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Lot Essay
This miniature is almost certainly the work of Muhammad Qasim, a contemporary of Reza 'Abbasi, active during the reign of Shah 'Abbas I. Two paintings of his, one in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, the other in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, are illustrated in B.W. Robinson, Persian Paintings: From the 14th through the 19th Century, Boston and Toronto, 1965, pls.62 and 63, pp.90-91, and two more are in Abolola Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts, New York, 1992, pls.120-21,p.293. Both Robinson and Soudavar date the paintings to around the 1650s, but recent research by Adel Adamova has convincingly repositioned his works to the early 17th century, in a paper given at a conference in Edinburgh, 1998. This paints Muhammad Qasim in a completely different light - innovative rather than derivative, and as contemporary rather than pupil of Reza, much more influential to the course that Persian painting took in the 17th century.
The colophon of this manuscript records the scribe as 'Abd al-Jabbar Isfahani, and is dated AH 1017/1608 AD, which accords well with the early 17th century miniatures. The scribe is mentioned by Bayani as one of the best pupils of Mir 'Imad al-Hasani. Many examples of his work are in the Gulistan Library, dated between AH 1020-41/1611-1632 AD (Mehdi Bayani, Aval va Athar-e Khosh-Nevisan, vol. II, p.366-67).
Other paintings from this manuscript have sold in these Rooms, 12 October 2004, lot 196 and 26 April 2005, lot 134.
The colophon of this manuscript records the scribe as 'Abd al-Jabbar Isfahani, and is dated AH 1017/1608 AD, which accords well with the early 17th century miniatures. The scribe is mentioned by Bayani as one of the best pupils of Mir 'Imad al-Hasani. Many examples of his work are in the Gulistan Library, dated between AH 1020-41/1611-1632 AD (Mehdi Bayani, Aval va Athar-e Khosh-Nevisan, vol. II, p.366-67).
Other paintings from this manuscript have sold in these Rooms, 12 October 2004, lot 196 and 26 April 2005, lot 134.