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Lot 5

An illustrated leaf from Hafiz-i Abru's Majma al-Tawarikh (The Assembly of History): an enthroned ruler with a courtier
Timurid Persia, Herat, circa 1425

2 April 2009, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £3,840 inc. premium

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An illustrated leaf from Hafiz-i Abru's Majma al-Tawarikh (The Assembly of History): an enthroned ruler with a courtier
Timurid Persia, Herat, circa 1425

Persian and Arabic manuscript on paper, 33 lines to the page written in clear naskhi script in black ink, interlinear rules in red, margins ruled in blue and red, zig-zag border in red ink at top of image, heading written in thuluth script in red
420 x 325 mm.

Footnotes

The Majma al-Tawarikh was written between 1423 and 1427 and is partly based on an earlier work, the Jami al-Tawarikh (Gatherer of Chronicles), ordered by the Ilkhanid ruler Uljaytu and compiled by his minister Rashid al-Din at the Rab'-i Rashidi scriptorium at Tabriz in 1314. The text consists of four parts: a history of the world up to the Arab conquest; a history of the Caliphate until 1258; a history of Persia during the Seljuk and Mongol periods; and the Zubdat al-Tawarikh, which chronicles the lives of Timur and Shah Rukh until 1427. There are two extant copies: a dispersed manuscript formerly in the collection of Emile Tabbagh and Parish Watson, and the other copy, dated AH 829/AD 1425, is in the Topkapi Saray Library, Istanbul (H. 1653).

For further reading see: S. Canby, Princes, Poets and Paladins: Islamic and Indian Paintings from the Collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan, London 1998, pp. 28-31; T. Lentz and G. Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century, Los Angeles and Washington 1989, pp. 98-102.

Other leaves from the Majma al-Tawarikh were sold in these rooms, Islamic and Indian Art, 6th October 2008, lots 6, 7 and 8.

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