mystic credited with introducing Sufism to Shiraz (John Limbert, Shiraz in the Age of Hafez: The Glory of a Medieval Persian City, Washington, D.C. 2004, pp.102-12). Najm al-Din Razi's work, 'The Path of God's Bondsmen' (trans. Hamid Algar, New York, 1982), was a commonly used mirror for princes in medieval Iran, explaining the idea of perfect kingship by correlating it with the Sufi mystical concept of the perfect man (al-insan al-kamil) as the true vicegerent of God (khalifat Allah) (Chad G. Lingwood, Politics, Poetry, and Sufism in Medieval Iran: New Perspectives on Jami's Salaman va Absal, Leiden, 2014, p.16-7). Such a work would have been elementary in the education of Turkman princes at a time when Sufi masters were both religiously and politically influential at both Aq Qoyunlu and Qara Qoyunlu courts in Iran (see Lingwood, op.cit., esp. ch. 3).
Such a Sufi 'princely mirror' with a magnificent Timurid visual idiom made it particularly attractive for several generations of Mughal rulers of India. On f.1r there is an inscribed roundel as well as copious library notes and seal impressions, recording the manuscript's movement from Shiraz via Kabul to India and it's presence in the Mughal royal library from the Emperor Akbar's reign through to that of Aurangzeb (1556-1707), in addition to later princely Indian seals and notes. These plentiful records and inspections are some indication of the esteem in which the manuscript was held from soon after the time of its conception, affecting generations of princes and rulers in Iran, Afghanistan, and India.
Similarly fine Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu manuscripts have been sold in these Rooms, 6 October 2011, lot 124, and 1 May 2025, lot 37. Another rare Aq Qoyunlu Sufi manuscript dated 1461-2 was sold in these Rooms, 1 April 2021, lot 15.
Indeed, the finesse of the illumination here may be compared to those in manuscripts dedicated to or associated with the previous Qara Qoyunlu Turkoman ruler of Shiraz, Abu'l Fath Pir Budaq (r.1456-60, d.1466), a prolific patron of the arts of the book. Manuscripts associated with Pir Budaq include two in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art (1986 and 1987) and one in the Topkapi Palace Museum (H.761), Istanbul, all exhibited in the 2005 Royal Academy exhibition on Turkish art (David J. Roxburgh (ed.), Turks. A Journey of A Thousand Years, 600-1600, exhibition catalogue, London, 2005, nos.212-213, 215). The Venetian traveler Josafa Barbaro wrote of Shiraz in 1467, "the state capital under the new rule of the Aq Qoyunlu Turkmen, was surround by high walls, had 200,000 inhabitants, good houses, excellent mosques, and a flourishing trade" (Alireza Shapur Shahbazi, ‘Shiraz i. History to 1940', Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2004, Online). Supporting a courtly attribution is the very fine hand of our otherwise unrecorded scribe, 'Ali bin Mahmud al-Tabrizi.
The scribe Al-Tabrizi notes that he copied the manuscript "at the head of the tomb of Shaykh Abu 'Abdullah Khafif”, the 10th century mystic credited with introducing Sufism to Shiraz (John Limbert, Shiraz in the Age of Hafez: The Glory of a Medieval Persian City, Washington, D.C. 2004, pp.102-12). Najm al-Din Razi's work, 'The Path of God's Bondsmen' (trans. Hamid Algar, New York, 1982), was a commonly used mirror for princes in medieval Iran, explaining the idea of perfect kingship by correlating it with the Sufi mystical concept of the perfect man (al-insan al-kamil) as the true vicegerent of God (khalifat Allah) (Chad G. Lingwood, Politics, Poetry, and Sufism in Medieval Iran: New Perspectives on Jami's Salaman va Absal, Leiden, 2014, p.16-7). Such a work would have been elementary in the education of Turkman princes at a time when Sufi masters were both religiously and politically influential at both Aq Qoyunlu and Qara Qoyunlu courts in Iran (see Lingwood, op.cit., esp. ch. 3).
Such a Sufi 'princely mirror' with a magnificent Timurid visual idiom made it particularly attractive for several generations of Mughal rulers of India. On f.1r there is an inscribed roundel as well as copious library notes and seal impressions, recording the manuscript's movement from Shiraz via Kabul to India and it's presence in the Mughal royal library from the Emperor Akbar's reign through to that of Aurangzeb (1556-1707), in addition to later princely Indian seals and notes. These plentiful records and inspections are some indication of the esteem in which the manuscript was held from soon after the time of its conception, affecting generations of princes and rulers in Iran, Afghanistan, and India.
Similarly fine Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu manuscripts have been sold in these Rooms, 6 October 2011, lot 124, and 1 May 2025, lot 37. Another rare Aq Qoyunlu Sufi manuscript dated 1461-2 was sold in these Rooms, 1 April 2021, lot 15.