Page 29 - 2021 April 1, ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs, Christie's London

was compiled by Allah Nur in the 17th century, whilst Miran Husayn Shah (d.
1669 AD) translated it into Dakhni Urdu (A. Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions
of Islam, Chapel Hill, 1975, p.296).
Abu’l-Makarim bin ‘Ali al-Murshidi, who copied this manuscript, was a
court calligrapher active in mid-fifteenth century Iran under Uzun Hassan
(r.1457-78) and Sultan Yaqub (r.1478-90). Our manuscript, which is dated
1461-2 AD is the earliest recorded dated work of Murshidi and may well have
been executed for the royal library of Sultan Uzun Hassan. Only four other
works by our scribe our known – a Qasida al-Burda dated AH 873/1468
AD, a Qur’an dated AH 875/1470 AD, now in the Topkapi Saray Museum
Library (TSM inv.no.K.13), a 15th century Dua al-Usbuiyya (Prayers for the
days of the week)which sold Sotheby’s, London, 24 April 2013, lot 12 and
another copy of the Tamhidat dated AH 867, just one year after ours, is in
the Hagia Sophia library (inv.no.1842). The opening illuminated bifolio of
our manuscript is executed in a Timurid style which bears close similarities
to the illuminated headings in an Aqquyunlu copy of Jami’s poetry signed
by the court calligrapher Fakhr al-Din Ahmad, dated AH 872/1467-8, sold
Sotheby’s, London, 24 April 2013, lot 23. The design and layout of the text
also resembles a royal Timurid Zij-I Gurkani which was prepared for Ulugh
Beg in Samarkand in around 1440 (Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian
Court, 1992, pp.67-9).
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