MUHYI AL-DIN LARI (D.1526/27), FUTUH AL-HARAMAYN, PERSIA OR NORTH INDIA, SAFAVID OR MUGHAL, 16TH/17TH CENTURY
Auction Closed
June 10, 06:00 PM GMT
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
MUHYI AL-DIN LARI (D.1526/27), FUTUH AL-HARAMAYN, PERSIA OR NORTH INDIA, SAFAVID OR MUGHAL, 16TH/17TH CENTURY
Persian manuscript on paper, 47 leaves plus 2 fly-leaves, 15 lines to the page, written in nasta’liq in black ink, text divided into two columns, the outer margins dense with diagonal nasta’liq, ruled in gold and blue, f.1b with an illuminated headpiece, containing 17 illustrations including two full-page depicting Mecca and Medina, in brown binding with a central gilt oval-stamped medallion
20.8 by 12.5cm.
Written by Muhyi al-Din Lari in India in 1505-06 for the Gujarati sovereign Muzaffar Shah II (r.1511-26), the Futuh al-haramayn is a guidebook to the Holy cities of Mecca and Medina and explains the rituals of the Hajj. The text was prolifically copied in the sixteenth and seventeenth century in mainly Persia, India and Mecca.
The current illustration of Mecca has only six minarets (the seventh was added by the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman in 1565-66), making this copy either from the first half of sixteenth century or based on a similarly dated manuscript. A Safavid copy dated 990 AH/1582 AD was sold in these rooms, 20 April 2016, lot 17. Another contemporaneous version, copied in Mecca, is now in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, London (inv.no.MSS1038, published in Rogers 2010, p.250).