Page 28 - Bonhams, Indian and Himalayan Art New York July 23, 2020

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A DOUBLE-SIDED ILLUMINATED FOLIO FROM A MANUSCRIPT
OF JAMI’S YUSUF VA ZULAYKHA
THE CALLIGRAPHY BY MAHMUD BIN ISHAQ AL-SHIHABI, BUKHARA,
CENTRAL ASIA, 964 AH/1557 CE
THE BORDERS ADDED IN MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 1590-1610
Ink and gold on paper; each side with 14 lines written in fine nasta’liq script in two columns
of black and red ink, borders of buff paper finely decorated in gold with animals and birds in
landscape settings (recto) and floral scrolls (verso).
Folio: 9 1/8 x 5 7/8 in. (23.2 x 14.9 cm);
Text area: 5 1/8 x 2 7/8 in. (13 x 7.3 cm)
$30,000 - 50,000
This folio is from a finely executed manuscript of Yusuf va Zulaykha of the Persian poet Jami
(d.1492). The manuscript was produced at Bukhara in 1557 and later found its way to Mughal
India, where the ravishing gold-decorated borders were added in the final decade of the
16th century, or, more likely, the first decade of the 17th century. The borders can be related
stylistically and in terms of quality to those of the well-known Farhang-i Jahangiri, the lexicon
produced for Emperor Jahangir in 1608, and a royal Shahnama/Garshaspnama, also made for
Jahangir about the same time.

The manuscript was acquired in 1906 by Friedrich Sarre, the well-known German art historian
and collector, from the German book dealer Rudolph Haupt. It was dispersed after Sarre’s
death in the mid-20th century. However, some folios must have become separated before
that, as several in museums in the United States were acquired in the 1930s. Fifty-five folios,
including the colophon page and opening illumination, are in the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin,
while numerous folios are in other collections worldwide, including the Freer Gallery of Art,
Washington DC, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the
Brooklyn Museum, and the David Collection, Copenhagen. Many were in the collection of Dr.
Jacob Hirsch and were sold in the years following his death in 1955.

Provenance
Written in Bukhara in 1557, probably for the Shaybanid ruler
In the Mughal royal library under Shah Jahan, mid 17th century (seal impressions in the parent
manuscript)
Rudolph Haupt, book dealer, Germany, before 1906
Collection of Friedrich Sarre (1865-1945), Germany
Dikran Kelekian, New York, 1970s
Private Collection, acquired from the above, 1970s/early 1980s

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