Adilnor Collection, Sweden
1 Shihab al-akhbar 720 H.E.
Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Salamah bin Ja’far bin ‘Ali al-Quda’i (died A.H. 454 / A.D. 1062). Shihab al-akhbar fi’-hikam wal-amthal wal-adab min al-ahadith al-marwiya ‘an al-rasul al-mukhtar , a well-known collection of Traditions, copied by the scribe ‘Ali Shirvan bin ‘Ali al-Qazwini
The Ilkhanid Kingdom, copied at the capital Sultaniyeh, during the reign of Abu Sa’id ‘Ala al-Dunya wal-din, Bahadur (reigned 1316-1335), first half of Safar 720 / 1320-21.
Arabic manuscript on paper, 9 lines to the page written in a clear and an accomplished naskhi / muhaqqaq script in black ink, gold rosettes between sentences, inner margins ruled in red ink, headings written in elegant naskhi / thuluth script within illuminated panels decorated with vegetal and floral motifs in gold, blue, and white, one double-page illuminated title-page, with interlinear “cloud” decoration incorporating hatching and three- dot motifs in blue, illuminated circular and semi-circular devices extending into the outer borders, titles within illuminated panels predominantly in gold, preceded by an illuminated shamsa painted gold with a blue and white scalloped border, fifteenth-century seal impression and a late nineteenth-century Arabic ownership inscription of Ahmad Khaled al-Naqshabandial-Aghribuzi.
This manuscript was copied within a couple years of the dismissal and execution in 1318 of the vizier Rashid ad-Din by the Ilkhanid ruler Abu Sa’id. The vizier founded a scriptorium in a suburb of Tabriz with generous funds by his patron the Ilkhanid ruler Uljaytu (reigned 1304-1316). Following his completion of a history of the Mongols ordered by Mahmud Ghazan Khan, Rashid ad-Din was commissioned by Uljaytu to write a history of the world, Jami’ al-Tawarikh, After the vizier’s execution, the scriptorium was ransacked and plundered, and most of the scribes, illuminators and artist sought work with other patrons. The calligraphy and illumination, especially the shamsa, of this manuscript bear a striking resemblance to that found in manuscripts produced in the scriptorium.
The building of Sultaniyeh, where this manuscript was produced, was started by Uljaytu’s father, Arghun, and completed by him. He made it his capital and erected his mausoleum which is still to this day considered “one of the most celebrated buildings in the whole of Persia.” Abu Sa’id was enthroned in Sultaniyeh, and this manuscript may have been commissioned for his library.
The title of the work varies, it also appears in some copies as kitab as-shuhubat fi’l-mawaiz wal-adab min hadith rasul allah sl’m. The author states that he has collected from among the sayings of the Prophet, a set of one thousand and later added another two hundred, which are simple in form and meaning and are quoted without isnad. The work is divided into babs arranged by words i.e. bab XIV according to the word kafa (enough, sufficient).
Al-Quda’i studied “Traditions” and Shafi’i law in Baghdad before moving to Fatimid Egypt where he was appointed a judge, he died in Fustat in November 1062.
This illuminated manuscript of al-Quda’i’s Shihab al-Akhbar, dated 1320/21, appears to be an early copy of the work to be found in public libraries. Brocklemann lists other copies in the British Library, London, Paris, the Vatican, the Ambrosiana Library, Milan, The Escorial, Madrid, Madras, Rabat, Tetuan, Tunis, Zaitouna,, Brussa, Cairo and Rumpur, but most of them appear to have been written in the 15th – 17th centuries. I found two fourteenth-century copies in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, which are dated slightly later than this manuscript, in A.H. 735 and 798 / A.D. 1335 and 1396.
Bibliography:
Arthur Arberry, Chester Beatty Library - A Handlist of the Arabic Manuscripts, Dublin, 1959, 1962 and 1964, vol. IV, p. 39, no. 3859/1; vol. V, p. 138, no. 4433; vol. VII, p. 59, no. 518.
Colin Baker (editor), Subject Guide to the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library, London, 2001, B., Traditions, p. 46.
J. A. Boyle, The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. V, Cambridge, 1968, pp. 399-400.
Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, Brill, Leiden, New York, Koln, 1996, i. 343, suppl. 584.
Oscar Lofgren and Renato Traini, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Vicenza, 1981 and 1995, vol. II, 285 II and vol. III, 1267 IV.
Sotheby’s catalogue, Rashid al-Din’s “World History”, London, 8th July 1980.
