QAJAR IRAN, DATED MUHARRAM AH 1234 NOVEMBER 1818 AD

Details

MUHAMMAD BAQIR MAJLISI: ZAD AL-MA'AD
QAJAR IRAN, DATED MUHARRAM AH 1234 NOVEMBER 1818 AD
Daily prayerbook, manuscript on polished cream paper, 223ff. each with 14ll. of Arabic in black naskh, with Persian interlinear translation in smaller red naskh, in blue, gold, green and orange margins with gold marginal ornament containing annotations in blue thuluth, the opening with elaborate illuminated headpiece in gold, blue, pink, black and other colours with profuse floral ornament, the text in clouds reserved on gold ground, the margins with similar meandering blue and gold illumination, the margins of facing page with similar illumination, nine more double-pages with illuminated margins and titles, fine lacquered binding with central floral spray, naturalistically rendered in cartouche over gold ground with profuse floral ornament , with green, red and black borders
Folio 7½ x 4 5/8in. (19 x 12cm.)

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Lot Essay

Muhammad Baqir b. Muhammad Taqi b. Maqsud 'Ali al-Majlisi al-Isfahani (AH 1037-1110/1627-98 AD) was one of the foremost religious thinkers of his time and among the most prolific authors in Twelver Shi'ism. He held the office of Shaykh al-Islam under Shah Sulayman (d. 1106/1694) and Mulla Bashi under Shah Sultan Husayn (d. 1125/1713). He wrote several important works, the most famous being Bihar al-Anwar (Seas of Lights) and Zad al-Ma'ad (Provisions for the Resurrection), a text in Arabic containing prayers for each day of the year, with titles and explanatory introductions given in Persian.
See Encyclopaedia of Islam, Leiden, 1986 pp.1086-88.

A similar though later mansucript of the same text, also with marginal illumination, is in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, illustrated in Vernoit, Occidentalism, Oxford, 1997, no.36, pp.70-1.

The colophon of this manuscript gives the name of the daughter of Fath'Ali Shah Umm Salma as the scribe and the date 1236/1820.

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