KAMAL AL-DIN HUSAIN BIN ALI AL-KASHIFI, KNOWN AS HUSAIN VA'IZ KASHIFI. MAWAHIB AL-'ALIYYA (A COMMENTARY ON THE QUR'AN, KNOWN AS TAFSIR-I HUSAINI), COPIED BY KAMAL AL-DIN HUSAIN AL-HAFIZ AL-HARAVI AT MECCA DATED 955 AH/1548-9 AD

This is an important and very fine copy of one of the most famous commentaries on the Qur'an, that of Husain Va'iz Kashifi, copied at Mecca by the royal Safavid scribe Kamal al-Din Husain al-Haravi, quite possibly for Shah Tahmasp himself.

The author of the text, the scholar and poet Husain Va'iz Kashifi, was born at Bayhak in Khurasan and during his lifetime lived at Nishapur, Mashhad and Herat, where his patrons were the Timurid prince Sultan Husain Baiqara and his famous vizier Ali Shir Nava'i. He was renowned as a very eloquent preacher with a beautiful voice. As well as the present text, his works include: Anvar-i Suhaili,  Rawdhat al-Shuhada, Jawahir al-Tafsir li-Tuhfat al-Amir and Akhlak-i Muhsini. He died in 1504 in Herat.

His present work, the Mawahib al-'Aliyya, also known as the Tafsir-i Husaini, is a commentary on the Qur'an dedicated to his patron Ali Shir Nava'i, and completed in 899 AH/1494 AD. Over the centuries it has proved to be one of the most popular Qur'anic commentaries, being translated into several other languages including Turkish, Hindi and Pashtu, and it was the specific  commentary referred to by the European scholar Erpenius (d. 1624) in his Arabic grammar, printed at Leiden in 1617 and again in 1656.

The scribe Kamal al-Din Husain al-Haravi, known as vahid al-'ayn (the one-eyed), was born in Herat and spent time in Qum, Mashhad and at the royal court at Tabriz under the patronage of Shah Tahmasp (r.1524-76). The well-known treatise of Qadi Ahmad of 1606 describes him thus:
"Hafiz Kamal al-Din Husayn Vahid al'Ayn (the "One-eyed") was a native of Herat. He wrote good nasta`liq, combined the "six" scripts, and was an expert in diluting lapis lazuli. From Korasan he came to (Persian) Iraq where he lived for some time in Qum. He was a good reader of the Qor'an. From Qum he went to the royal camp (court). He was offered the post of reader of the Qor'an, but replied: "Reading does not become me". He was a humble darvish. Shah Tahmasp bestowed upon him a tent, a horse, a camel, harness and equipment, but he did not accept them and was not tempted. He dressed in felt and travelled on foot. He possessed great experience in the science of the philosopher's stone. From Iraq he returned again to Khorasan and died in Mashhad in 964/1556-7". (Minorsky 1959, p.152).
To this biography can now be added the fact that he was in the Hijaz in 1548-49, based on the colophon of the present manuscript. Other recorded works by him are a copy of the Sayings of 'Ali, executed at Mashhad in 933/1536-7, in the Gulistan Library, Tehran; two undated album pages, one in the Gulistan Library, Tehran, the other in the Khazina Library, Istanbul; an inscription in thuluth script in the Friday Mosque of Isfahan, dated 938/1531-2.

The present manuscript is very important and of very high quality. Calligraphically it is unusual, firstly because the scribe has written the whole text in nasta`liq script, an extrememly rare choice for a Qur'anic text, and secondly because he has chosen to differentiate the actual text of the Qur'an from that of the commentary by writing all the Qur'anic text in gold throughout, and that of the commentary in black. It is also unusual because, although it is written and illuminated in the typical mid-sixteenth century court style of the Safavids, the colophon tells us that it was executed at Mecca. Manuscripts written at Mecca are relatively rare, and the majority of surviving ones are of Mamluk or Ottoman stylistic origin. Some clues to the Meccan association of this fine Safavid manuscript lie perhaps in a legend concerning the scribe Kamal al-Din Husain. It was reported that, when Kamal al-Din arrived at court the Shah asked him to sing, but the scribe declined (surely a version of the story mentioned by Qadi Ahmad (see above) in which he declines the post of Qur'an reader to the Shah). The Shah apparently warmed to him, appreciating his honesty and openness, and gave him a horse, a tent, a camel and harness, but he declined these too (again, see similar episode described above). This displeased the Shah, who told him that he would forgive him only if a Qur'an written in gold nasta`liq script, copied in the Holy City of Mecca, was presented to him. Kamal al-Din therefore travelled to Mecca and stayed there for five years, during which time he completed the writing of the text of the Qur'an and Tafsir in nasta`liq. On his return he presented the manuscript to Shah Tahmasp and was forgiven.

The present work, although a commentary on the Qur'an, does of course contain the entire text of the Qur'an, and the Qur'anic text here is written in gold nast`liq throughout, thus effectively becoming a Qur'an written in gold nasta`liq (just what the Shah ordered), within a manuscript of the Tafsir. It is enticing to associate the present manuscript with this legend of Shah Tahmasp and Kamal al-Din, and certainly the quality and refinement of the manuscript is of a level that would befit a royal commission. Another relevant context of the possible royal connection is that the 1540s was the period in which Shah Tahmasp is widely considered to have become increasingly religious, abandoning his interests in and patronage of Persian miniature painting in favour of a more pious outlook. The commissioning of a finely illuminated copy of one of the central religious texts of Islam – that of the commentary on the Qur'an, especially one authored by a revered scholar – executed at Mecca, would fit emphatically into this context of Shah Tahmasp's growing religious interest. Thus the legend described above may have a basis in real historical episodes.

Further reading and references:
Bayani, vol.I, pp.168-9, vol.iv, p.53; Irani 1346, p.150; Atabay 1353, p.245; Atabay 1352, pp.870-1.