EARLY SAFAVID IRAN, DATED RABI I AH 915/JUNE-JULY 1509 AD

Details

NUR AL-DIN ABD AL-RAHMAN JAMI (AH 817/1414 AD-AH 898/1492 AD): DIWAN
EARLY SAFAVID IRAN, DATED RABI I AH 915/JUNE-JULY 1509 AD
Persian manuscript on polished cream paper, 351ff. each with 15ll. of elegant black nasta'liq in two columns, gold and black intercolumnar rules, various headings in blue or gold nasta'liq with gold and black interlinear rules, gold and blue margins between black rules, catchwords, opening four bifolia in prose nasta'liq, various phrases in gold, red or blue, opening folio with title in white knotted kufic on gold cartouche within illuminated panel, similar illuminated heading on f.61v., full-page illuminated frontispiece, colopohon signed by Maqsud b. Bayezid al-Haravi, dated in the month of Rabi al-awwal, in the year five and ten and nine hundred, erased later ownership inscriptions either side, a few ff. at beginning and end remargined, cloth boards with morocco trim and red leather doublures, spine splitting
Folio 9 x 5 3/8in. (22.7 x 14.7cm.); text 6 x 3¼in. (15.4 x 8.3cm.)

Provenance

Firouz Library (bookplate inside cover)

Special notice

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Lot Essay

An anthology of poetry by the mystic poet Jami.

This manuscript was copied by Maqsud ibn Bayazid al-Harawi in Herat in rabi'l-al-awwal, 925/March, 1519. There is no record of a scribe with such a name working in Herat at this time.

The manuscript was in private libraries recorded by their seal impressions: A certain Ibrahim Musawi 1201 (1786-7) and 'Abd al-Husayn Farmanfarma Salar-e Lashgar 1313 (1895-6). This second entry refers to 'Abd al-Husayn Mirza Nusrat al-Dawla (1857-1939). He was married to the daughter of Muzaffar al-Din Shah and was influential in his affairs from the time Muzaffar al-Din was a Prince. He was appointed in charge of the army in Azarbayjan and titled Salar Lashgar in 1309/1891-2 and in the same year, after the death of his brother, he was given the title Farmanfarma. He held other positions as the Governor of Kurdistan, Kirman, Fars, Teheran, and ministerial posts in the Ministry of Defence, Justice, and Home Affairs. (M. Bamdad: Dictionary of National Biography of Iran, II, Tehran, 1966, pp. 247-57).

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