THE SULTAN AWAKENS THE DRUNKEN JUDGE AT DAWN, SCHOOL OF MAHMUD MUZAHHIB, CENTRAL ASIA, BUKHARA, SHAYBANID, THIRD QUARTER 16TH CENTURY

Sold in these rooms, 23 November 1976, lot 258. 

Private Collection, Switzerland.

Institute du Monde Arabe, Paris, 2001.

A. Kevorkian, Les jardins du désir: sept siècles de peinture persane, Paris, 1983, p.210.

The present miniature depicts a Sultan who, after having heard rumors that one of his chief judges was behaving improperly, decided to surprise him. He travels to the judge’s house at night on his horse (left outside the gates) and surprises him lying in the garden, drunk and attended by a youth who is offering him a cup of wine and undressing him at the same time. The reverse bears a Persian quatrain addressing a king, copied by the unrecorded Ramz ‘Ali. The composition of this scene is very close to a painting signed by Mahmud Muzahhib sold at Christie’s London, 25 April 2013, lot 26, and it is likely that both came from the same workshop. Along with the same disposition of characters and design of the scene, there are close resemblances in the poses and faces of the characters depicted, especially the Sultan, the drunken judge and the youth serving him wine.

Mahmud Muzahhib is regarded as one of the leading artists of the sixteenth-century Bukhara school; he played an important role in the establishment of the new kitabkhaneh (library-book production atelier) in the new Shaybanid capital Bukhara, following the fall of the Timurid Empire and the conquest of Samarqand in 1507.

The new kitabkhaneh and Mahmud Muzahhib were responsible for the production of the finest manuscripts and paintings of the time. He illustrated several manuscripts, most notably a copy of Jami’s Tuhfat al-Ahrar copied in 905 AH/1499-1500 AD by Sultan ‘Ali Mashhadi now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Supplement Persan 1416). He is also known for his other accomplishments in the arts of the book, and often worked in collaboration with other calligraphers, illuminators and artists. Eleven folios now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art testify to his calligraphic skills, and he is said to have once been a pupil of Mir ‘Ali (A. Sakisian, ‘Mahmud Mudhahib, miniaturiste, enlumineur et calligraphe persan’, in Ars Islamica, IV, 1937, p.339), the famous calligrapher from Herat, and together they brought the art of Bukhara to new heights.

Below is a selection of known manuscripts illustrated by Muzahhib. Although most probably a small portion of his corpus of works, each is of comparable interest. The stars indicate manuscripts which were later illustrated by him, and in some instances, it must be noted that he worked with other artists who signed paintings, or to whom early attributions exist in the same manuscript.

Jami, Tuhfat al-Ahrar, 905*, Sultan Ali Mashhadi, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Supp.Pers.1416 

Amir Khusraw Dehlawi, Qirani Sa'dayn, 925*, Muhammad Khandan, Israel Museum

Jami, Diwan, 926*, Sultan Ali Mashhadi, The New York Public Library, New York City, M&A Pers.ms.1

Nizami, Makhzan al-Asrar, 944, Mir Ali Haravi, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Supp.Pers.985

Sa'di, Bustan, 949, Mir 'Ali Harawi, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon 

Various, Rawdat al-Muhibbin, 956, Mir Ali Harawi, Salar Jung Museum, India, A.Nm.1611

Jami, Baharistan, 958, Mir Husayn al-Husayni, formerly in the collection of E. de Lorey, Paris

Sa'di, Gulistan, dispersed, 968 (?), two paintings sold at Christie’s, A Private Collection, Donated to Benefit the University of Oxford, Part II, 4 October 2012, lots 12 and 13

Sa'di, Bustan, 969-70, sold at Christie’s, A Private Collection, Donated to Benefit the University of Oxford, Part II, 4 October 2012, lot 14 

Sa'di, Bustan, 970, Mir 'Ali Harawi, Golestan Palace, Tehran, no. 2164

Jami, Yusuf wa Zulaykha, 973, Mahmud b. Ishaq, Art and History Trust, no.80

Jami, Diwan, date unknown, offered at Christie’s, A Private Collection, Donated to Benefit the University of Oxford, Part II, 4 October 2012, lot 15

Jami, Tuhfat al-Ahrar, circa 1550 AD, Mir Ali Haravi, Sackler Gallery, Washington DC, S86.0046 

Sa'di, Bustan, date unknown, Keir Collection, London, III-330-1

Sa'di, Gulistan, dispersed, 968 (?), two paintings sold at Christie’s, A Private Collection, Donated to Benefit the University of Oxford, Part III, 25 April 2013, lots 26 and 27 Sa'di, Gulistan, dispersed, mid-16th century, An illustrated and illuminated leaf from a copy of Sa’di’s Gulistan: the captured Arab robbers before the King, Sotheby’s London, 8 October 2014, lot 60