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Lot Essay
This manuscript was copied in the final years of the reign of Shah Isma'il. In the early 16th century, when Shah Isma'il came to power he inherited a people interested in the production and collection of rich manuscripts. Shah Isma'il and his court were aware of the high level of artistic activity and production in regions such as Herat and Shiraz, and bought many manuscripts, and artists, to their new capital of Tabriz. Some were later taken to the Ottoman court when Selim I captured Tabriz in 1514. This manuscript was most likely copied in either Herat or Tabriz, in the final years of the reign of the powerful Safavid Shah.
It is presumed by many that the calligrapher signing himself 'Ali al-Husayni al-Katib is one and the same as the celebrated calligrapher Mir 'Ali al-Harawi, who is credited with developing new rules for nasta'liq script (Marianne Shreve Simpson, 'A Manuscript Made for the Safavid Prince Bahram Mirza', Burlington Magazine, June 1991, p.382). Mir 'Ali al-Harawi wrote a set of verses on the mausoleum of Reza in Mashhad there signing himself 'Ali al-Husayni. Melikian-Chirvani however believes that rather he is the same as a certain 'Ali al-Husayni al-Mawsair who signed a single page in an album in the Evkaf Library in Istanbul (Asadullah Souren Melikian Chirvani, Le Chant du Monde. L'Art de l'Iran safavide, Paris, 2007, p. 213). In either case it is clear that 'Ali al-Husayni was a calligrapher of great talent. In our manuscript, he favours the creation of visual drama by using coloured ink on variously coloured folios to great effect. A copy of 'Arifi's Guy o Chaugan, copied by 'Ali al-Husayni in Herat in AH 929/1523 AD was exhibited in the Exhibition of Persian Art at Burlington House in 1931 (Laurence Binyon, J.V.S. Wilkinson and Basil Gray, Persian Miniature Painting, London, 1971 reprint, no.105, pl.LXXVIII B, pp.122-23). That manuscript was formerly in the possession of the Emperor Jahangir and later of Fath 'Ali Shah Qajar, indicating the high regard in which his calligraphy was held.
The black lacquer binding of this manuscript, finely decorated both inside and out with cartouches and spandrels of fine gold scrolling arabesque, is one of a small but distinctive and very elegant group. The earliest recorded lacquer binding in this style belongs to a Diwan-i Husayni, copied at Herat and dated Shaaban AH 897/May-June 1492 AD (MS.EH.1636B, Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul). Indeed Zeren Tanindi describes the elegant lacquered decoration of gilded scrollwork and hatayi motifs on a black ground, as a style of decoration which started in the Herat workshops of the late 15th century (Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby (eds.), Hunt for Paradise. Court Arts of Safavid Iran, 1501-76, exhibition catalogue, Milan, 2003, p.167). Ours relates very closely to one in the Khalili Collection, which covers a copy of Sa'di's Bustan, dated 15 Shaaban AH 936/15 April 1530 AD. That manuscript, though written at Tabriz, was given a frontispiece in Istanbul, and bound there by a Tabrizi craftsman working at the palace (J.M.Rogers, Empire of the Sultans. Ottoman art from the collection of Nasser D. Khalili, exhibition catalogue, Geneva, 1995, no.152, pp.22-23). Another similar binding is in the Louvre (Sophie Makariou (ed.), Islamic Art at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2012, no.232, pp.402-03). Makariou mentions that whilst bindings made at Herat under the Timurid Sultan Husayn Bayqara present a close comparable, the Louvre binding may instead have been produced in Tabriz or Istanbul, where the Timurid style persisted into the early 16th century.
It is presumed by many that the calligrapher signing himself 'Ali al-Husayni al-Katib is one and the same as the celebrated calligrapher Mir 'Ali al-Harawi, who is credited with developing new rules for nasta'liq script (Marianne Shreve Simpson, 'A Manuscript Made for the Safavid Prince Bahram Mirza', Burlington Magazine, June 1991, p.382). Mir 'Ali al-Harawi wrote a set of verses on the mausoleum of Reza in Mashhad there signing himself 'Ali al-Husayni. Melikian-Chirvani however believes that rather he is the same as a certain 'Ali al-Husayni al-Mawsair who signed a single page in an album in the Evkaf Library in Istanbul (Asadullah Souren Melikian Chirvani, Le Chant du Monde. L'Art de l'Iran safavide, Paris, 2007, p. 213). In either case it is clear that 'Ali al-Husayni was a calligrapher of great talent. In our manuscript, he favours the creation of visual drama by using coloured ink on variously coloured folios to great effect. A copy of 'Arifi's Guy o Chaugan, copied by 'Ali al-Husayni in Herat in AH 929/1523 AD was exhibited in the Exhibition of Persian Art at Burlington House in 1931 (Laurence Binyon, J.V.S. Wilkinson and Basil Gray, Persian Miniature Painting, London, 1971 reprint, no.105, pl.LXXVIII B, pp.122-23). That manuscript was formerly in the possession of the Emperor Jahangir and later of Fath 'Ali Shah Qajar, indicating the high regard in which his calligraphy was held.
The black lacquer binding of this manuscript, finely decorated both inside and out with cartouches and spandrels of fine gold scrolling arabesque, is one of a small but distinctive and very elegant group. The earliest recorded lacquer binding in this style belongs to a Diwan-i Husayni, copied at Herat and dated Shaaban AH 897/May-June 1492 AD (MS.EH.1636B, Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul). Indeed Zeren Tanindi describes the elegant lacquered decoration of gilded scrollwork and hatayi motifs on a black ground, as a style of decoration which started in the Herat workshops of the late 15th century (Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby (eds.), Hunt for Paradise. Court Arts of Safavid Iran, 1501-76, exhibition catalogue, Milan, 2003, p.167). Ours relates very closely to one in the Khalili Collection, which covers a copy of Sa'di's Bustan, dated 15 Shaaban AH 936/15 April 1530 AD. That manuscript, though written at Tabriz, was given a frontispiece in Istanbul, and bound there by a Tabrizi craftsman working at the palace (J.M.Rogers, Empire of the Sultans. Ottoman art from the collection of Nasser D. Khalili, exhibition catalogue, Geneva, 1995, no.152, pp.22-23). Another similar binding is in the Louvre (Sophie Makariou (ed.), Islamic Art at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2012, no.232, pp.402-03). Makariou mentions that whilst bindings made at Herat under the Timurid Sultan Husayn Bayqara present a close comparable, the Louvre binding may instead have been produced in Tabriz or Istanbul, where the Timurid style persisted into the early 16th century.