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Lot Essay
Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi was born into a distinguished family in Konya. He was a mystic who sought to attain awareness of God through knowledge, meditation, art, ecstasy and love. His Persian poetry, filled with profound emotion, is compiled in the Mathnavi - a didactic poem in rhyming couplets relating principally to religion, mysticism and ethics. One of his main themes in the work is a call for fellowship and unity between all human beings – an antidote to the political and economic upheavals of 13th century Anatolia (David J. Roxburgh (ed.), Turks. A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600-1600, exhibition catalogue, 2005, p.401).
Produced under the reign of Sultan Abu Sa’id Mirza (r. 1451-69), this fine manuscript is an example of Timurid illuminated manuscript production at its best. The illuminated shamsa at the beginning of the manuscript gives the name of the patron, Mahmud bin Shihab al-Din al-Gilani, a Timurid vizier. Although he is not recorded, his son Shaykh `Abidullah Nasiruddin al-Ahrar al-Samarqandi ibn Mahmud ibn Shihab al-Din appears to have been a prominent Naqshbandi teacher.
The illumination of our Mathnavi relates closely to that found on the frontispiece of a Timruid Qur’an, attributed to circa 1425-50, in the Detroit Institute of Arts (30.323; Thomas W. Lentz and Glenn D. Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision. Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 1989, no.20, pp.78-79). In the catalogue describing that Qur’an the authors write that Timurid illumination, while linked with the large-featured forms popular under the Ilkhanids and Mamluks, moved inexorably towards greater intricacy and finesse, as seen here. They go on to write that the emphasis in illumination shifted also to include not only the frontispiece but also the opening pages and different sections of the text (Lentz and Lowry, op.cit., p.332). In our copy, the preface to the main text is given the same level of attention as the frontispiece and shamsa – written entirely in gold and contained within an elegantly illuminated border.
The illumination of our Mathnavi also resembles that found on another Timurid Qur’an that states in the colophon that it was copied in Herat in Ramadan AH 837/May 1434 AD now in the Turk ve Islam Musezi in Istanbul (TIEM 294; The 1400th Anniversary of the Qur'an, exhibition catalogue, Turkey, 2010, cat.69, pp.282-85). In many ways the illumination is also very similar to another Mathnavi of Rumi, again copied in Herat in around 1450 and described as being of court quality (De Baghdad à Ispahan, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1995, no.33, pp.166-169). These related manuscripts, all from Herat, strongly support the suggestion of a similar place of production for our Mathnavi.
The scribe responsible for copying this manuscript is Ahmad al-Katib, the student of the master calligrapher Zayn al-‘Abidin Shirazi. An Ahmad bin Abu Bakr bin Muhammad al-Katib al-Shirzai is recorded as having copied a manuscript of Wassaf dated 1462 which is now in Vienna (G. Flugel, Die Arabischen, Persischen and Turkischen Handschriften der K.K. Hofbibliothek zu Wein, Vienna, 1865-67, 3 volumes, no.959). It is possible that this is the same scribe responsible for our manuscript. Whilst our scribe in not otherwise recorded, a Qur’an in the Chester Beatty Library dated AH 888/1483-84 AD is copied by Zayn al-‘Abidin bin Muhammad al-Katib al-Shirazi (https://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/fisher/record.html?id=FISHER_n2009041001). It is very likely that he is the teacher of our scribe.
Produced under the reign of Sultan Abu Sa’id Mirza (r. 1451-69), this fine manuscript is an example of Timurid illuminated manuscript production at its best. The illuminated shamsa at the beginning of the manuscript gives the name of the patron, Mahmud bin Shihab al-Din al-Gilani, a Timurid vizier. Although he is not recorded, his son Shaykh `Abidullah Nasiruddin al-Ahrar al-Samarqandi ibn Mahmud ibn Shihab al-Din appears to have been a prominent Naqshbandi teacher.
The illumination of our Mathnavi relates closely to that found on the frontispiece of a Timruid Qur’an, attributed to circa 1425-50, in the Detroit Institute of Arts (30.323; Thomas W. Lentz and Glenn D. Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision. Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 1989, no.20, pp.78-79). In the catalogue describing that Qur’an the authors write that Timurid illumination, while linked with the large-featured forms popular under the Ilkhanids and Mamluks, moved inexorably towards greater intricacy and finesse, as seen here. They go on to write that the emphasis in illumination shifted also to include not only the frontispiece but also the opening pages and different sections of the text (Lentz and Lowry, op.cit., p.332). In our copy, the preface to the main text is given the same level of attention as the frontispiece and shamsa – written entirely in gold and contained within an elegantly illuminated border.
The illumination of our Mathnavi also resembles that found on another Timurid Qur’an that states in the colophon that it was copied in Herat in Ramadan AH 837/May 1434 AD now in the Turk ve Islam Musezi in Istanbul (TIEM 294; The 1400th Anniversary of the Qur'an, exhibition catalogue, Turkey, 2010, cat.69, pp.282-85). In many ways the illumination is also very similar to another Mathnavi of Rumi, again copied in Herat in around 1450 and described as being of court quality (De Baghdad à Ispahan, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1995, no.33, pp.166-169). These related manuscripts, all from Herat, strongly support the suggestion of a similar place of production for our Mathnavi.
The scribe responsible for copying this manuscript is Ahmad al-Katib, the student of the master calligrapher Zayn al-‘Abidin Shirazi. An Ahmad bin Abu Bakr bin Muhammad al-Katib al-Shirzai is recorded as having copied a manuscript of Wassaf dated 1462 which is now in Vienna (G. Flugel, Die Arabischen, Persischen and Turkischen Handschriften der K.K. Hofbibliothek zu Wein, Vienna, 1865-67, 3 volumes, no.959). It is possible that this is the same scribe responsible for our manuscript. Whilst our scribe in not otherwise recorded, a Qur’an in the Chester Beatty Library dated AH 888/1483-84 AD is copied by Zayn al-‘Abidin bin Muhammad al-Katib al-Shirazi (https://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/fisher/record.html?id=FISHER_n2009041001). It is very likely that he is the teacher of our scribe.