Page 219 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

could well be later fifteenth-century in date and Herati artists working for him there. It could well little in common with that copy; many of the
could therefore be attributable to Ulugh Beg's be that the dedications were added for him rather illustrations (including that of Centaurus) are so
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Astronomer Royal, All Qushji, who ended his than for the grandson of Tamerlane. close to the Bodleian al-Sufi manuscript of 1009-
life as the astronomer attached to the Mosque of In the opening exhibited here, Centauros grasps 1010 A.D. as to suggest that it or a common proto-
Ayasofya in Istanbul. Blochet's attribution of this Therion (Lupus) in the form of a crouching type was on hand when the present manuscript
manuscript to Samarkand c. 1437 is based merely panther [al-Sab ] by the hind legs. The man's face, was illustrated. This seems all the more likely in
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on the fact that Ulugh Beg's observatory was in profile, is grotesque. The club shaft is dissoci- that al-Sufi's manual remained for centuries a
located there and the height of its activity was ated into three slim stems, the head being three standard work for any well-equipped observatory
probably around 1437. Although Samarkand has serrated palmate leaves. His tunic is short-sleeved library in Islam and this may have led to the
been claimed by various authors as a center of with an undervest creased at the wrists, with a remarkable diversity of local illustrative tradi-
manuscript illustration under the Timurids or narrow collar splayed out. Therion has two dark tions. It is also clear that the marked disparity
even earlier, these claims have been systematically rings round the bushy tip of its tail. The head- between the skeleton of component stars and the
demolished by A. A. Ivanov (Ivanov 1977). Sig- dress, the palmate leaves, the horse's tail and mane, elaborate complete illustrations were an incite-
nificantly, the manuscript bears neither the seal of and the right arm of the man have very little to do ment to innovation and variation of detail. J.M.R.
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Ulugh Beg nor that of his son Abd al'Latif, who with the stars of the constellation. Apart from the
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also had astronomical interests, nor of Abu Sa id, color and wash the figure is remarkably close to
Ulugh Beg's successor as ruler of Samarkand. the Bodleian manuscript.
Instead it bears the seal of Muhammad Sultan Much has been made of the chinoiserie ele- ^5
(d. 1452), the son of Baysunqur and governor of ments in the illustrations of this manuscript.
Central Iran (Pars). Later the manuscript was These are attributed to the close relations between North Italian artist
at Herat under Husayn Bayqara and is believed the early Timurids and their Ming contemporaries SAGITTARIUS AND CAPRICORN
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to have reached Istanbul with his son Badi al- in China, who had such a pronounced effect on
Zaman Mirza following the Ottoman sack of painting and drawing at the courts of Tabriz and from Hyginus, Astronomica
Tabriz in September 1514. Ivanov states that it Shiraz. However, in contrast to works illustrated c. 1480-1500
bears the seal of the Topkapi Sarayi Library, but for Iskandar Sultan (d. 1414) at Shiraz, the chi- manuscript on vellum, 80 fols.
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this does not appear to be the case. It was acquired noiserie elements are not particularly like the 23.5x15 (5>V4*5 /sj
for the Bibliotheque Nationale in Cairo. The Chinese fabulous fauna. They may trail cloud or references: London 1933, 123-124, no. 60, pis. 35-
presence of the seal of Muhammad Sultan, who flame scrolls, but the Mongol chinoiserie of Nasir 36; De Ricci 1935-1940, 2:1341, no. 28; Baltimore
expelled Ulugh Beg from Herat after his brief al-Dm Tusi's autograph translation of al-Sufi Museum of Art 1949, 69, no. 189, pi. 73
occupation of the city in 1448, may suggest that it (Siileymaniye Library, Istanbul, Ayasofya MS The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and
came into his hands as booty there; and indeed, 2595) is much more striking. Not only does the Tilden Foundations, Spencer Collection, MS 28, fols.
stylistically speaking, there would be no incon- manuscript offered to Ulugh Beg's library exhibit 52v and 5jr
gruity in supposing that the manuscript was writ-
ten and illustrated there. Further evidence, of a
negative kind, is that the illustration of the auto-
graph of Nasir al-Din Tusi's Persian translation of
al-Sufi (now Istanbul, Siileymaniye Library, MS
Ayasofya 2595), dated 1249-1250, which came
into Ulugh Beg's hands from the library of Sultan
Ahmad Jala'ir (killed 1410), would have made a
second illustrated copy for his library superfluous.
In any case the illustrations in the present book
are clearly not copied from it.
If the copy was made at Herat, when were the
ex libris and the colophon added to it? The written
text suggests that a rough draft, rather than a fair
copy, was illustrated, and it is quite possible that
the dedications were added some considerable
time later. Ivanov remarks that Ulugh Beg's laqab
is given here only in the colophon and as Zahir
al-Dawla wal-Dunya wa'l-Din, whereas his
attested laqab was Mughith al-Dunya wa'l-Dm.
This may well be an indication that it was added
somewhere outside Ulugh Beg's domains, by a
scribe unfamiliar with his Chancery titulature,
and the markedly unofficial titles of the ex-libris
certainly bear that out. Ivanov also notes that a
second Timurid ruler by the name of Ulugh Beg
was ruler of Kabul from 1469 to 1502. Though his
laqab is not known, a finely illustrated Shahname
made for him around 1500, volume in of a set of
four, has recently come to light (compare Paris
1990) and is clear proof of the abilities of the

2l8 CIRCA 1492