Details

Related name

• Mīr ʻAlī Ḥusaynī Haravī, approximately 1476-1543 [Browse]
• مىر على حسىنى هروى، ca. 1476-1543 [Browse]

Library of Congress genre(s)

• Poetry [Browse]

Rare books genre

• Lacquered bindings [Browse]

Getty AAT genre

• Headpieces (layout features)—Afghanistan—Herat—16th century [Browse]
• Illuminated manuscripts—Afghanistan—Herat—16th century [Browse]

Summary note

Illuminated collection of four of Amīr Khusraw's epic poems in imitation of Niẓāmī Ganjavī's Khamsah; with eight full-page miniatures in the classical Persian style executed in the early 20th century. Copied by the famous calligrapher Mir ʻAlī Haravī (d. 1543).

Notes

• Ms. codex.
• Title supplied by cataloger.
• On fol. ia: Label reading "Persian Exhibition New York 1940 GR1."
• Physical description: 21 lines per page, in four columns; written in small, elegant nastaʻliq in black on heavy, cream, glazed, laid Arabic paper. Written surface gold-sprinkled and bordered by blue and gold lines; columns separated by double gold lines. Catchwords; headings in tawqīʻ in various colors. Some leaves are replacements on lighter paper. Light marginal damp staining. Last thirteen verses of Majnūn va Laylá missing, presumably painted over on fol. 87b. Otherwise in excellent condition.
• Decorations: Sunburst ornament on fol. 1a enclosing medallions inscribed with the volume's contents. Well-executed illuminated ʻunwāns at the beginning of each poem, in gold and colors. Illustrated with eight full-page miniatures in the classical Persian style, executed in the early 20th century; the signature on fol. 54b of Turābī Bek Khurāsānī is likely a nom de plume.
• Origin: Copy completed by ʻAlī al-Ḥusaynī al-kātib in the middle of Rabīʻ II 930 [February 1524] in Harāt (fol. 186b).

Binding note

Lacquered binding; full black leather with panel stamp painted gold, in geometric and floral designs. Leather doublures with central mandorla, corner pieces, and panels in the outer border in filigree on blue and green background; panel around the mandorla and panels in the inner border are gold-stamped. On the spine is a gold-stamped inscription with the name of Abū al-Muẓaffar Sulṭān Rustam Bahādur Khān (d. 1496 or 7). Likely of the same period as the ms.

Language note

Persian.

Contents

• Texts: fol. 2b-54a: [Shīrīn va Khusraw]
• fol. 55b-87a: [Majnūn va Laylá]
• fol. 88b-130a: [Hasht bihisht]
• fol. 131b-186b: [Āʼīnah-i Iskandarī].
• Miniatures (as listed by Simpson, p. 361): fol. 1b: [Shīrīn visits Farhād in the mountains]
• fol. 2a: [Hunting scene]
• fol. 54b: [Tavern scene]
• fol. 55a: [Feast of ʻId]
• fol. 87b: [Mosque scene]
• fol. 88a: [Shrine scene]
• fol. 130b: [King Dara and the herdsmen]
• fol. 131a: [Encounter outside a palace].

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Source acquisition

Gift; Robert Garrett (Class of 1897), 1942.

References

• Moghadam, M. E. et al. Garrett collection, no. 14
• Simpson, M. S. Mostly modern miniatures: classical Persian painting in the early twentieth century, in Muqarnas, XXV (2008), 359-395

OCLC

771059877

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