Sa'adi (d.1292 AD), Kulliyat, signed by Na’im al-Din al-Katib, Persia, Shiraz, Timurid, dated 890 AH/1486 AD and 899 AH/1494 AD

Persian manuscript on polished paper, 511 leaves plus 3 flyleaves, 18 to 19 lines to the page, written in small nasta'liq script in black ink, approximately 24 leaves later replaced, occasional words in blue, red and gold, catchwords, margins ruled in gold, red and blue, f.1a with illuminated shamsa followed by double page finely-illuminated frontispiece decorated with a dense ground of interlacing split-palmettes and scrolling flowers in colours and gold, text within cloud bands against a hatched ground sprinkled with flowers, gold strapwork borders, 8 further illuminated headings (1 later replacement) plus numerous title panels in colours and gold, colophon embellished with leafy flowers, fine red morocco binding with gilt-stamped central medallions and corner pieces filled with a rigorous interlace of flowerheads and split palmettes, filigree-work doublures against blue grounds, with flap

In good overall condition, approximately 24 later replacement leaves, including one heading, illumination fine and bright, colours vivid, occasional water stains, 2 leaves badly disintegrated requiring conservation, f1a originally RH page but moved to current position (in antiquity) and turned upside down, minor scuffs to binding and minor losses to doublure filigree-work, as viewed.
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The manuscript includes Sa’adi’s entire work with the addition of the preface by ‘Ali ibn Bistun who gives two dates for the arrangements of Sa’adi’s work as 726 AH/1325-26 AD and the end of Rajab 734 AH/1334 AD.

The manuscript is dated twice: once at the end of Bustan (titled Sa’di-nameh) 18 Rabi’ II 899 (26 January 1494 AD) and at the end of the text, late in Dhi’l-hijjah 890 (early January 1486 AD). It shows Na’im al-Din copied different parts of the Kulliyat at different times and that it took him at least nine years to complete this manuscript. This same practice can be seen in a Khamsa of Nizami in the al-Sabah Collection in Kuwait, also by his hand (see Adamova & Bayani, Persian Painting, The Arts of the Book and Portraiture, 2015, pp.294-7, cat.21).

Na’im al-Din is known through his numerous recorded work dated between 886 AH/1481-82 and 915 AH/1509-10 AD that inform us that he was a son of Sadr al-Din Hafiz and that he worked in Shiraz (for more on him, his family and his recorded work, see ibid). Another fine copy of Sa'adi's Kulliyat, also signed by Na’im al-Din and complete with binding of comparable quality to the present example, is in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (see Richard 1997, p.114, no.75).