gouache and gold on paper, text written in four columns in nasta'liq script in black ink, 21 lines verso, inner margins ruled in blue and gold
345 x 195 mm.

Footnotes

This illustrated leaf is a good example of the Commercial Turkman School of painting of the late 15th Century. The scene illustrates Nizami's Layla and Majnun, one of the five books of the Khamsa. The leaf derives from a dispersed manuscript of the Khamsa dated Rajab AH 901/ March - April 1496. Other illustrated leaves from the same manuscript have appeared at Sotheby's, Arts of the Islamic World, 25th April 2002, lots 35-36; 30th April 2003, lots 27-28; 15th October 2003, lot 23. (At an earlier stage the manuscript's date had been misread as AH 904/ AD 1498 - 99). Stylistic comparison can be made with a manuscript of the Shahnama dated circa 1450-70 in the Kraus Collection (see E. Grube, Islamic Paintings: the Kraus Collection, p. 91, no. 52); also several leaves from Turkman illustrated manuscripts in the Pozzi Collection (see B. W. Robinson, Jean Pozzi: L'Orient d'un collectionneur, pp. 230-232, nos. 46-50).

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An illustrated leaf from a dispersed manuscript of Nizami's Khamsa: the old man revives Layla and Majnun, surrounded by wild animals who had been Majnun's sole companions during his retreat in the desert Persia, commercial Turkman, the original manuscript dated Rajab AH 901/March - April AD 1496

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Oliver White