DU'A' SAYFI OF 'ALI IBN ABI TALEB, COPIED BY MAHMUD, TIMURID IRAN, FIRST HALF 15TH CENTURY

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DU'A' SAYFI OF 'ALI IBN ABI TALEB, COPIED BY MAHMUD, TIMURID IRAN, FIRST HALF 15TH CENTURY
Prayer, Arabic manuscript on paper, 21ff. with 6ll. of very elegant black muhaqqaq, title in gold on an illuminated panel, final folio with colophon with triangular panels of illumination signed Mahmud al-Katib, opening flyleaf with illuminated shamsa and ownership seals and inscriptions, blue margins- folio 7 3/8 x 5 5/8in. (18.7 x 14cm.)

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Lot Essay

This is a well-known Shi'i invocation, taught to 'Ali ibn Abi Taleb by the Prophet.
One royal library inscription note is dated Muharram 860 (December 1455-January 1456 AD), and another note is written by one Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn ... in AH 954 (1547-8 AD).
A later note on the flyleaf attributes the hand to that of Mahmud, a royal scribe attached to the court of Shahrukh, who reigned from AH 807-850 (1405-1457 AD). Mahmud made a copy of a Qur'an in Herat from an example of Yaqut al-Must'asimi. (Bayani, M.: ahval va asar-e khosh-nevisan, vol.IV, Tehran, 1358sh., pp. 200-1)
The manuscript was evidently remargined in the 19th century with pale blue paper, probably Russian in origin.

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