Lot n° 181
Estimation :
1000 - 1200
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 8 960EUR
Page from Hafiz-i Abru's Majma' al-Tawarikh:... - Lot 181 - Ader
Page from Hafiz-i Abru's Majma' al-Tawarikh: History of the Fatimid Caliph al-Zahir li-Din i'llah (1005-1036)
Text: Herat, Afghanistan, Timurid period, ca. 1425; illustration, ca. 1900-1925, probably Iran
Persian manuscript on brown "Herati" paper, the title of the chapter on the Fatimid caliph in large red thuluth, the text in black naskh in red and blue rules, the reverse with 33 lines of text, part of the text later replaced by the illustration depicting two sinister figures seated on either side of a bouquet, advertisement, inventory number '10385'.
Page size: 42 x 33.1 cm; view: 33.5 x 22.5 cm; painting: 13 x 22.5 cm
Stains, soiling. One fold. Illustration added around 1900-25.
The text deals with the Fatimid caliph al-Zahir li-Din Allah (1005-1036) and 'Ali bin Ahmad al-Jarjarani who was vizier from 1027 to 1045. The text mentions the years AH 395/1004-05 and AH 483/1090-91. The script is clearly that of the scribe of group H as defined by Ghiasian, which is found on the brown folios of the scattered manuscript (Ghiasian, op.cit., p.71).
A folio from the Majma' al-Tawarikh of Hafiz-i Abru: Chapter on the Fatimid Caliph al-Zahir li-Din Allah (1005-36), Text: Herat, Afghanistan, Timurid Period, circa 1425-26; illustration circa 1900-1925, probably painted in Iran
Provenance: Former Émile Tabbagh collection.
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.
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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
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