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Lot Essay
This beautifully illustrated scroll contains depictions of the port of Jeddah (complete with ships), the Haram in Mecca, Mount Arafat, the tombs of Imam Hassan, 'Abbas and Hamza, the castle in Medina, the Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, the Hawz al-Kawthar, the eight Paradises and the Straight Path (sirat al-mustaqim), the tombs of Tahir, Tayyib and 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas, Dhu'l-Faqar ('Ali's sword), the tomb of 'Abd al-Qadir Jilani, the tomb of Imam Husayn in Karbala, the tombs of 'Ali and Adam in Najaf, tables of magic numbers ascribed to Ja'far al-Sadiq, mystical diagrams including a face made of the names of Muhammad, 'Ali and Allah, quotations from the Qur'an, Prophetic hadith, a Persian quatrain and diagrams for warding off malign influences.
Two similarly illustrated Hajj certificates, neither signed nor dated, but catalogued as having been done in Mecca by Indian artists in the 17th or 18th centuries are in the Khalili Collection (J.M.Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Treasures from the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, Abu Dhabi, 2007, no. 291-92, pp.256-56). When he visited Mecca in 1853, Richard Burton wrote that a number of Indian artists there supported themselves by 'drawing pictures of the holy shrines in pen and ink heightened with vivid colours' (Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, London, 1893, p.341 quoted in Stephen Vernoit, Occidentalism, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, 1997, p.33). This scroll may represent the type of work done by these artists, although it is not necessarily done in Mecca. Whilst the artist certainly demonstrates a knowledge of the Holy sites that he depicts, it could be that these are lifted from earlier prototypes.
The diagrammatic style of the depictions, combining elevations and plans, is found in other literary works on the holy sanctuaries, for instance in copies of the Dala'il al-Khayrat of Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli or the Futuh al-Haramayn of Muhyi al-Din Lari.
Two similarly illustrated Hajj certificates, neither signed nor dated, but catalogued as having been done in Mecca by Indian artists in the 17th or 18th centuries are in the Khalili Collection (J.M.Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Treasures from the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, Abu Dhabi, 2007, no. 291-92, pp.256-56). When he visited Mecca in 1853, Richard Burton wrote that a number of Indian artists there supported themselves by 'drawing pictures of the holy shrines in pen and ink heightened with vivid colours' (Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, London, 1893, p.341 quoted in Stephen Vernoit, Occidentalism, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, 1997, p.33). This scroll may represent the type of work done by these artists, although it is not necessarily done in Mecca. Whilst the artist certainly demonstrates a knowledge of the Holy sites that he depicts, it could be that these are lifted from earlier prototypes.
The diagrammatic style of the depictions, combining elevations and plans, is found in other literary works on the holy sanctuaries, for instance in copies of the Dala'il al-Khayrat of Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli or the Futuh al-Haramayn of Muhyi al-Din Lari.