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Walters Ms. W.610, Five poems (quintet)

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Shelf mark

W.610


Manuscript

Five poems (quintet)


Text title
Khamsah-i Niẓāmī

Vernacular: خمسه نظامى


Author

Authority name: Niẓāmī Ganjavī, 1140 or 41-1202 or 3

As-written name: Ilyās ibn Yūsuf Niẓāmī Ganjavī

Name, in vernacular: الياس بن يوسف نظامى گنجوى

Note: Author dates preferred by cataloger: d. 605 AH / 1209 CE


Abstract

This illuminated and illustrated copy of the Khamsah (quintet) of Niẓāmī Ganjavī (d. 605 AH / 1209 CE) was executed in Safavid Iran and dates to the middle of the tenth century AH / sixteenth CE. There are six colophons in Arabic that supply neither the date nor the scribe's name (fols. 31b, 119a, 175a, 238a, 325a, and 371a). The text is written in black nastaʿlīq script with section headings in blue. Twenty paintings attributable to the Shiraz school illustrate the text. The dark brown leather binding with central ovals and pendants, all brushed with gold, is original to the manuscript.


Date

Mid 10th century AH / 16th CE


Origin

Iran


Form

Book


Genre

Literary -- Poetry


Language:

The primary language in this manuscript is Persian. The secondary language of this manuscript is Arabic.


Colophon
fol. 371a:
  1. Transliteration: Fol. 371a: tammat al-kitāb bi-ʿawn al-Malik al-Wahhāb /1/ wa-al-ḥamd li-Llāh rabb al-ʿālamīn wa-ṣallá /2/ Allāh ʿalá Muḥammad wa-ālih wa- /3/ awlādih /4/ ajmaʿīn /5/
  2. Comment: Six short colophons (31b, 119a, 175a, 238a, 325a, and 371a) in Arabic with neither date nor scribe's name

Support material

Paper

Laid paper


Extent

Foliation: ii+371+ii

Pencil foliation: 373 (includes two flyleaves at the end)


Collation

Catchwords: Written obliquely on versos


Dimensions

20.0 cm wide by 32.5 cm high


Written surface

10.0 cm wide by 19.5 cm high


Layout
  1. Columns: 4
  2. Ruled lines: 21

Contents:
fols. 1b - 371a:
  1. Title: Khamsah-i Niẓāmī
  2. Author: Niẓāmī Ganjavī, 1140 or 41-1202 or 3
  3. Incipit: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم هست كليد در كنج حكيم...
  4. Text note: Contains the following poems: Makhzan al-asrār (fols. 1b-31a), Khusraw va Shīrīn (fols. 31b-119a), Laylá va Majnūn (fols. 119b-175a), Haft paykar (fols. 175b-238a), and Iskandarnāmah (fols. 238b-371a; divided into Sharafnāmah--fol. 238b and Iqbālnāmah--fol. 325b)
  5. Hand note: Written in black nastaʿlīq script with captions in blue on a decorated ground
  6. Decoration note: Twenty illustrations; double-page illuminated frontispiece; titlepieces; tailpieces; frame

Decoration:

fol. 1b:

  1. W.610, fol. 1b
  2. Title: Double-page illuminated frontispiece
  3. Form: Frontispiece; titlepiece
  4. Label: This is the right side of a double-page illuminated frontispiece with the beginning of the text of the first poem of the Khamsah: Makhzan al-asrār. The inscription above the text in light pink (on both sides) reads: Kitāb-i Khamsah-i Shaykh-i Niẓāmī.

fol. 2a:

  1. W.610, fol. 2a
  2. Title: Double-page illuminated frontispiece
  3. Form: Frontispiece; titlepiece
  4. Label: This is the left side of a double-page illuminated frontispiece with the beginning of the text of the first poem of the Khamsah: Makhzan al-asrār. The inscription above the text in light pink (on both sides) reads: Kitāb-i Khamsah-i Shaykh-i Niẓāmī.

fol. 16a:

  1. W.610, fol. 16a
  2. Title: An old woman implores Sultan Sanjar for help
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Makhzan al-asrār

fol. 31b:

  1. W.610, fol. 31b
  2. Title: Incipit page with illuminated titlepiece
  3. Form: Incipit; titlepiece
  4. Text: Khusraw va Shīrīn
  5. Label: This incipit page has an illuminated titlepiece inscribed with the title of the second poem of the Khamsah: Kitāb-i Khusraw va Shīrīn.

fol. 47a:

  1. W.610, fol. 47a
  2. Title: Khusraw watching Shīrīn bathing
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Khusraw va Shīrīn

fol. 55a:

