Persian manuscript on gold-sprinkled paper, 21 leaves, 12 lines to the page in elegant naskhi script in black ink in two columns, intercolumnar rules in gold, inner margins ruled in colours and gold, outer borders depicting birds and animals amidst floral motifs in gold, heading panels left blank with a gold ground surrounded by illumination in colours and gold, one illuminated headpiece in colours and gold, trimmed, tears to inner margins crudely repaired, green morocco with gilt-stamped borders and cornerpieces, doublures of green paper, red half-morocco slipcase, bookplate of John M. Schiff
190 x 130 mm.

Footnotes

Provenance:
The collection of the late Djafar Ghazi.

The text, also known as the Halnama of 'Arifi, uses the ball and mallet from the game of polo as allegorical representations of mystical love.

The scribe appears to be unrecorded, with the exception of a certain Muhammad 'Ali ibn al-Mahmud al-Munajjim al-Khaqani, who signed a manuscript of Jami's Masnavi, dated 1566-67, in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (cat. 213). There is also a Persian anthology in the Topkapi Museum (cat. 899) with the signature Muhammad 'Ali bin al-Mahmud, dated AH 952/AD 1545-46.

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'Arifi, Guy o Chaugan ('Ball and Mallet'), a poetical allegory of mystical love, copied by Muhammad 'Ali bin al-Mahmud al-Munajjim Safavid Persia, dated AH 942/AD 1535-36

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Oliver White