Lot 27
  • 27

Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa ('Epistles of the Brethren of Purity'), signed by Muhammad ibn 'Umar ibn Muhammad al-Khazan al-Tasri (?), half of book III and book IV, Western Persia or Anatolia, dated 683 AH/1284 AD

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • ink on paper, bound
Arabic manuscript on paper, in 2 volumes, the first 49 leaves, plus 2 flyleaves, the second 158 leaves, plus 3 flyleaves (2 detached), each 21 lines to the page, written in neat naskh script in dark brown ink, chapter headings written in large thuluth script, keywords picked out in red, vol.1 with illuminated double-page frontispiece with 2 shamsas, f.1 added in the 14th century, title information in large thuluth script against a foliated gold ground, each volume in later bindings, one cloth-covered, the other leather with simple gilt decoration

Condition

In fair overall condition, each manuscript trimmed to fit later binding, pages generally clean and ink bold, vol.1 with rubbing to opening illuminated frontispiece and splitting to f.2a with marginal paper repair and various stains, vol.2 with tear to binding coming loose, occasional water stains, marginal repairs to final folio, one of the panel of the binding of one of the two volumes detached, as viewed.
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Catalogue Note

inscriptions

f.1b: 
‘In his turn, the poor slave Alvan (Elvan) ibn ‘Ali al-Mukhlis ibn al-Shaykh Ilyas, known as Baba, may God be pleased with them and curses of the great fear and terror …[took possession of it]’

f.2a, in the roundel: 
'For the treasury of … of earthly beings, the greatest Shah of all creatures, Khwajah Ghiyath al-Dunya (?) …. wa’l-Din, calling upon the aid of The Defender, the Creator’

This manuscript is a rare and early dated copy of an extremely important and interesting work known as the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa, a medieval Islamic encyclopaedia that represents the landmark legacy of a mystical group of Iraqi scholars and thinkers who aimed to save Islamic teaching from the perceived threat of liberal sciences by means of philosophy. To the best of our knowledge, it is the third earliest copy in existence, dated 683 AH/1284 AD. 

Of equal interest are the previous owners of the manuscript. It was initially dedicated to Khwajah Jahan (Hace-i Cihan, also known as Hoca Cihan), a Sufi saint, scholar and statesman in the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. Later, in the fourteenth century, the manuscript entered the possession of Elvan (Alvan) Çelebi (d. after 1358-59 AD), a descendent of Baba Ilyas Khurasani, whose tomb in the dervish lodge he founded remains one of the most visited shrines in Anatolia.

The Ikhwan al-Safa was a secret brotherhood thought to have been affiliated to the Ismai'li movement. Their true identity was so thoroughly hidden that scholars can only speculate as to their real associations. The Rasa'il however are considered to be central to Isma'ili doctrine, and have been attributed to the authorship of various different Shi'a imams, and scholars from the eleventh century. Given the esoteric nature of Shi'a Isma'ilism, one can understand why they even referred to themselves (in the fourth Rasa'il) as "sleepers in the cave". Although the Ikhwan remained an anonymous group of scholars, the literary scholar Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi (d.1023 AD)is thought to have identified three members, all of whom were from Basra: Abu'l-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Harun al-Zanjani and three of his companions, Abu Sulayman Muhammad Ibn Ma‘shar al-Busti, (called al-Maqdisi), Abu Ahmad al-Nahrajuri and al-‘Awfi.

The manuscript to hand represents half of book three and the whole of book four. The four books of the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa are as follows:

1. The mathematical sciences
2. The natural sciences
3. The rational sciences
4. The theological sciences

Among dated copies of the Rasa’il, the present manuscript only appears to be antedated by the famous copy in the 'Atif Pasha Library, Istanbul (1681), dated 587 AH/1182 AD, and the copy formerly in the British Museum, now in the British Library (Or 6692), dated 646 AH/1248-49 AD. A further copy is in the Majlis-i Shura-yi Milli, Tehran 4707, dated 686 AH/1287 AD. 

Manuscripts of the Rasa'il al-Safa appear very rarely on the market. Most recently, a lavishly-illuminated copy comprising only book one of the full work was sold in these rooms, 20 April 2016, lot 35, and another dated 711 AH/1311 AD on 9 April 2008, lot 28.