SAYYID MUHAMMAD NURBAKHSH QAHISTANI (B.1393): AL-RISALA AL-NURIYYA AND OTHER TEXTS
THE PROPERTY OF A NEW ENGLAND FAMILY
SAYYID MUHAMMAD NURBAKHSH QAHISTANI (B.1393): AL-RISALA AL-NURIYYA AND OTHER TEXTS

SIGNED MUHAMMAD ISMA'IL AL-SHIRAZI, QAJAR IRAN, DATED AH DHU'L QADA 1236/JULY-AUGUST 1821 AD

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SAYYID MUHAMMAD NURBAKHSH QAHISTANI (B.1393): AL-RISALA AL-NURIYYA AND OTHER TEXTS
SIGNED MUHAMMAD ISMA'IL AL-SHIRAZI, QAJAR IRAN, DATED AH DHU'L QADA 1236/JULY-AUGUST 1821 AD
A treatise on mysticism and poetry, Persian manuscript on paper, 124ff. each with lines of elegant shikasteh arranged either in a single block or diagonally in squares arranged in three columns, text in clouds reserved against gold ground and surrounded by gold floral illumination, text panels outlined with gold and polychrome, red and gold outer marginal rules, catchwords, opening bifolio with dense gold and polychrome illumination surrounding text, with 13 contemporary miniatures, colophon signed and dated, ex-libris stamp on the final folio, in lacquer binding with gul-o-bulbul motifs, doublures with irises, one board loose, in red morocco fitted slipcase
Text Panel 4 7/8 x 2¾in. (12.4 x 6.9cm.) ;folio 7 x 5 1/8in. (19.6 x 13cm.)

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Romain Pingannaud
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Lot Essay

This work is a compilation. The first section is a work of mysticism, which ends of f.79a. The second is the al-Risala al-Nuriyya of Muhammad Nurbakhsh (also known as Nur al-Haqq). The final section is the Farhad wa Shirin of Vahshi Bafqi. Each section of this manuscript gives a date of AH 1236. The colophon gives the date of the completion of the whole manuscript as Dhu'l Qada 1236, and the name of the scribe as Muhammad Isma'il Shirazi. The patron's name is also given - Aqa Mir Husayn Naqqash Shirazi, who is probably Aqa Sayyid Husayn. Given his title naqqash or painter, he may well have been responsible for the paintings in the manuscript. Another manuscript with miniatures probably painted by Aqa Husayn Naqqash was sold at Sotheby's, 14 April 2010, lot 40.

Other works copied by Muhammad Isma'il Shirazi are in the Gulestan Palace Library (dated Jumada I AH 1239 and 1236) and in the University of Hyderabad in Sindh (M. Bayani, Ahval va asar-e khosh nevisan, Vol. 3, Tehran, 1346 sh., p.636, no.865).

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