Page 218 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

The brass stand, piece-cast and with an applied
copper ring, is also graduated but is a later
replacement. It is held together below the base
by a half-melon shaped screw with a loop below,
probably for a plumb-line. J.M.R.

114
THE CONSTELLATIONS CENTAUROS
AND THERAN (Lupus)

from Kitab Suwar al-Kawakib al-thabita (Book of the
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Fixed Stars) by Abd al-Rahmdn al-Sufi
i$th century
probably Timurid, Herat
247 folios, 74 illustrations in black line,
colored washes and gold, text in Arabic, written in a
spidery elongated nashkl, 13 lines to a page on
yellowish unwatermarked paper
2
6
23.5 x 16.5 (9*74 x /2J
references: Ivanov 1977; Paris 1990
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, MS Arabe 5036, fol.
2386

Al-Sufi composed the Book of the fixed Stars
around 960 for the Buyid sultan of Iran, Azudud-
dawla. The text derives ultimately from Ptolemy's
Almagest of the second century A.D., but in early
versions of al-Sufi, such as the manuscript in the
Bodleian Library of 1009-1010, the Muslim artists
reinterpreted the classical celestial iconography.
The dedication and colophon of this copy state
that it was ordered for the library of Ulugh Beg;
this is generally thought to be the grandson of
Tamerlane who was killed in 1448, although, as is
discussed below, it could also have been a later
Timurid ruler with the same name.
The book is a catalogue of the fixed stars —
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together with depictions of the circumpolar con- date, or the place of writing, and may conceivably 4. wa'l- ard wa mu'dhat zilal dawlatihi mamduda
stellations of the northern and southern hemi- have been booty worked up to the standards of a wa'1-ghassan
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spheres and the zodiac. Despite its fairly careful Timurid prince. Alternatively, a manuscript that 5. ashjar uzmatihi ghayr ma duda sultan aqd
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layout, with narrower panels of text at the end of was not ready for the library of Ulugh Beg may LQ I'D TNA
each section, this volume was very probably not have been appropriated, and a dedicatory medal- 6. sar-idaqat mimrnatihi la lukhsa wa umud
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a fair copy. The text contains numerous passages lion (la) and a colophon (247a), and grand titles c urush rif atihi la yuqsa
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crossed out with corrections added in the margins, for the sections and illustrations, or at least the 7. alim nata ij ilmihi bi'l-a mal al-sahha
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as well as omissions made good by the copyist. coloring added to make it suitable. The disparity mujtam uhu adil
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There is no illumination: the heading of folio ib between the fine illustrations and the carelessly 8. a lam imanihi fi basa'it al- alam man/min
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is, for example, blank, and the headings of each written text is otherwise difficult to explain. taf uhu al-Sultan Ulugh Beg
section in bolder script when present vary from Compass points are in red or blue, while the stars 9. Gurkan khallada mulkuhu. Amm
the grand to the banal. At what point the illustra- in the figures that belong to other constellations Normally such a medallion would have been on an
tions were added is difficult to say, but space was (kharij al-sura) are clearly shown in red. illuminated ground or surrounded by illumination.
clearly left for them, generally on two sides of Folio la bears an ex libris composed of nine The colophon folio 247a also bears a dedication
the same folio, but the larger on facing pages, and lines of rounded script in gold with many unor- to the library of Zahir al-Dawla wa'1-Dunya waT-
in exceptional cases a double page was allotted thodox ligatures, in some respects approaching Din Ulugh Beg, though this titulature is much
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for them. ta liq. It reads, partly conjecturally: simpler. A marginal note in a nasta liq hand, stat-
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The history of the book is unclear. The dedica- 1. Bi-rasm khizanat al-Sultan al-a zam ing that the text and illustrations are from types
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tion and colophon state that the book was ordered 2. wa'1-Khaqan al- afkham mawla muluk al- arab determined by Ibn al-Sufi (that is, the copyist of
for the library of the Timurid ruler of Samarkand, wa'1-turk the Bodleian manuscript) but that the revisions
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Ulugh Beg, who was killed in 1448. The manu- 3. wa'l- ajam zill Allah fi'l-ard al-mamlu' fiha and the numerical tables incorporated into the
script contains no indication of the scribe, the c adlan bi'l-tul text by Khwaja Naslr al-Tusi have been respected,
EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 21/