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Lot Essay
After training under Ja'far Baysunghuri, the scribe Shaykh Mahmud found employment with Pir Budaq, eldest son of the Turkman ruler Jahan Shah (d.1467). He moved with Pir Budaq from Shiraz to Baghdad when he was made governor of the latter in 1460. A number of manuscripts copied for Pir Budaq are known including four now in the Topkapi Palace library (acc.nos. H.761; A.2488; R.1021; and H.1015), two in the Suleymaniye library (inv.no.Fatih 3779 and Aya Sofya 3883), and another in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Elliott 251). A number of others have more recently appeared on the market. The rediscovery of a lost Khamsa manuscript, and with it an original colophon, proved that Pir Budaq had also been an active patron in Isfahan before his defeat and death in 1466. That manuscript was sold in these Rooms, 24 October 2019, lot 37. Other manuscripts from Pir Budaq's library include another sold in these Rooms, 6 October 2011, lot 124 and one sold at Sotheby's London, 10 June 2020, lot 2 which was actually also signed by our scribe, Shaykh Mahmud.
Of the nine known manuscripts associated with Pir Budaq's patronage, a total of five are signed by Shaykh Mahmud, including the Sotheby's example. A striking feature of this group of manuscripts is the fact that the texts themselves were comparatively new when they were copied - Hafez died just over sixty years before Pir Budaq became governor of Baghdad, and Muhammad ibn Yahya Sibak only a decade prior. None, however, seem to have been more contemporaneous than Jami, who outlived both Pir Budaq and Shaykh Mahmud. For a full discussion of Pir Budaq's patronage, see David J. Roxburgh, 'Many a Wish has Turned to Dust: Pir Budaq and the Formation of Turkmen Arts of the Book', in David J. Roxburgh (ed.), Envisioning Islamic Art and Architecture, Leiden, 2014, pp.175-222. A painting depicting Pir Budaq and his court was sold in these Rooms, 25 April 2013, lot 5.
Although the colophon of this manuscript does not mention Pir Budaq's patronage, this manuscript has many similarities to those produced for his library. For a start, the sizes are similar - the manuscript sold at Christie's in 2011 and the one sold at Sotheby's in 2020 are both around 23cm. high. The illuminated section heading at the beginning of the manuscript is also very similar in style to other manuscripts from the library.