A mirror for princes illustrated with 75 illuminated miniatures

Bayqara, Sultan Husayn. Majalis al-Ushaq [Assemblies of Lovers].

€ 85,000.00

Illuminated in gold and illustrated with seventy-five miniatures of princes, mystics and poets, including a two-page scene of a falcon hunt on a field of gold, this magnificent Persian mirror for princes known as Majalis al-'Usaq was authored by the Timurid ruler Sultan Husayn Bayqara (1438-1506 CE). The iconography of the miniatures of Majalis al-'Usaq is particularly striking, including several scenes of beheadings and executions, alongside scenes of great teachers with their attentive students, and famous lovers from Persian literature.

The work's royal author was himself a poet and a powerful patron of the arts who famously supported the likes of Jami and Bihzad. This manuscript was copied and illustrated quite near Sultan Bayqara's lifetime, being dated less than seventy years after his death. It may have a second royal connection, as a Persian ownership inscription lists it as the erstwhile property of the deceased Muhammad Akbar I (1542-1605 CE), and thus presumably part of a royal Mughal library.

The work Majalis al-'Usaq is itself an educational study of the great Muslim mystics and the most celebrated lovers in Persian poetry, wherein each tale is used to illustrate the methods of good living as a prince and as a devout Muslim. Both the selections from Romance literature and the biographies of Sufi saints serve this purpose; for example, miniatures from the Romance of Yusuf and Zulaikha show the devout and pure Yusuf fleeing from Zulaikha's advances while she catches him by his trailing clothes, and two angels appearing to Yusuf. Meanwhile, biographies of poets and Sufi mystics take a more cautionary note, with illuminations showing the mourning of Sultan Ibrahim Adham (ca. 718-782 CE), Sheikh Mansur Hallaj (ca. 858-922 CE) led to his execution, and the discovery of the decapitated body of Abul-Hasan Kharraqani. Many others are shown studying books and conversing with pupils, or in the case of Shams-i Tabrizi (1185-1248 CE), playing a game of chess. Alexander the Great (Iskandar, in the Persian tradition) also appears as a princely ideal, lassoing a Russian champion.

A beautiful and complete survival from nearly the time of the author, with an interesting series of miniatures illustrating a mirror for princes.