2022 - Attribution of an Anonymous Qasida Appended to the First Redaction of the Siyar al-Muluk: Stylometry Results, in: Fruit of Knowledge, Wheel of Learning. Essays in Honour of Carole and Robert Hillenbrand. Ed. by Ali M. Ansari and M. Gibson, in 2 vls. (London: Gingko Library, 2022) (original) (raw)
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10 The Nizāmī Manuscript of Shāh Tahmāsp: A Reconstructed History
A Key to the Treasure of the Hakim
This essay will focus on a single manuscript of Nizāmī's Khamsa and will present the historical, literary, and artistic issues which arise from its study and examination. 1 In conformity with the aims of this publication, comments will be made about the implications of these findings for the reception of Nizāmī's poetry in Safavid Iran. That manuscript, Or. 2265, in the British Library, is justly famous as one of the most beautiful in the library's rich collection. 2 Its seventeen illustrations are the principal source of this high reputation. These have been published and republished to the point that they are among the most widely known specimens of Safavid painting. Scholarly attention has been directed principally toward their attribution to particular painters. 3 A question which has been raised several times is whether five singlepage pictures, now in various public and private collections, were intended for inclusion in Or. 2265. Four closely resemble its sixteenth-century paintings and a fifth has close ties with its mid-seventeenth century ones. One carries no text but is believed to illustrate a theme connected with the story of Laylī and Majnūn; another is inscribed with verses from Nizāmī's Khusraw u Shīrīn. A drawing in a closely related style illustrates an episode from the Haft Paykar, and a fourth painting showing an urban setting has also sometimes been connected with Or. 2265. 4 Additionally, a painting signed by Muhammad Zamān and dated to 1085/1676 which depicts "Majnūn in the Wilderness" bears a strong resemblance to the three paintings of the same date in Or. 2265, two of which also bear his signature. A. Welch has suggested that Muhammad Zamān produced these paintings for a seventeenth-century refurbishment of Or. 2265 during which the sixteenth-century single-page paintings mentioned above were removed from the manuscript. 5 Another aspect of Or. 2265 which has attracted attention is its lacquer-painted binding bearing a depiction of the Qajar ruler, Fath Alī Shāh and his sons at the hunt. This painted binding is believed to have been produced ca. 1825. 6 To date, most studies of Or. 2265's paintings have been conducted without reference to their connection with the remainder of the manuscript to which they belong. This circumstance has prevented a clear understanding
A Scribal School of Forgers in "Hamadān"
Rivista degli Studi Orientali, 2022
In this article it is argued that the Old Persian inscriptions labelled AmH, AsH, D2Ha, D2Hb, A2Hc and A1I are all modern forgeries, whose production was inspired by the discovery of the genuine inscription DHa, published in 1926. First, an overview of the known information concerning the alleged finding of these objects is offered, pointing out that all the previous attempts to provide a historically plausible reconstruction of their original location and function are unconvincing or selfcontradictory. Subsequently, it is shown that all these inscriptions share some palaeographic features which are otherwise unattested in the corpus of authentic Old Persian inscriptions. Instead, these features only appear in some modern manuals available to the public in the years when these objects were reportedly found, which constitutes crucial evidence against their authenticity.
Presenting a state-of-the-art overview of the diverse and dynamic field of Islamic manuscript studies, the purpose of this volume is to look at what has been achieved and what has yet to be done, on the occasion of the retirement of Professor J.J. Witkam from the Chair of Codicology and Palaeography of the Islamic World at Leyden University. The 20 articles contained in this volume were specially prepared by leading international scholars in their respective fields. Included are studies of specific texts of various genres, manuscript traditions, writing and scribal practice, writing materials, libraries and collections as well as cataloguing initiatives past and present. Taken together, they form a concise compendium which shows the importance of the often-neglected study of primary sources and their traditions. As such the book is both a necessary and welcome addition to the library of any serious scholar or student working in the fields of Oriental and Islamic studies.
THE BAYSUNGHURI MANUSCRIPT IN THE MALEK NATIONAL LIBRARY
Shahnama Studies III: The Reception of the Shahnama, 2018
There are two known Shahnama manuscripts commissioned by the Timurid prince, Baysunghur. The more famous is preserved in the Tehran Golestan Palace Library, Ms. 716; the less well known is in the library of Malek Museum, Ms. 6031. The latter is combined with another work of poetry, the Khamsa of Nizami. Both manuscripts are dated AH 833/AD 1430. The Malek manuscript has not attracted much scholarly attention and doubts have been expressed about its authenticity as a product of Baysunghur’s library, particularly concerning the two illustrations that are inserted in between the two books of poetry and on two sides of a single folio. This article explores the question whether the Malek manuscript was produced and illustrated in Baysunghur’s library and discusses the provenance of the work. A thorough description of the Malek manuscript, compared where appropriate with the Golestan copy, leads to the conclusion that both texts do indeed have the same origin, but that the Malek manuscript’s illustrations cannot date from earlier than the second half of the 19th century.
AN ILLUMINATING SCRIBE: THE ʿARZA-DASHT OF JAʿFAR BĀYSUNGHURĪ AND ITS WEALTH OF INFORMATION
Scribal Habits in Near Eastern Manuscript Traditions, 2020
Our knowledge of royal libraries is even less than our knowledge of their artists and is limited to information found in a few art-historical sources and tazkiras. Exceptionally, an art-historical document, written in 830/1427 and entitled the ʿArża-dāsht, gives us unique insights into the production progress of Persian manuscripts at the atelier of the Timurid Prince Baysunghur (1399-1433) in Herat. This single folio provides rare evidence of the artistic activities and operation of a Timurid workshop and offers a wealth of tantalising information, including the speed and sequence of manuscript production.