A FOLIO FROM HAFIZ-I ABRU'S MAJMA AL-TAWARIKH, PERSIA, HERAT, CIRCA 1425-26

Ex-collection Martin Schoyen, MS 4599.

This leaf originates from the famous illustrated copy of Hafiz-i Abru's Majma al-Tawarikh ('Universal History'). It was commissioned by the Timurid ruler Shahrukh and is a history of the world from its beginning to the middle of Shahrukh's reign (1405-47), encompassing Biblical, Iranian, Islamic and Chinese history. The work was based on Rashid al-Din's Jami' al-Tawarikh, a universal history written for the Mongol ruler Ghazan. The aim of the work was to legitimise the ruling dynasty by giving it a sound historical pedigree. The dispersed copy from which this leaf comes bears the library seal of Shahrukh himself, and was therefore presumably copied and illustrated under his instructions (Canby 1998, pp.28-30). Illustrated leaves from this manuscript are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The David Collection, Copenhagen; the collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan; the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin; the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Further leaves from this manuscript were sold in these rooms 22 April 2015, lot 124; 26 April 2017, lots 114 and 115; 7 October 2009, lot 28; 8 October 2008, lot 37; 12 October 2005, lot 27, and at Christie's 25 April 2013, lot 90 and 92, and 13 April 2010, lot 67.