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Lot Essay
Signed as: 'amal-e isma'il 1273 (The work of Isma'il 1273/(1856-7)).
The verses are from a tarji' band by Hatif Isfahan (d.1198/1783-4), which was popular during the Qajar period and was used by Isma'il on another pen-box (see below).
The commission reads: bar hasb-e farmayesh-e janab-e mustatab qudsi alqab quddusi intisab 'umdat al-'ulama'i aqa mirza muhammad hashima zayyada fadlihi itmam yaft (It was finished by the order of His Excellency, the exalted, the one with holy titles [and] blessed lineage, the pillar of theologians Mr Mirza Muhammad Hashim, may his virtues be increased). Muhammad Hashim may be identified as a well-known Akhbari theologian of Nasr al-Din Shah period mentioned by 'Itimad al-Saltana. (al-ma'athir wa al-athar, vol. 1, ed. by Iraj Afshar, Teheran, 1363, p. 229).
A very similar penbox is in the Khalili Collection (Nasser D. Khalili, B.W.Robinson and Tim Stanley: Lacquer of the Islamic Lands, London, 1997, part 2, no.256, pp.66-7). The present example, dated just one year earlier than the other, but is otherwise almost identically composed to the other, even to the extent of having the same text which in the Khalili catalogue is fully translated. How appropriate that the theologian here asked for a pencase that depicted the tribulations of Sheikh Sana'an who endured numerous temptations from the Christian maiden before he eventually achieved true spiritual enlightenment.
The verses are from a tarji' band by Hatif Isfahan (d.1198/1783-4), which was popular during the Qajar period and was used by Isma'il on another pen-box (see below).
The commission reads: bar hasb-e farmayesh-e janab-e mustatab qudsi alqab quddusi intisab 'umdat al-'ulama'i aqa mirza muhammad hashima zayyada fadlihi itmam yaft (It was finished by the order of His Excellency, the exalted, the one with holy titles [and] blessed lineage, the pillar of theologians Mr Mirza Muhammad Hashim, may his virtues be increased). Muhammad Hashim may be identified as a well-known Akhbari theologian of Nasr al-Din Shah period mentioned by 'Itimad al-Saltana. (al-ma'athir wa al-athar, vol. 1, ed. by Iraj Afshar, Teheran, 1363, p. 229).
A very similar penbox is in the Khalili Collection (Nasser D. Khalili, B.W.Robinson and Tim Stanley: Lacquer of the Islamic Lands, London, 1997, part 2, no.256, pp.66-7). The present example, dated just one year earlier than the other, but is otherwise almost identically composed to the other, even to the extent of having the same text which in the Khalili catalogue is fully translated. How appropriate that the theologian here asked for a pencase that depicted the tribulations of Sheikh Sana'an who endured numerous temptations from the Christian maiden before he eventually achieved true spiritual enlightenment.