AN IMPORTANT GENEALOGY OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD, PROBABLY LEVANT, MAMLUK PERIOD, CIRCA 14TH CENTURY

Estimate

60,000 - 80,000 GBP

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Description

vellum

Illuminated Arabic manuscript on paper, 35 leaves, folio 1a illuminated with a full-page panel containing three wide and three narrow horizontal registers of scrolling foliate motifs (probably the left half of an original double page frontispiece), opening double page of text (ff.1b-2a) with three lines per page of large, bold muhaqqaq script in gold with interstices of letters infilled with black, text pages with a central horizontal line of large gold script extending across double pages, surrounded by smaller text written vertically, diagonally and horizontally in red and brown ink in a neat scholar's naskhi hand, small rosettes between phrases, folio 31a with a fictitious attribution to Ali Ibn Hilal (Ibn Al-Bawwab), final pages of text with upto 45 lines per page of neat, small script written horizontally in brown ink, final page of text (f.35b) written in a different but still medieval scholar's hand, folio 32a with a large rectangular panel of illumination, contemporary Mamluk brown morocco covers stamped and tooled in blind and gold, repaired and set into modern brown leather, with flap

Catalogue Note

This is an interesting, rare and important copy of the genealogy of the Prophet Muhammad.

The exact origins of the manuscript are puzzling and intriguing. The calligraphic display of large, gold script and the illumination are of a distinctly Mamluk type, perhaps veering towards the Syrian Mamluk style, as are the stamped and tooled leather covers (which may be original, or are at least contemporary). However, the text towards the end of the manuscript, and certain added notes earlier in the text, have Shi'a connotations. This is curious because the Mamluk empire was a Sunni one. However, there were areas under Mamluk control in the Levant and Syria where significant Shi'a communities existed. It is thus possible that the present manuscript was produced in that region, during the Mamluk period, employing an essentially Syrian Mamluk style of decoration, for a Shi'a patron.

The ascription on folio 31a to Ali Ibn Hilal (Ibn al-Bawwab - the famous Abbasid scribe and calligraher who flourished circa 1000 AD), is entirely fictitious and added later.