ManuscriptsPersian17th century

Manuscript of the Tarjuma-yi Qutub Shahi (Forty Hadith) by Baha’ al-Din Muhammad al-Amuli (Shaykh Baha’i)

1658

Description

The manuscript of 293 folios opens with an illuminated sarlawh. The frontispiece exhibits decorated margins bearing floral drawings in gold and text panels with interlinear gilding. The text is copied in nastaʿlīq and 19 lines to a page. The colophon provides the date Zu’l-ḥijja 1068/September 1658, and the name of the scribe Muhammad Baqir b. Mulla Rahimi al-Lahiji, a resident of Kasma. The reverse of the page provides the same date Zu’l-ḥijja 1068 (September 1658) and states that the manuscript was commissioned by Allah Quli Bika (1019–1079/1610–1669). The significance of this manuscript according to the scribe is that this copy was collated against the original copy in the hand of the author, Shaykh Baha’i. The manuscript is bound in a brown leather binding with gilt-stamped center and corner pieces.

Classification

Manuscripts

Medium

Ink, colors, and gold on paper; gilt-stamped leather binding

Culture

Persian

Period

Safavid period

Century

17th century

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Islamic & Later Indian Art

Dimensions

28 x 15 cm (11 x 5 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Ezzat-Malek Soudavar, Geneva, Switzerland (by 2014), by descent; to her son Abolala Soudavar, Houston, Texas (2014), loan; to Harvard Art Museums, 2015. Note: Ezzat-Malek Soudavar (1913-2014) formed this collection over a period of sixty years. She purchased the works of art on the international art market.