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A prayer book in Arabic, copied by Muhammad, son of Aqa 'Abd al-Husain Kermani, and presented to Farmanfarma Salar Lashgar Qajar Persia, dated Rabi' I, 1313/August-September 1895 image 1
A prayer book in Arabic, copied by Muhammad, son of Aqa 'Abd al-Husain Kermani, and presented to Farmanfarma Salar Lashgar Qajar Persia, dated Rabi' I, 1313/August-September 1895 image 2
Thumbnail of A prayer book in Arabic, copied by Muhammad, son of Aqa 'Abd al-Husain Kermani, and presented to Farmanfarma Salar Lashgar Qajar Persia, dated Rabi' I, 1313/August-September 1895 image 1
Thumbnail of A prayer book in Arabic, copied by Muhammad, son of Aqa 'Abd al-Husain Kermani, and presented to Farmanfarma Salar Lashgar Qajar Persia, dated Rabi' I, 1313/August-September 1895 image 2
Lot 310•,R
A prayer book in Arabic, copied by Muhammad, son of Aqa 'Abd al-Husain Kermani, and presented to Farmanfarma Salar Lashgar
Qajar Persia, dated Rabi' I, 1313/August-September 1895
18 – 26 May 2023, 12:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

£600 - £800

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A prayer book in Arabic, copied by Muhammad, son of Aqa 'Abd al-Husain Kermani, and presented to Farmanfarma Salar Lashgar
Qajar Persia, dated Rabi' I, 1313/August-September 1895

Arabic manuscript on paper, 84 leaves, seven lines to the page written in naskhi script in black ink with significant words in red, inner margins ruled in blue and gold, headings written in naskhi script in blue and red, red morocco with aubergine edges embossed with rope-twist motif
145 x 98 mm.

Footnotes

The manuscript contains prayers to be recited after different occasions: daily prayers, morning and evening, an invocation according to Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, a selection of chapters from the Qur'an and the Twelve Imam prayer according to Nasir al-Din Tusi.

The colophon states that this prayer book was copied by Muhammad son of Aqa 'Abd al-Husayn Kermani, the calligrapher (khosh-navis) and the eulogist for the dead (rawzah khwan). He copied it at the age of twelve and presented it to Farman Farma Salar Lashgar, who favoured him with six tumans regularly. It ends with prayers for himself and Kerman. Neither the scribe nor his father are otherwise known.

Farmanfarma Salar Lashgar is very probably 'Abbas Mirza, son of 'Abd al-Husayn Farmanfarma, a Qajar prince (1890-1935), who was the son of Abd al-Husayn Farmanfarma. In later youth 'Abbas Mirza went to London and studied at Harrow School before training as an officer at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and then at Universite de Liege and a year with French Alpine troops before returning to Persia, and wrote a book titled One Year in the French Army. He was titled Salar Lashgar, the title his father held, and was sent to London for the coronation of King George V in 1911. He was appointed Secretary of War during the First World War and held numerous posts, including Governor of Fars, Kermanshah, Hamadan and Lorestan, deputy Minister of Justice, Minister of trade, the Member of the Parliament for Maragheh and the Vice President of Parliament. He died in Berlin at the age of 45.



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Additional information