On Persian enigmas and riddles
Sharh-i mu'ammayat-i Mir Husayn.
8vo (110 x 175 mm). Persian manuscript on polished cream-coloured oriental paper. 119 leaves. 16 lines of black and occasional red Nasta'liq with frequent marginal glosses; two diagrams in red and black ink. Some folios replaced. In later Qajar lacquered papier-mache binding with polychrome floral decoration.
€ 8,500.00
A brief commentary on the Riddles of Mir Husayn ibn Muhammad Nishapuri al-Mu'mayi and other riddles, either by the commentator himself or taken from other poets. Mir Husayn Nayshapuri (known as "Mu'amma'i") had been the author's teacher; his well-known collection of versified conundrums on the 99 names of Allah was composed in 916 H (1510/11 CE).
Lacquer covers chipped in places; interior well preserved with a fairly extensive but unobtrusive waterstain. An uncommonly early specimen, written close to the lifetime of the commentator, if not during it: corresponding copies of this text in the British Library (IO Islamic 4407) and in Princeton (Islamic Mss., NS 1006) date from the 18th century.
Provenance: from the private collection of Michel E. Abemayor (1912-1975) of New York, the last descendant of an important Cairo dynasty of dealers in Egyptian antiquities.
Cf. C. A. Storey, Persian literature, III, pp. 224f. Agha Buzurg, Dhari'ah 21 (1936), p. 364.
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