CALLIGRAPHY BY QUTB AL-DIN IBN HASAN AL-TUNI, QAZVIN OR MASHHAD, 1580

Our illustrated folio originates from a Shahnama manuscript sold at Sotheby's on 22nd April 1980, lot 271. The colophon states that the text was copied by the scribe Qutb al-Din bin Hasan al-Tuni (from Tun in Khurasan) and gives the precise date of completion as 20 Shawwal AH 988/28th November 1580 AD. According to B. W. Robinson: 'the twenty-four miniatures are the work of at least four artists and therefore vary in quality. The master painter appears to be artist A who is responsible for the painting of the finest two miniatures in the manuscript, that of Bahram Gur hunting the lions and Bahram Gur fighting the dragon'. Robinson attributes this painting to artist A, and compares the style of the miniatures in the manuscript, with the heavily scrolling Chinese clouds, as seen in the present lot, exquisitely painted rocks and striking features, to that found in a near contemporary Shahnama dated circa 1576-77. (See Robinson, 1976, pp.32–47). Other leaves from the same dispersed manuscript appeared at Sotheby's, London, 9th April 2014, lot 82; and in these Rooms, 10th October 2013, lots 76 and 77.
Two folios were exhibited at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, in 2007. Two folios attributed to artist A were exhibited at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 11 September 2010–9 January 2011 (see Brend and Melville, 2010, pp.72–75).