Kazwini, Muhammad B. Husayn B. Abdallah. Selselanamah-e Khajagan-E Nakhsabandiyyah, A Genealogy of Nakhshabandi Scholars, Illuminated Persian Manuscript on Paper, Copied by the Derwish Huseyin al-Bosnawi, Ottoman, Turkey, Dated A.H. 978/A.D. 1570 and A.H. 981/A.D. 1573 with a Fine Later Marbled Binding

16 leaves, a maximum of 21 lines per page written in fine nasta'liq script in black ink on cream paper, an illuminated heading in colours and gold, margins ruled in blue and gold, key words, marginal annotation and textual divisions highlighted in red, key names in roundels outlined in gold or blue and gold, the Prophet Mohammad and Abu Bakr with foliate motif, these roundels connected with orange lines, contemporary binding with flap and doublures of marbled paper

In good condition, minor passages of staining, rubbing and some thumbing, as viewed.
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This Ottoman manuscript is remarkable for its elegant marbled or ebru binding. Meaning 'clouded paper' in Farsi, the ebru technique was used extensively under the Ottomans for album leaves, in calligraphy and in the binding of books, as both end papers and binding. 

The art of marbling is thought to have begun in China during the T'ang dynasty (618-907); a document dating from this period mentions a process of decorating paper using five colours in water, and whilst this is not conclusive evidence, it is nevertheless thought to mark the beginnings of the art form. The technique was then transmitted along the silk route, through Central Asia and to the Islamic lands where it was taken up with enthusiasm in Safavid Persia, Mughal India and the Deccan, and in Ottoman Turkey.  

The earliest example of Ottoman ebru is thought to be a copy of the Halnameh by the poet Arifi, completed in 1540, which features marbled paper margins. Interestingly, since the mid-nineteenth century the art of ebru has been clearly associated with the Nakhshabandi sufi order in Turkey. Sadik Effendi (d.1846) and the founder of the order in Uskudar is said to have studied the art in Bukhara and practised it in Turkey, producing large quantities of the material for the printing industry in Istanbul. Based on this, Turkish marblers have associated the art with sufis for centuries, although there is no direct evidence for this. 

This link to the sufi order is pertinent in this case, where the manuscript itself is an early genealogy of the Nakhshabandi order in an ebru binding. Although the Nakhshabandi order had its beginnings in Persia, it was in Ottoman Turkey that the order really took hold thanks to its strong sunni identity and close adherence to shari'a law. The first Ottoman nakhshabandi was Mullah 'Abd Allah Ilahi of Simav who brought the philosophy to Turkey in the late fifteenth century, less than a hundred years before this manuscript was written.