SAFAVID TABRIZ, IRAN, DATED RAJAB AH 93[4]/MARCH-APRIL 15[28] AD

The quality of calligraphy in our manuscript is exquisite, and the care with which the manuscript is laid out and illuminated reflects the high level of patronage at the beginning of Shah Tahmasp's reign. Although the colophon has sadly been defaced, it is evident that it is the hand of a master scribe who was active during this period, perhaps Shah Mahmud Nishapuri, one of the leading calligraphers at the court of Shah Tahmasp (r. 1524–76). The balance and execution of each word is remarkably even and finely written, in line with Shah Mahmud’s hand; he is also known for writing nasta`liq on this exquisitely small controlled scale. Known as Zarinqalam, or "golden pen", he served Tahmasp until 1557, when he moved to Mashhad; he remained there until his death at the age of eighty, in 972/1564–65. In terms of calligraphy, a comparable manuscript of Hadith (traditions) of the Prophet Muhammad with a Persian translation by the poet Jami (1414–1492) dated to the exact same year as our manuscript (AH 935/ 1528-29 AD), completed in the royal workshop of Tabriz and signed by Shah Mahmud is in the Metropolitan Museum (inv. no. 2017.368).

On the basis of the varied use of pigments, the vibrant shade of the lapis lazuli, the more generous spacing of the tiny flowers, one can attribute the illumination as the work of Tabriz. Examples of similar, contemporaneous illumination with all these features, such as the use of green with the red pigments can be found in manuscripts including Shah Tahmasp's Shahnama attributed to Tabriz, 1522-35 and a copy of the Khamsa of Amir Khusraw Dihlavi attributed to Tabriz or Herat, 1530-40 (Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby (eds.), Hunt for Paradise, New York, 2003, nos. 5.3 and 5.5, pp. 140-141 and 146-47). The binding, with its design elements in pronounced gilt relief, and very fine découpe doublures is also of superior quality and dates from the same period.

All the incredibly detailed and vividly portrayed illustrations found in our manuscript date from the Qajar period. Although later in date, they are also extremely fine and copies of well-known scenes from the contemporaneous Safavid manuscripts of the period such as the well-known "Allegory of Worldly and Otherworldly Drunkenness", from the Divan of Hafiz, at the Metropolitan Museum (inv. no. 1988.430 + L.2019.55).