  1. W.610, fol. 55a
  2. Title: Khusraw and Shīrīn play polo
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Khusraw va Shīrīn

fol. 62b:

  1. W.610, fol. 62b
  2. Title: Khusraw fights Bahrām Chūbīnah
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Khusraw va Shīrīn

fol. 91b:

  1. W.610, fol. 91b
  2. Title: Khusraw comes to visit Shīrīn at her palace
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Khusraw va Shīrīn

fol. 119b:

  1. W.610, fol. 119b
  2. Title: Incipit page with illuminated titlepiece
  3. Form: Incipit; titlepiece
  4. Text: Laylá va Majnūn
  5. Label: This incipit page has an illuminated titlepiece inscribed with the title of the third poem of the Khamsah: Kitāb-i Laylá va Majnūn.

fol. 130a:

  1. W.610, fol. 130a
  2. Title: Laylá and Majūn (Qays) at school
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Laylá va Majnūn

fol. 145a:

  1. W.610, fol. 145a
  2. Title: An old woman leads Majnūn by a chain in front of Laylá’s tent
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Laylá va Majnūn

fol. 167a:

  1. W.610, fol. 167a
  2. Title: Laylá and Majnūn faint at the sight of each other
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Laylá va Majnūn

fol. 175b:

  1. W.610, fol. 175b
  2. Title: Incipit page with illuminated titlepiece
  3. Form: Incipit; titlepiece
  4. Text: Haft paykar
  5. Label: This incipit page has an illuminated titlepiece inscribed with the title of the fourth poem of the Khamsah: Kitāb-i Haft paykar.

fol. 194b:

  1. W.610, fol. 194b
  2. Title: Bahrām Gūr watches Fitnah carry a bull
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Haft paykar

fol. 206b:

  1. W.610, fol. 206b
  2. Title: Bahrām Gūr in the yellow pavilion
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Haft paykar

fol. 212a:

  1. W.610, fol. 212a
  2. Title: Bahrām Gūr in the red pavilion
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Haft paykar

fol. 235a:

  1. W.610, fol. 235a
  2. Title: The hanging of Bahrām Gūr’s unjust vizier
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Haft paykar

fol. 238b:

  1. W.610, fol. 238b
  2. Title: Incipit page with illuminated titlepiece
  3. Form: Incipit; titlepiece
  4. Text: Iskandarnāmah
  5. Label: This incipit page has an illuminated titlepiece inscribed with the title of the first part of the fifth poem of the Khamsah: Kitāb-i Sharafnāmah-i Iskandarī.

fol. 249a:

  1. W.610, fol. 249a
  2. Title: The birth of Alexander the Great
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Iskandarnāmah

fol. 256b:

  1. W.610, fol. 256b
  2. Title: Alexander the Great kills an Ethiopian warrior
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Iskandarnāmah

fol. 270a:

  1. W.610, fol. 270a
  2. Title: Alexander the Great mourns the death of Darius
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Iskandarnāmah

fol. 284a:

  1. W.610, fol. 284a
  2. Title: Alexander the Great meets Nushābah in her palace
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Iskandarnāmah

fol. 295b:

  1. W.610, fol. 295b
  2. Title: Alexander the Great hunting on his way to China
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Iskandarnāmah

fol. 320a:

  1. W.610, fol. 320a
  2. Title: Alexander the Great and the prophet Khiḍr (Khiz̤r) in front of the Fountain of Life
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Iskandarnāmah

fol. 325b:

  1. W.610, fol. 325b
  2. Title: Incipit page with illuminated titlepiece
  3. Form: Incipit; titlepiece
  4. Text: Iskandarnāmah
  5. Label: This incipit page has an illuminated titlepiece inscribed with the title of the second part of the fifth poem of the Khamsah: Kitāb-i Iqbālnāmah-i Iskandarī.

fol. 338b:

  1. W.610, fol. 338b
  2. Title: The seventy Greek scholars struck dead by the curse of Hermes
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Iskandarnāmah

fol. 345a:

  1. W.610, fol. 345a
  2. Title: Alexander the Great and the seven philosophers
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Text: Iskandarnāmah

Binding

The binding is original.

Dark brown leather (with flap); central ovals and pendants, all brushed with gold; dentelle-style doublures with filigree work, decorated central ovals, pendants, and cornerpieces in blue and gold


Acquisition

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest


Contributors

Principal cataloger: Gacek, Adam

Catalogers: Landau, Amy; Smith, Sita

Editor: Bockrath, Diane

Conservators: Jewell, Stephanie; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Barrera, Christina; Emery, Doug; Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William; Simpson, Shreve; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara


Publisher

The Walters Art Museum


License

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.