Lot 37
37
THE SAD KALIMA OF THE IMAM 'ALI
A PRIVATE COLLECTION DONATED TO BENEFIT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
THE SAD KALIMA OF THE IMAM 'ALI

SIGNED ABU'L AL-BAQA AL-MUSAWI AL-ABARQU'I, SAFAVID ISFAHAN OR MUGHAL INDIA, DATED AH 1099/1687-88 AD

Details
THE SAD KALIMA OF THE IMAM 'ALI
SIGNED ABU'L AL-BAQA AL-MUSAWI AL-ABARQU'I, SAFAVID ISFAHAN OR MUGHAL INDIA, DATED AH 1099/1687-88 AD
The sayings of the Imam 'Ali with the Persian translation of Rashid al-Din al-Watwat, Arabic and Persian manuscript on gold-sprinkled paper, 7ff. plus 8 fly-leaves, each folio with 4ll. of large black nasta'liq alternating with 4ll. of smaller, elegant nasta'liq written on the diagonal and arranged in two gold-outlined columns, text panels outlined in gold and polychrome and laid down on wide brown paper margins in the Qajar period, first folio with associated gold and polychrome headpiece, colophon signed katabahu al-mudhnib al-raji abu'l-baqa al-musawi al-abarqu'i ghafar dhunubahu wa satara 'uyubahu, overall good condition, in later red morocco with large gold stamped central medallion and spandrels, black morocco doublures
Text panel 8 x 4 5/8in. (20.4 x 11.6cm.); folio 12 5/8 x 7 7/8in. (32.2 x 20cm.)

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Lot Essay

Abu'l-Baqa Abarqu'i was a sayyid from a prominent family of Abarqu or Abarkuh near Yazd. He spent a period in India at the court of Shah Jahan, and after his return lived in Isfahan. There he was in the service of the royal physician Hakim Taqarrub Khan who had also emigrated to India but returned to Isfahan. Abu'l-Baqa was not a man of material possessions and after the Taqarrub Khan's death he was invited by the Khan's son, Mirza Muhammad Taqi, to take up residence in his household. He chose instead to live in a room in the mosque of Taqarrub Khan (the Hakim Mosque) in Isfahan. Other pieces by him include an album page dated 1006 and a further album page in a Muraqqa' in the Bodleian Library (see Mehdi Bayani, Ahval ve asar-e khosh nevisan, vol.1, Tehran, 1346 sh., no. 41, p.22-24).

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