Walters Ms. W.620, The orchard (Bustan)

W.620

The orchard (Bustan)

Vernacular: كتاب بوستان

Authority name: Saʿdī

As-written name: Musharrif al-Dīn ibn Muṣliḥ Saʿdī Shīrāzī

Name, in vernacular: مشرف الدين بن مصلح سعدي شيرازي

Note: Author dates preferred by cataloger: d. 691 AH / 1292 CE

This is an illuminated and illustrated Safavid copy of the Būstān (The garden or The orchard), composed by Sa’dī (d. 691 AH / 1292 CE). It was written in black nasta’līq script in the ninth century AH / sixteenth CE in Iran. The codex opens with a frontispiece with the title Kitāb-i būstān inscribed in an illuminated medallion (fol. 1a), followed by a double-page illustration of a banquet scene in a landscape (fols. 1b-2a). Additionally, there are five paintings illustrating the text (fols. 25a, 55b, 58a, 93b, and 119b). The brown leather, blind-stamped binding decorated with a central oval and pendants is not contemporary with the manuscript.

9th century AH / 15th CE

Iran

Book

Literary -- Poetry

The primary language in this manuscript is Persian.

Paper

Laid paper

Foliation: i+189+i

Catchwords: Written on versos

17.0 cm wide by 25.5 cm high

8.0 cm wide by 14.0 cm high

1. Columns: 2
2. Ruled lines: 11
3. Framing lines in blue, black, and gold

1. Title: Kitāb-i būstān
2. Author: Saʿdī
3. Incipit: بنام خداوندجان افرين...
4. Hand note: Written in black nastaʿlīq script with red for section headings
5. Decoration note: Five illustrations (fols. 25a, 55b, 58a, 93b, and 119b); illuminated frontispiece with the title Kitāb-i būstān inscribed in the medallion (fol. 1a); double-page illustrated frontispiece (fols. 1b-2a); double-page illuminated incipit (fols. 2b-3a); framing lines in blue, black, and gold

fol. 1a:

1. 
2. Title: Illuminated frontispiece with medallion
3. Form: Frontispiece; medallion
4. Label: This illuminated frontispiece is inscribed with the title Kitāb-i būstān in the polychrome and gold medallion (shamsah).

fol. 1b:

1. 
2. Title: Double-page illustrated frontispiece
3. Form: Frontispiece; illustration
4. Label: This is the right side of a double-page illustrated frontispiece depicting a banquet in a landscape.

fol. 2a:

1. 
2. Title: Double-page illustrated frontispiece
3. Form: Frontispiece; illustration
4. Label: This is the left side of a double-page illustrated frontispiece depicting a banquet in a landscape.

fol. 2b:

1. 
2. Title: Double-page illuminated incipit
3. Form: Incipit
4. Label: This is the right side of a double-page illuminated incipit introducing the text of the Būstān. Allāh al-Bāqī is inscribed in the lower cartouche in a decorated New Abbasid (broken cursive) style.

fol. 3a:

1. 
2. Title: Double-page illuminated incipit
3. Form: Incipit
4. Label: This is the left side of a double-page illuminated incipit introducing the text of the Būstān. Allāh wa-lā siwāhu and al-Shukr li-Llāh ta`ālá are inscribed in the cartouches in a decorated New Abbasid (broken cursive) style.

fol. 25a:

1. 
2. Title: Darius, the Persian king, meeting his herdsman while hunting
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 55b:

1. 
2. Title: An old man, who pulled out a thorn from the foot of an orphan, meeting his friend
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 58a:

1. 
2. Title: Banquet scene in a landscape
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 93b:

1. 
2. Title: A man advised by village elders to divorce his wife because of their constant quarreling
3. Form: Illustration

fol. 119b:

1. 
2. Title: Saʿdī and another man visiting Shāṭir Iṣfāhānī
3. Form: Illustration

The binding is not original.

Brown, blind-stamped leather (with flap); decorated with a central oval and pendants

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest

Richard, Francis. Catalogue des manuscrits persans. (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1989), no. 147.

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

The Walters Art Museum

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.