SIGNED NASR'ULLAH BIN MUHAMMAD MUN'IM AL-DIN, SAFAVID SHIRAZ, MID 16TH CENTURY

Details

MUHAMMAD 'ASAR TABRIZI (D. AH 779/1377 AD): MIHR WA MUSHTARI
SIGNED NASR'ULLAH BIN MUHAMMAD MUN'IM AL-DIN, SAFAVID SHIRAZ, MID 16TH CENTURY
A love story in verse based on the concept of platonic love, Persian manuscript on paper, 232ff. plus three fly-leaves, each folio with 12ll. of elegant black nasta'liq divided into two columns with gold rules, headings in gold nasta'liq, with 12 contemporaneous illustrations, opening bifolio with black nasta'liq in clouds reserved against gold ground and surrounded by gold and polychrome illumination, the colophon signed and set within a gold ruled rectangular cartouche, in associated inverted morocco
Text panel 4¾ x 2½in. (12 x 6.4cm.); folio 7 5/8 x 4 5/8in. (19.3 x 11.8cm.)

Engraved

The paintings in this manuscript include:

1. Shapur and Dastur set out with the intention of hunting
2. Mihr and Mushtari at school
3. Mushtari and Badr await execution
4. Mushtari and Badr defeat the highwaymen
5. Mushtari fights the dog and wolf-headed cannibals
6. Mihr sails to India in search of Mushtari
7. Mihr kills a lion
8. Mihr before King Kayvan
9. Mihr and Kayvan play polo
10. The battle between Kayvan and Qara Khan
11. Mihr and Mushtari faint on being reunited
12. Mihr and Nahid on their wedding night

Special notice

No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium.

Brought to you by

Andrew Butler-Wheelhouse

abutler-wheelhouse@christies.com +44 (0) 20 7389 2196

Lot Essay

The very high rounded turbans with their bright batons are closely paralleled by those depicted in an illustration to a Shahnama manuscript in the Topkapi Palace Library which is dated AH 927/1520-21 AD,(Inv.R.860; Lale Uluç, Turkoman Governors, Shiraz Artists and Ottoman Collectors: Sixteenth century Shiraz manuscripts, Istanbul 2006, p.104, fig.51).

More from Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds

View All