Maktabi Shirazi, Layla va Majnun, with eighteen illustrations, copied by Muhammad Husayn ibn Mirza Muhammad Mazandarani

Persia, dated AH 1247/AD 1831-32

Footnotes

The illustrations are as follows:

1. Sayyid 'Amiri (Majnun's father) asks Layla's father for the hand of his daughter for his son.
2. Majnun's father advises Majnun.
3. Majnun and his father on the way to the Ka'ba.
4. Majnun and his father at the Ka'ba.
5. Story of lovers descried.???
6. Majnun's mother advises her son.
7. The old woman and Layla.
8. Layla & companions in a garden (seen by Ibn Salam).
9. Majnun meets Nawfal.
10. Battle of the two tribes.
11. Majnun on his way to Layla's camp, hearing a noise from a well.
12. Layla meets Majnun in the wilderness.
13. A shepherd takes Majnun to Layla concealed in sheepskin.
14. Majnun at his father's tomb.
15. A messenger brings a letter from Layla.
16. Majnun is told of his mother's tomb.
17. Majnun watches Ibn Salam being killed by a beast.
18. Majnun dies on Layla's dead body.


Maktabi Shirazi was a poet of the late 15th-early 16th century, who composed his Layla and Majnun in AH 895/AD 1489-90, which he dedicated to Amir-zadeh Qasim. There is no record of his actual name, and he is recorded only by his pen name Maktabi, after his profession of teacher at a school (maktab). He is recorded as having travelled to Khorasan, India and Arabia. He died circa 1510 and is buried in Shiraz. (See F. Richard, Catalogue des Manuscripts Persans, vol. II, Le Supplement Persan, Rome 2013, pp. 851-2, no. 647).

Rypka comments: 'Nizami found an uncommonly large number of imitators of his poem Layla u Majnun, in Iran and in the areas falling under the influence of Persian culture – in Turkey, Central Asia, India and so on. They imitate his form, choice of material, treatment of analogous and sometimes like subjects, preferably in the same Khamsa form. Amir Khusrau, the first in point of time, occupies a prominent place and he in his turn also influences his successors. Among these, Maktabi of Shiraz approaches his model most nearly in his admirable epic poem Layla u Majnun, which dates from AH 895/AD 1489–90 and is a work that even achieves new effects by means of lyrical ghazal insertions. Tremendous admiration for Nizami is reflected also in the miniatures and in the minor arts in general, where the themes are for the great part taken from the Khamsa.' See J. Rypka, History of Persian Literature, Dordrecht 1968, pp. 98 and 213.

A fine version of this text was offered in these rooms, Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 24th April 2018, lot 144; and another, 26th October 2020, lot 48.

The text (in a slightly casual nasta'liq, including many words in shikasteh) was copied by Muhammad Husayn ibn Mirza Muhammad Mazandarani in AH 1247/AD 1831-32. He is unrecorded.

A manuscript of the Layla and Majnun (without giving the poet's name) in nasta'liq and signed by the same scribe as the present manuscript, but dated AH 1251/AD 1835-36, was offered at Sotheby's, Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, 28th April 1993, lot 145. It had 102 leaves, 11 lines of text to the page (as here), headings in red, and had thirteen illustrations.

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