MAMLUK EGYPT, SECOND HALF 15TH CENTURY

Although the present text is widely known as Qasida al-Burda ('Ode of the Mantle'), its full title is al-Kawakib al-Durriya fi Madh Khayr al-Bariyya ('Brilliant Stars in Praise of the Best of Creation'). According to its preface, the ode was named after a dream in which the Prophet Muhammad appeared to al-Busiri in a dream and wrapped him in his mantle. In recitation, each verse of the ode is followed by the verse 'my patron, bless and bring peace, continuously and eternally, to your beloved, the best of creation'. Its recitation constitutes an important religious practice in several Sufi orders.

With the exception of the richly illuminated opening bifolio containing a prose introduction, each folio of the present manuscript is laid out with three lines of elegant muhaqqaq, each line elongated by an additional line of riqa' at an angle. These two lines, each forming a couplet by al-Busiri, are separated by blocks of three lines of small naskh, for a total of five lines. Among the Mamluks, the practice of amplifying al-Busiri's ode by adding three lines to each couplet, known as takhmis (lit. 'to make five'), became very popular, and numerous manuscripts with such takhmis by a variety of poets are known from the second half of the 14th century onward (Esin Atıl, Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks, Washington D.C., 1981, p. 46).

The same takhmis as on the present copy also appears on a manuscript of Qasida al-Burda copied by Ridwan bin Muhammad al-Tabrizi and dated AH 694⁄1366 AD (in The Walters Art Museum, acc. no. W.581.27). It identifies the author of the takhmis as al-Shaykh al-'Alim Nasir al-Din Muhammad bin 'Abd al-Samad al-Fayyumi. Another manuscript copy of Qasida al-Burda with the takhmis of Nasir al-Din Muhammad al-Fayyumi was copied for the powerful Mamluk emir Yashbak min Mahdi, grand secretary (dawadar kabir) to Sultan Qaytbay (r.1468-96). That manuscript, in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, is signed 'Abdullah al-Shirvani and dated AH 877⁄1472-3 AD (obj. no. Ar 4169; published Atıl, op. cit.,1981, p. 47).

A manuscript of the Qasida al-Burda with closely comparable illumination is in the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington D.C. (acc. no. S1986.29). That manuscript was copied for the Mamluk officer Esinbay bin 'Abdullah, and dedicated al-Malik al-Ashraf Inal (r.1453-61). It seems likely that the 'treasury of al-Malik al-Ashraf' in the colophon of the present manuscript refers to him, or to his eventual successor al-Malik al-Ashraf Qaytbay (r.1468-96).

A Mamluk copy of Qasida al-Burda with two takhmis, including that of al-Fayyumi, dated AH 798⁄1395-6 AD, was sold Christie's South Kensington, 7 October 2011, lot 20. Another copy with al-Fayyumi's takhmis and dated AH 846⁄1442-3 AD was sold at Sotheby's London, 23 October 2019, lot 14.