1 Shihab al-akhbar 720 H.E.
Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Salamah bin Ja’far bin ‘Ali al-Quda’i (died A.H. 454 / A.D. 1062). Shihab al-akhbar fi’-hikam wal-amthal wal-adab min al-ahadith al-marwiya ‘an al-rasul al-mukhtar , a well-known collection of Traditions, copied by the scribe ‘Ali Shirvan bin ‘Ali al-Qazwini
The Ilkhanid Kingdom, copied at the capital Sultaniyeh, during the reign of Abu Sa’id ‘Ala al-Dunya wal-din, Bahadur (reigned 1316-1335), first half of Safar 720 / 1320-21.
Arabic manuscript on paper, 9 lines to the page written in a clear and an accomplished naskhi / muhaqqaq script in black ink, gold rosettes between sentences, inner margins ruled in red ink, headings written in elegant naskhi / thuluth script within illuminated panels decorated with vegetal and floral motifs in gold, blue, and white, one double-page illuminated title-page, with interlinear “cloud” decoration incorporating hatching and three- dot motifs in blue, illuminated circular and semi-circular devices extending into the outer borders, titles within illuminated panels predominantly in gold, preceded by an illuminated shamsa painted gold with a blue and white scalloped border, fifteenth-century seal impression and a late nineteenth-century Arabic ownership inscription of Ahmad Khaled al-Naqshabandial-Aghribuzi.
This manuscript was copied within a couple years of the dismissal and execution in 1318 of the vizier Rashid ad-Din by the Ilkhanid ruler Abu Sa’id. The vizier founded a scriptorium in a suburb of Tabriz with generous funds by his patron the Ilkhanid ruler Uljaytu (reigned 1304-1316). Following his completion of a history of the Mongols ordered by Mahmud Ghazan Khan, Rashid ad-Din was commissioned by Uljaytu to write a history of the world, Jami’ al-Tawarikh, After the vizier’s execution, the scriptorium was ransacked and plundered, and most of the scribes, illuminators and artist sought work with other patrons. The calligraphy and illumination, especially the shamsa, of this manuscript bear a striking resemblance to that found in manuscripts produced in the scriptorium.
The building of Sultaniyeh, where this manuscript was produced, was started by Uljaytu’s father, Arghun, and completed by him. He made it his capital and erected his mausoleum which is still to this day considered “one of the most celebrated buildings in the whole of Persia.” Abu Sa’id was enthroned in Sultaniyeh, and this manuscript may have been commissioned for his library.
The title of the work varies, it also appears in some copies as kitab as-shuhubat fi’l-mawaiz wal-adab min hadith rasul allah sl’m. The author states that he has collected from among the sayings of the Prophet, a set of one thousand and later added another two hundred, which are simple in form and meaning and are quoted without isnad. The work is divided into babs arranged by words i.e. bab XIV according to the word kafa (enough, sufficient).
Al-Quda’i studied “Traditions” and Shafi’i law in Baghdad before moving to Fatimid Egypt where he was appointed a judge, he died in Fustat in November 1062.
This illuminated manuscript of al-Quda’i’s Shihab al-Akhbar, dated 1320/21, appears to be an early copy of the work to be found in public libraries. Brocklemann lists other copies in the British Library, London, Paris, the Vatican, the Ambrosiana Library, Milan, The Escorial, Madrid, Madras, Rabat, Tetuan, Tunis, Zaitouna,, Brussa, Cairo and Rumpur, but most of them appear to have been written in the 15th – 17th centuries. I found two fourteenth-century copies in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, which are dated slightly later than this manuscript, in A.H. 735 and 798 / A.D. 1335 and 1396.
Bibliography:
Arthur Arberry, Chester Beatty Library - A Handlist of the Arabic Manuscripts, Dublin, 1959, 1962 and 1964, vol. IV, p. 39, no. 3859/1; vol. V, p. 138, no. 4433; vol. VII, p. 59, no. 518.
Colin Baker (editor), Subject Guide to the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library, London, 2001, B., Traditions, p. 46.
J. A. Boyle, The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. V, Cambridge, 1968, pp. 399-400.
Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, Brill, Leiden, New York, Koln, 1996, i. 343, suppl. 584.
Oscar Lofgren and Renato Traini, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Vicenza, 1981 and 1995, vol. II, 285 II and vol. III, 1267 IV.
Sotheby’s catalogue, Rashid al-Din’s “World History”, London, 8th July 1980.