Page from the Majma' al-Tawarikh of Hafiz-i... - Lot 178 - Ader

Lot 178
Go to lot
Estimation :
6000 - 8000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 19 200EUR
Page from the Majma' al-Tawarikh of Hafiz-i... - Lot 178 - Ader
Page from the Majma' al-Tawarikh of Hafiz-i Abru: Rustam blinds Isfandiyar with an arrow Text and illustration: Herat, Afghanistan, Timurid period, c. 1425-26 Persian manuscript on cream "Baghdadi" paper 33 lines of black naskh, the text in red and blue rules, illustrated with a large gouache painting heightened with silver, the margins with an advertisement, a Timurid or Safavid seal (illegible) in the upper right corner, inventory number '10176'. Page size: 42.5 x 33 cm; in view: 33.4 x 22.5 cm; painting: 16.2 x 22 cm Soiling, especially on one edge. Staining and oxidation of some pigments. This illustration also exists in the Topkapi manuscript (Hazine 1653, folio 83b 'Rustam and Isfandiyar'). A folio from the Majma' al-Tawarikh of Hafiz-i Abru: Rustam blinds Isfandiyar with an arrow, Timurid Herat, Afghanistan, circa 1425-26 (text and illustration) Provenance: Former collection of Emile Tabbagh. This lot is part of a set of eight pages from the Majma' al-Tawarikh of Sultan Shahrukh presented in this sale. For more information, see the PDF catalogue. ______________________________ Eight pages of the Majma' al-Tawarikh of Sultan Shahrukh from the collection of Emile Tabbagh The eight pages presented here are from a major manuscript produced in Herat in the Timurid workshops of Sultan Shahrukh (r. 1405-47), successor to the founder of the dynasty, Timur (1336-1405). Entitled Majma' al-Tawarikh ("The Assembly of Stories"), this Universal History is a dynastic project that establishes the legitimacy of Shahrukh, the fourth son of Timur, to whom he was not the heir apparent. The manuscript has a complex history, both in terms of its production in Shahrukh's scriptorium (kitabkhana) and its critical fortune in the twentieth century, when numerous illustrations were added to the manuscript shortly before its arrival in the United States around 1926, presumably in Iran, in an attempt to deceive art lovers. The manuscript was divided between 1928 and 1933 by the dealer and collector Émile Tabbagh, its owner with Parish Watson. It is now widely dispersed in international public and private collections. These eight pages were donated by the descendants of Émile Tabbagh (d. 1934). Other pages are in the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, etc. Through its additions, then its almost immediate division and dispersal between 1928 and 1935, the Majma' al-Tawarikh manuscript embodies the history of the Islamic art market in the early 20th century. The Majma' al-Tawarikh is a Universal History from the Prophets of the Old Testament to the Reign of Shahrukh written by the historian Hafiz-i Abru (d. 1430). Two illustrated manuscripts survive today: one is autograph and is kept in the library of the Topkapi Sarayi Palace, Istanbul (Hazine 1653), the other, from which our folios are taken, is a copy dating from the same years, and is now dispersed. Both copies bear the seal of the Kitabkhana of Shahrukh... See the PDF catalogue for more information
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue