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MU'IN AL-DIN IBN HAJI MUHAMMAD SHARAF AL-DIN AL-FARAHI AL-HARAVI AL-MISKIN (D. AH 907/1501-02 AD): MA'ARIJ AL-NUBUWWAH

SIGNED MIR MAH IBN MIR 'ARAB, BOKHARA, DATED AH 1019/1610-11 AD

Details

MU'IN AL-DIN IBN HAJI MUHAMMAD SHARAF AL-DIN AL-FARAHI AL-HARAVI AL-MISKIN (D. AH 907/1501-02 AD): MA'ARIJ AL-NUBUWWAH
SIGNED MIR MAH IBN MIR 'ARAB, BOKHARA, DATED AH 1019/1610-11 AD
The life of the Prophet, Arabic manuscript on polished paper, 505ff. plus 18 fly-leaves, each folio with 27ll.of compact black nasta'liq within panels laid down between gold and polychrome margins and rules, catchwords, important words and phrases picked out in red, opening bifolio with elaborate gold and polychrome illumination surrounding the text panel, four further illuminated headpieces throughout the text marking the beginnings of different chapters, each chapter with a colophon, three giving the date of AH 1019 and two signed Mir Mah ibn Mir Arab, a few later owners seals and notes in the margins, areas of waterstaining and spotting, small areas of worm holing, in later grey conservation binding with flap
Text panel 10 3/8 x 6 1/8in. (28 x 15.5cm.); folio 15 1/8 x 9¼in. (38.2 x 23.5cm.)

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Lot Essay

The Ma'arij al-Nubuwwah was compiled by Mu'in al-Din ibn Haji Muhammad Sharaf al-Din al-Farahi al-Haravi al-Miskin in Herat on 1 Rabi' al-'Awwal AH 891/8 March 1486.

The text comprises a detailed history of the Prophet Muhammad and consists of a long introduction, four chapters (rukn) and an epilogue. In the present example, the end of the first three sections are those that are signed by the scribe Mir Mah ibn Mir 'Arab. The scribe is unrecorded.

A copy of the text dated AH 1137/1724-25 AD is in the Edinburgh University Library (M. Ashraful Hukk, H. Ethe & E. Robertson, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in Edinburgh University Library, 1925, cat. 190). In the catalogue entry the following are given as other known copies: Rieu (B.M.P. Catalogue I, p. 149 sq); Bodleian Catalogue, pp. 128-130; Aumer (Munich Catalogue, p. 100); Ethe (I.O. Catalogue, pp. 134-44); Stewart (Descriptive Catalogue, p. 22).

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