SPL Hand Coloured Rare Book Collection Featuring Norman R Bobins

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Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī,

The manuscript consists of 336 leaves and is complete. The first quires are made up of leaves of different colours, all others are on gold-speckled paper. Bound in contemporary lacquered boards, with painted central cartouches to boards and panels of calligraphy to the borders, an attractive copy.

Published
Persia, ca 1847
Binding/Size
M=4to
Value
0-5000
Published
Persia, ca 1847
Ref
1602

An illuminated Persian manuscript on paper from the Qagar Khorasan provenance, dated the year AH 1263 (1847 AD). 205 by 135 mm; Copied in double columns of an attractive and fine Nastaliq calligraphy, arranged on a 19-line double column and drawn in black ink with rubricated titles, and surrounded by a commentary that has been written diagonally extending outwards from the main text block. The text includes all the world of Saadi, that is, in order: 1. Golestan (leaves 1v.-57v.), 2. Bustan (58r.-144r.) followed by the 'pure' poetic compositions, subdivided by metric genre' 3. Target (144v-151r.), 4. Kebab-e Qasa id-e Farsi, namely the 'Book of the odes' (151r.-184v.), 5. Gazaliyyat, along with the Motayebat (185r-269v.), 6. Bada I (269r.-305r.), 7. Havatim (305v-391r.), 8. Gazaliyyat-e radium (319r.-336v.), which also contains the 'Quatrains.' The text is articulated in a slightly different way from the canonical distribution of the Kolliyat of Saadi. However, it respects the distributions and the consecutive order of the meters. The marginal text consists of compositions of Saadi, metrically consistent with the place they occupy in the codex. Having been considered less significant, such poems were literally marginalised; still, they have been copied in any case. This manuscript is in excellent condition. Saadi was one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period. He is not only famous in Persian-speaking countries but has also been quoted in Western sources. He is recognised for the quality of his writings and the depth of his social and moral thoughts.