A GROUP OF ILLUMINATED FOLIOS AND PAINTINGS FROM THE KHAMSA OF NIZAMI
A GROUP OF ILLUMINATED FOLIOS AND PAINTINGS FROM THE KHAMSA OF NIZAMI

THE PAINTINGS ATTRIBUTABLE TO MUHAMMAD QASIM, THE CALLIGRAPHY SIGNED 'ABD AL-JABBAR ISFAHANI, SAFAVID IRAN, DATED DHU'L HIJJA AH 1017/MARCH-APRIL 1609 AD

細節
A GROUP OF ILLUMINATED FOLIOS AND PAINTINGS FROM THE KHAMSA OF NIZAMI
THE PAINTINGS ATTRIBUTABLE TO MUHAMMAD QASIM, THE CALLIGRAPHY SIGNED 'ABD AL-JABBAR ISFAHANI, SAFAVID IRAN, DATED DHU'L HIJJA AH 1017/MARCH-APRIL 1609 AD
Persian manuscript on paper, 21ff. each with 19ll. of black nasta'liq arranged in four columns with double gold intercolumnar rules, text panels within polychrome rules on ivory margins with red, black and gold outer rules, catchwords, headings in gold on gold and polychrome cartouches, 5ff. with fully illuminated gold and polychrome headpieces surmounting 13ll. of text in clouds reserved against gold ground, the margins with floral illumination, one further folio with marginal illumination surrounding similar text in clouds, three colophon pages, one bearing the date and a later owner's seal, the paintings in opaque pigments heightened with gold and silver depicting various scenes from the story, each with lines of similar nasta'liq in columns above and below, some scuffing and minor areas of staining
Text panel 8 x 5 1/8in. (20.2 x 12.1cm.); folio 11¼ x 7¾in. (29 x 20cm.)
刻印
The paintings include:
1. Bahram Gur in the sandalwood pavilion on Thursday
2. Layla and Majnun fall in love with each other at school
3. Battle between Bahram Gur and the army of the Khaqan of Chin
4. The wedding night of Khusraw and Shirin
5. Khusraw is enthroned in Mada'in for the second time
6. Iskandar in the Garden of Eram
7. Khusraw kills a lion in the course of a feast
8. Khusraw spies Shirin bathing
9. Shapur shows Shirin Khusraw's portrait
10. Bahram and the shepherd who had hung his dog
11. Bahram Gur holds an assembly
12. Shiruye murders Khusraw

The colophon pages include:
1. Final folio of the Makhzan al-asrar
2. Final folio of Khusraw wa shirin
3. Colophon to whole manuscript, stating that it was completed in the middle of Dhu'l-Hijja AH 1017/March-April 1609 AD. The scribe's name here is not legible.

The title pages include:
1. Title page for the Iqbalnama-ye Iskandari
2. Title page to the Layla wa Majnun
3. Title page to the Haft paykar
4. Title page to the Iskandarnama
5. Title page to the Khusraw wa Shirin
6. Title page to the Makhzan al-asrar

拍品專文

These paintings are almost certainly the work of Muhammad Qasim, a contemporary of Reza-i 'Abbasi, active during the reign of Shah 'Abbas I. Two of his paintings, 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. Two more are illustrated 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 more recent research by Adel Adamova has convincingly repositioned his works to the early 17th century, presented 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 a contemporary rather than a pupil of Riza and thus 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, Tehran, 1345 sh., p.366-67).

Other paintings from this manuscript have sold in these Rooms, 12 October 2004, lot 196, 26 April 2005, lot 134 and most recently 26 April 2012, lot 27. A single page composition by Qasim sold more recently in these Rooms, 23 April 2015, lot 63.

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