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Ways of looking at a page, since MSS from Iran copied on coated & decorated Chinese paper seem to be a Twitter thing just now: Spencer Collection, Persian MS 41, ff.21b-22a, @nypl.
Colour image from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/9b67afc7-3137-580a-e040-e00a18062465
Black and white plate from Priscilla Soucek's study of this MS:
"The New York Public Library "Makhzan al-asrār" and Its Importance"
Ars Orientalis, Vol.18 (1988), pp.1-37.
Black and white plate from Priscilla Soucek's study of this MS:
"The New York Public Library "Makhzan al-asrār" and Its Importance"
Ars Orientalis, Vol.18 (1988), pp.1-37.
The text is actually Chagatai, not Persian, a series of moral essays and tales written for the Timurid prince Iskandar b. 'Umar Shaykh b.
Timur (1384–1415) by the poet known as Haydar Khwarazmi...
Timur (1384–1415) by the poet known as Haydar Khwarazmi...
... who was particularly associated with the Timurid Shah Rukh (r. 1410-1447). This manuscript though was not copied for a Timurid dynast but a young Aq Qoyonlu ruler, Yaqub ibn Hasan...
... identified on "a glittering double-page dedication, which is executed
in several tones of gold and framed with jewel-like
illumination", in Soucek's evocative description. Even in this black and white plate, you can readily imagine what she means.
in several tones of gold and framed with jewel-like
illumination", in Soucek's evocative description. Even in this black and white plate, you can readily imagine what she means.
This was virtuous bling for a boy king: completed by the scribe Sultan 'Ali on 25 Jumada I 883 AH (24 August 1478 CE), a mere six weeks after the battle in which Yaqub's supporters killed his predecessor (and brother), Khalil Sultan b. Uzun Hazan!
[Both Yaqub and Sultan Khalil (or Khalil Mirza) were sons of Uzun Hasan, under whom the Aq Qoyonlu dynasty reached its peak. Their half-sister Halima, whose mother was the Byzantine princess Despina Khatun, would be the mother of Shah Isma'il I...
... founder of the Safavid dynasty.
Six degrees of Kevin Bacon has nothing on Iran and its neighbours in the 15th century.]
Six degrees of Kevin Bacon has nothing on Iran and its neighbours in the 15th century.]
This is a small manuscript, 18 x 10.5 cm, copied on a personal scale, for all its exquisite ritz and glitz. Soucek painstakingly reconstructs the way in which its folios were formed from large sheets, painted before they were folded, trimmed, and bound.
Another instance...
... and a final example.
A small manuscript, finely finished, and curiously heavy in a reader's hands from the lead used in the paper coating. Fragmentary views of nature captured in gold on its pages. Fit for a king, in fact.
Do read Soucek's article, which has much to say on the artistic exchange and interplay between Timurid and Aq Qoyonlu courts, and is generously illustrated. If you're curious about the single miniature, you can see that in colour here: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/5e66b3e8-ef27-d471-e040-e00a180654d7
And if you're interested in the MS thread which kicked this off, see this long thread: https://twitter.com/incunabula/status/1271430163645988864?s=19
For other examples of these MSS see this blog post from @BLAsia_Africa : https://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2014/09/two-persian-ming-manuscripts-on-view-at-the-british-museum.html
N.b. this helpful comment: https://twitter.com/Jake___Benson/status/1272849922782572546?s=19
And if you want still more reading on Chinese papers in the world of Muslim MSS: https://twitter.com/DevinFitzger/status/1272913072923918337?s=19
