Page 100 - Indian, Himalaya and Asian Art Bonhams Setp 2015

95 (verso) 95
A FOLIO FROM YUSUF U-ZULAIKHA BY JAMI (D.1492)
Text: attributed to Mahmud b. Ishaq al-Shihabi, Safavid period, Qazvin, 1557;
Borders: Mughal, circa 1590-1610
Double-sided on gold-sprinkled paper, 14 lines in two columns of elegant nasta’liq in black ink,
double intercolumnar rules in gold, inner margins ruled in green and gold, the outer pale mauve
borders exquisitely decorated; recto with birds in flight, goat killing a snake, and cheetah
hunting deer; verso with leaf and flower scrolls.
10 3/8 x 6 in. (26.3 x 15.3 cm)
$40,000 - 60,000

The border design and execution are of superb quality, worked in gold with subtle shading.
The animation of the cheetah hunting the deer and the delicate scrollwork of the foliate
designs are the work of a master. Close comparison can be drawn to the borders of
the Sadi Gulistan album of 1525–30 (see The Stuart Carey Welch Collection, Sotheby’s,
London, 6 April 2011, lots 74-6).

Jens Kröger has extensively researched the manuscript from which this folio belongs (Kröger,
“On Mahmud b. Ishaq al-Shihabi’s Manuscript of Yüsuf va Zulaykhā of 964 (1557)”, Muqarnas,
Volume 21, 2004, p. 249):

“All aspects of this manuscript so far described would seem to indicate that the text written by
Mahmud b. Ishaq al-Shihabi was transferred from Bukhara sometime after its completion in
1557 and remargined somewhere in Mughal India—probably in the last quarter of the sixteenth
century, during the late years of Akbar’s reign, or in the first decade of the seventeenth century,
during the early reign of Jahangir. At the same time a binding was also made, now in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art (49.140a,b). Since the state of the manuscript before it reached
Mughal India is not known, one can only speculate that it had margins that were not accepted
by the new patron. According to the seals and inscriptions on the colophon folio verso,
re-margination and binding must have been completed before 1642.

“The artist who painted the margins is presently unknown, but he must have belonged to a
generation trained by Iranian artists at the Mughal court or by the pupils of this generation.
The margin paintings suggest that the manuscript, highly esteemed due to the calligraphy of
the famous Mahmud b. Ishaq al-Shihabi, was re-margined for a high-ranking patron in Mughal
India in the fascinating period when Safavid artists had already laid the foundation of the Mughal
school and the work of Iranian artists was newly appreciated and blended into the Mughal style.
Due to the numerous parallels of these margin paintings, not only with manuscript painting but
also with Mughal carpets of this period, one wonders whether there was not a kit¸b-kh¸na in
which designers worked in the arts of the book and other media as well.”

Friedrich Sarre acquired the manuscript in July 1906. It is believed to have contained 139
folios, which were dispersed in the 1940s. 55 folios entered the Museum of Islamic Art in
Berlin, including both title pages. Other folios are held in at least 6 premier Western museums
and 3 landmark private collections. See the condition report for a comprehensive list of
locations and publications.

Provenance
Rudolf Haupt, Halle/Saale, Germany, until 1906
Friedrich Sarre, Berlin, 1906-1945
Maria Sarre, Ascona, Switzerland
D.K. Kelikian, 1960s
Private Collection, USA, acquired from the above

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