Jami, Yusuf va Zulaykha, written on gold-sprinkled paper, the outer borders of 170 pages exquisitely decorated with stencilled images of animals and birds in their natural habitat, a ghul about to throw a boulder at a lion, arabesques and floral, vegetal and geometric motifs in different colours

Bokhara or Khorasan, second half of the 16th Century

Footnotes

The notes and seal impressions on folio 1a are Indian. One note (the shorter one with a larger seal impression) says that the manuscript was viewed on 17th Ramadan 1206/9th May 1792, with the seal impression of Maharaja Nakit [?] Ray, dated AH 1203/AD 1788-89.
The other note says that the manuscript was purchased from the dealer of draughts [?] (baratcha) in the private shop in the bazaar, on Sunday 4th dhi'l-hajja 1228/28th November 1813.
The fact that these two notes have hijra dates and not regnal means that the manuscript could belong to any of the Hindu principalities in India.

The author:

Nur-ad-Din Abdul-Rahman Jami was born in Kharjird in the province of Jam in AH 817/AD 1414 and died in Herat, where he spent most of his life, in AH 898/AD 1492. Jami is considered the last of the great classical and mystical poets of Persia. Along with Mir Ali-Sher Nava'i he composed most of his work at Herat, the Timurid capital of Sultan Husain Mirza (reigned 1470-1506). Jami was greatly admired by the Sultan and was rewarded with political and economic favours. He maintained the favour of the Sultan by flattering him in his works. According to Marianna Shreve Simpson, 'the extended panegyric to Sultan Husayn Mirza in a prelude to Yusuf va Zulaykha, with its flattering evocation of the Sultan's beauty, character, generosity and justice, typify these dedications.' Simpson stresses his role as a pir (master) of the Naqshbandi order of Sufi Islam which he joined at a young age. On his death in 1492, Jami was mourned by Sultan Husain Mirza as a son, and Mir Ali Sher helped wash the body and composed an elegy in praise of his departed friend.

Simpson adds that 'Jami composed Yusuf va Zulaykha in a single year, AH 889/AD 1484-85, which he gives as a chronogram at the end of the text. The beginning mentions that Jami entered the mystical state of sama' (the ritual Sufi dance) during the poem's composition. The masnavi is generally considered to have been written in honour of Sultan Husain Mirza, whom Jami praises in the prologue along with his pir, Khwaja Ubaydullah Ahrar.' (See Simpson, M. S., Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang: a Princely Manuscript from Sixteenth-Century Iran, New Haven and London 1997.)

The text:

According to Marianna Shreve Simpson, Yusuf va Zulaykha is universally regarded as the masterpiece of Jami's Haft Awrang:
'It is also the most popular of many Persian adaptations of this classic story, whose protagonists are better known outside the Near East as Joseph and Potiphar's wife. It is also the most frequently illustrated of Jami's seven masnavi's. The Islamic tradition to which Yusuf va Zulaykha belongs starts with the Koran in which an entire sura is devoted to the Judaeo-Christian prophet and the trials he endured, first at the hands of his brothers, and then because of the propositions of his master's wife. Later commentators greatly amplified the Qur'anic account, giving Yusuf's temptress a name and idealising the prophet as a symbol of monotheism. Subsequent literature transformed Yusuf into a "triple paragon of purity, of prophetic inspiration and, above all, of physical beauty". Jami further embellished this characterisation in his epic-length poem, making Yusuf a revelation of divine beauty, and the relations between Yusuf and Zulaykha an allegory of the mystic's search for truth and union with God.' For further reading, Simpson, M. S., Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang, New Haven and London 1997.

The art of stencilling in Persian manuscripts:

The art of illuminated and stencilled borders flourished in Ottoman Turkey, Safavid Persia and Mughal India and reached the height of fashion in the 16th Century. Such borders depicted floral, vegetal and geometric motifs, animals and exotic birds in their natural habitats, figures standing in gardens, hunting scenes, and creatures such as divs and mythical animals in rocky landscapes. The lavishness of such borders reflected the wealth of the patrons who commissioned such manuscripts, which were often executed by court artists who specialized in this field. In Ottoman manuscripts the style of stencilled border design was known as 'silhouette paper', and differed from the stencilled designs found in the borders of manuscripts produced in Bokhara and Khorasan. It is known that Bokhara manuscripts with stencilled borders were taken to India starting in the mid-16th Century and that Bokhara artists were working in India for Mughal patrons.

A 16th-Century Persian manuscript entitled Tuhfat al-Muluk, copied by the scribe Sultan Muhammad Khandan, has borders profusely decorated with painted designs on stencilled paper depicting fantastic animals and foliage, and these are identical to the borders illustrating the div hurling a rock in the present lot. See Sotheby's, Important Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures: the Property of the Hagop Kevorkian Fund, 23rd April 1979, lot 165 (illustrated). The manuscript was formerly in the collection of Sir Bernard Eckstein, sold at Sotheby's, 7th February 1949, lot 4.