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Lot Essay
The scribe of this manuscript, Murshid al-Katib Shirazi, also known as 'Attar', 'the Perfume Seller', was a Shirazi scribe, whose published work is dated between AH 919 and 959/1513 and 1551 AD. His output includes two copies of the Khamsa in the Chester Beatty Library, another in the Freer Gallery of Art, and copies of the Zafarnama in the British Museum and the State Library, St. Petersburg (Mehdi Bayani, Ahval va Asar-e Khosh-Nevisan, Tehran, 1363/1984, pp.899-901).
The paintings in is manuscript include:
1. Anushrivan and the owls
2. Al-Ma'mun in the bathhouse
3. Hormoz admonishes Khusraw
4. Khusraw and Shirin spy each other
5. The armies of Khusraw and Bahram Chubina do battle
6. Layla and Majnun in school
7. Majnun dies at Layla's grave
8. Bahram Gur in the black pavilion
9. Bahram Gur in the yellow pavilion
10. Bahram Gur in the green pavilion
11. Bahram Gur in the red pavilion
12. Bahram Gur in the sandalwood pavilion
13. Bahram Gur in the white pavilion
14. Iskandar's army defeats the Zangis
15. Iskandar comforts the dying Dara
16. Nushabeh asks for Iskandar's forgiveness
This generously illustrated manuscript has a number of interesting features which indicate that it was produced in Tabriz which was at that stage the capital of the Safavid Empire. The painting which illustrates Nushabeh asking for Iskandar’s forgiveness depicts a raised throne with a cusped headpiece which Laleh Uluç identifies as being representative of the Tabriz workshops of the first quarter of the 16th century. (Lale Uluç, Turkman Governors Shiraz Artisans and Ottoman collectors: Sixteenth Century Shiraz Manuscripts, Istanbul 2006, no.89, p. 138). The delicate facial forms and the very high turbans worn by the male figures in our manuscript are further typical qualities of the Tabriz school of painting. In particular the thin downward-turned moustache of Bahram Gur is closely paralleled in a depiction of Shah Isma’il in a manuscript attributed to Tabriz and dated to the equivalent of 1541, (Norah M. Titley, Persian Miniature Painting, London, 1983, pl.12, p.88).
The paintings in is manuscript include:
1. Anushrivan and the owls
2. Al-Ma'mun in the bathhouse
3. Hormoz admonishes Khusraw
4. Khusraw and Shirin spy each other
5. The armies of Khusraw and Bahram Chubina do battle
6. Layla and Majnun in school
7. Majnun dies at Layla's grave
8. Bahram Gur in the black pavilion
9. Bahram Gur in the yellow pavilion
10. Bahram Gur in the green pavilion
11. Bahram Gur in the red pavilion
12. Bahram Gur in the sandalwood pavilion
13. Bahram Gur in the white pavilion
14. Iskandar's army defeats the Zangis
15. Iskandar comforts the dying Dara
16. Nushabeh asks for Iskandar's forgiveness
This generously illustrated manuscript has a number of interesting features which indicate that it was produced in Tabriz which was at that stage the capital of the Safavid Empire. The painting which illustrates Nushabeh asking for Iskandar’s forgiveness depicts a raised throne with a cusped headpiece which Laleh Uluç identifies as being representative of the Tabriz workshops of the first quarter of the 16th century. (Lale Uluç, Turkman Governors Shiraz Artisans and Ottoman collectors: Sixteenth Century Shiraz Manuscripts, Istanbul 2006, no.89, p. 138). The delicate facial forms and the very high turbans worn by the male figures in our manuscript are further typical qualities of the Tabriz school of painting. In particular the thin downward-turned moustache of Bahram Gur is closely paralleled in a depiction of Shah Isma’il in a manuscript attributed to Tabriz and dated to the equivalent of 1541, (Norah M. Titley, Persian Miniature Painting, London, 1983, pl.12, p.88).