Sa’in al-Din ‘Ali al-Tarkah al-Isfahani (d. circa 1431-32 AD), Risalah dar bayan-e al-mabda’ wa al-ma’ad (‘a Treatise on the Origin and the Return’), signed by Shaykh Mahmud, Persia, Aq Qoyunlu, dated 868 AH/1463 AD

Persian manuscript on polished paper, 70 leaves plus 2 flyleaves, 11 lines to the page, written in nasta'liq script in black ink, keywords picked out in gold, catchwords, f.1a with title in gold within blue-outlined medallion, f.1b with illuminated headpiece with Bismillah in white eastern Kufic against a blue ground with gold scrolls, Ottoman reddish-brown morocco binding with tooled floral medallions and cornerpieces

In generally good overall condition, binding slightly worn with spine repaired, thumbed, with occasional water stains and smudges, as viewed.
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This finely-written risalah is written in Persian, based on Sufism and is followed by a quatrain of Khwajah Nasir al-Din Tusi (d.1274 AD). The work also includes many quatrains by Khwajah Afzal al-Din Qashani (known as Baba Afzal Kashani, d. circa 1213-14 AD), all related to the past and future.

The scribe Shaykh Mahmud is recorded by Bayani as a pupil of Ja’far Baysunghuri and who wrote in nasta’liq as well as the Six Styles. He first worked at the court of the Qara Qoyunlu Pir Budaq Ibn Jahan Shah and often signed as ‘Shaykh Mahmud Pir Budaqi’, later joining the Aq Quyunlu court of Sultan Ya’qub Ibn Uzun Hasan (a letter of his to Ya’qub can be found in the Topkapi Palace Library). His recorded works are dated between 858 AH/1454-55 and 877 AH/1472-73 and were copied mainly in Shiraz, but also in Baghdad and Savah (Mehdi Bayani, vol.3, pp.891-4). Bayani gives the date 894 AH/1488-89 AD) for his latest, but the work is not included in his list. A further Aq Qoyunlu manuscript, copied in fine nasta'liq by the court calligrapher 'Abd al-Rahim al-Ya'qubi, was sold in these rooms, 22 April 2015, lot 69.