Walters Ms. W.645, Two poetical works: Yusuf and Zulaykha and Mihr and Mushtari

W.645

Two poetical works: Yusuf and Zulaykha and Mihr and Mushtari

Vernacular: يوسف وزليخا

Vernacular: مهر ومشترى

Authority name: Jāmī, 1414-1492

As-written name: Nūr al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad Jāmī

Name, in vernacular: نور الدين عبد الرحمان بن احمد جامى

Note: Author dates preferred by cataloger: d. 898 AH / 1492 CE

Authority name: ʻAṣṣār Tabrīzī, Muḥammad, d. 1382 or 3

As-written name: Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ʿAṣṣār Tabrīzī

Name, in vernacular: محمد بن احمد عصار تبريزى

Note: Author dates preferred by cataloger: d. 784 AH / 1382 CE

This illuminated and illustrated Safavid manuscript, executed in Safavid Iran in the tenth century AH / sixteenth CE, contains two poetical works: Yūsuf va Zulaykhā by Nūr al-Dīn Jāmī (d. 898 AH / 1492 CE) and Mihr va Mushtarī by Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ‘Aṣṣār Tabrīzī (d. 784 AH / 1382 CE). The two texts can be read side by side on the same page, either written horizontally or obliquely. There are four paintings illustrating the text (fols. 58b, 91a, 159a, and 180b). The brown leather binding with dentelle-style decoration in multi-colored filigree work may date to the tenth century AH / sixteenth CE, although it is unlikely to be original to the manuscript.

10th century AH / 16th CE

Iran

Book

Literary -- Poetry

The primary language in this manuscript is Persian.

Paper

Laid paper

Foliation: i+211

Catchwords: Written obliquely on versos

17.0 cm wide by 27.0 cm high

6.0 cm wide by 10.5 cm high

1. Columns: 2
2. Ruled lines: 9
3. Text inscribed in the main double columns, ending on fol. 207a; framing lines in blue, red, gold, green, and light blue

1. Text inscribed in the outer margin of the framed area up to fol. 207a; continues after fol. 207a in both the margin and the double columns; framing lines in blue, red, gold, green, and light blue

1. Title: Yūsuf va Zulaykhā
2. Author: Jāmī, 1414-1492
3. Text note: Beginning lines of the text missing
4. Hand note: Written in black nastaʿlīq script with chapter/section headings in white
5. Decoration note: Two illustrations; one surviving half of a double-page illuminated frontispiece with information about the works and the incipits (fol.1a); decorated double frame and various geometrically shaped decorated panels within the text; framing lines in blue, red, gold, green, and light blue

1. Title: Mihr va Mushtarī
2. Author: ʻAṣṣār Tabrīzī, Muḥammad, d. 1382 or 3
3. Text note: Beginning lines of the text missing
4. Hand note: Written in black nastaʿlīq script with chapter/section headings in white
5. Decoration note: Two illustrations; one surviving half of a double-page illuminated frontispiece with information about the works and the incipits (fol.1a); decorated double frame and various geometrically shaped decorated panels within the text; framing lines in blue, red, gold, green, and light blue

fol. 1a:

1. 
2. Title: Double-page illuminated frontispiece
3. Form: Frontispiece; incipit
4. Label: This is the right side of a double-page illuminated frontispiece. (The left side does not survive.) The initial lines of the texts are inscribed in the central medallion and pendants in white nastaʿlīq script on a blue background.

fol. 58b:

1. 
2. Title: The vizier of Egypt comes to meet Zulaykhā
3. Form: Illustration
4. Text: Yusuf and Zulaykha

fol. 91a:

1. 
2. Title: Mihr and his friends slaughter dog- and wolf-headed cannibals
3. Form: Illustration
4. Text: Mihr and Mushtari

fol. 159a:

1. 
2. Title: Qarā Khān, king of Samarqand, defeated by Mihr
3. Form: Illustration
4. Text: Mihr and Mushtari
5. Label: On the left side of this page Qarā Khān, king of Samarqand, is defeated by Mihr, who fights on the side of King Kayvān, Nāhīd’s father.

fol. 180b:

1. 
2. Title: The wedding festivities of Yūsuf and Zulaykhā
3. Form: Illustration
4. Text: Yusuf and Zulaykha

The binding is not original.

May date to the tenth century AH / sixteenth CE; brown leather (no flap); dentelle-style decoration in multi-colored filigree work

Oval seal: ʿAbduhu Muḥammad Kāẓim (fol. 113b)

Square seal: ʿIṣmat Zīnat Sulṭān, dated 12[?]49 AH / 1833 CE (fol. 114a)

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest

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

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