SIGNED MUHAMMAD IBN MUHAMMAD IBN AHMAD AL-KHAYRI AL-ANSARI, TIMURID HERAT, DATED RAJAB AH 889/JULY-AUGUST 1484 AD

This finely illuminated copy of the Mathnawi Ma’nawi is a truly luxurious example of Timurid manuscript production. The opening page of each of the six books of the Mathnawi has a finely illuminated headpiece and text written in gold, which is more commonly applied to just the opening bifolio of the manuscript. Although Jalal al-Din Rumi is primarily associated with Konya, the Anatolian city where he composed the Mathnawi Ma'nawi and is buried, he originally hailed from Khorassan, and it is there that the present manuscript was copied. The poet and mystic enjoyed immense popularity at the princely courts of the Timurids, as evidenced by the high number of very fine manuscripts surviving from this period. Examples include those dated AH 821 / 1418 AD (SOAS Library, acc. no. ms. 46714), AH 842 / 1438-9 AD (John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, acc. no. Persian MS 983), AH 844 / 1440-1 AD (British Library, acc. no. Or 5012), and AH 867 / 1462-3 AD (Khalili Collections, acc. no. MSS 945).

Several late Timurid manuscripts of Rumi's Mathnawi Ma'nawi have come up for auction in recent years. One dated 7 April 1456 AD and signed Husayn bin 'Ali al-Abi al-Najjimi, was sold in these Rooms, 25 April 2013, lot 94. Further examples dated 15 Muharram 883/26 April 1478, AH 881-6 / 1476-82 AD and AH 904 / 1498-9 AD were sold at Sotheby's London, 6 April 2011, lot 220, 19 October 2016 lot 118 and lot 110 respectively.