FIVE LEAVES OF TEXT FROM THE FAMOUS "INJU SHAHNAMA", THREE L - Lot 8

FIVE LEAVES OF TEXT FROM THE FAMOUS "INJU SHAHNAMA", THREE LEAVES FROM A TEXT BY HAFIZ-I ABRU, PROBABLY THE MAJMA' AL-TAWARIKH, AND OTHER LEAVES FROM MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS Shiraz, Iran, c. 741 H / 1341; Herat, Afghanistan, c. 1420 Persian manuscripts on paper, the five leaves of the Inju Shahnama with 30 ll. of naskh per page arranged in six columns, red titles, red and blue jadval, one leaf used as a painter's palette; three leaves of a Historical Chronicle by Hafiz-i Abru, probably the Majma' al-tawarikh, plus a half leaf, 33 ll. of naskh per page, red and blue jadval; five Chinese or Central Asian Qur'anic leaves from the 14th or 15th century in Muhaqqaq calligraphy close to sini; and three fragments of leaves from a large Ottoman Qur'an. Fragmentary, damaged, . Leaves 36.5 x 28 cm; text panel 28.5 x 24 cm (Inju Shahnama): 37.5 x 26 cm and 33.2 x 22 cm (second text). The five leaves with text in six columns in red rules most probably come from a Shahnama injuid manuscript, dated 741 H / 1341. The script and dimensions of the text panels are identical. The colophon of this manuscript, on a leaf preserved at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, tells us that it was copied in Shiraz for the injuid vizier Hasan Qavam al-Daula va al-Din. The copyist was Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn `Ali ibn (?) Husaini, known as al-Mawsili. Several illustrated leaves are held in international public and private collections. See for example 86.227.133 at the Brooklyn Art Museum; CBL Per 110 at the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin; AKM32 at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto; 13/1990 and 32/1999, two leaves at the David Collection, Copenhagen, and other collections. Three other large leaves come from a famous scattered manuscript of historical chronicles, composed by Hafiz-i Abru around 1425 at the request of the Timurid ruler Shah Rukh. The author produced several versions of these chronicles, inspired by Rashid al-Din's Ilkhanid text. Several pages are published in Court and Cosmos, The Great Age of the Seljuqs, exhibition catalog, New Haven and London, 2016; cat.2a-c, pp.48-49. Provenance: Galerie R.G. Michel in 1912. Then Michel Collection (1880-1963). Then by descent. Then Collection P.