Lot 10R
AN ILLUSTRATED LEAF FROM A MANUSCRIPT OF PERSIAN PROSE, DEPICTING A PRINCE ON A MULE, PERSIA, 16TH CENTURY
25 October 2021, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £1,530 inc. premium
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An illustrated leaf from from the Majalis al-'Ushshaq (Assemblies of Lovers) by Kamal al-Din Gazurgahi, depicting Shaykh Muhiyy al-Din A'rabi riding on a horse, coming across Sadr al-Din, with whom he was in love
Persia, 16th Century
Persia, 16th Century
Persian manuscript on gold-sprinkled paper, 7 lines to the page written in nasta'liq script in black ink with one heading in gold, inner margins ruled in colours and gold, illustration in gouache and gold
207 x 110 mm. (sight)
207 x 110 mm. (sight)
Footnotes
Provenance
Maggs Bros., London, year unknown (but 1970s or early 1980s: catalogue entry pasted to reverse of frame).
Private UK collection.
To quote E. G. Browne's A Literary History of Persia, vol. III, London 1920, pp. 439-440: 'The Majalis al-'Ushshaq is a mixture of prose and verse which takes as its theme 'real' (i.e. ideal) and 'metaphorical' (i.e. material) love, and the latter considered as a bridge to the former'. The work consists of 76 sections on saints, mystics and noblemen, describing each person's passionate love. (This leaf is from the the twenty-fourth section). The text has sometimes been attributed to the Timurid Sultan Husain Bayqara (reg. 1469-1506), but some contemporary sources attribute it instead to a Herat courtier, Kamal al-Din Husain Gazarghi. For an example of the text copied in the Punjab or Afghanistan, 17th Century, see Sam Fogg, Islamic Manuscripts, London 2000, pp. 144-145, no. 50.
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