خمسۀ نظامی

Illustrated Manuscript of the Khamsa (Quintet) by Nizami

The manuscript opens with a double-page illuminated frontispiece. The text is copied in nastaʿliq script with 19 lines and four columns to a page. The manuscript includes 24 illustrations in the Turkman style. The first Colophon in f. 117r, at the end of the book of Khusraw and Shirin, provides the name of the scribe, Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. Mas‘ud, known as Mun‘im al-Awhadi, and the date 16 Shaʿban 894 (15 July 1489). The second colophon on f. 181r at the end of the book of Layla and Majnun gives the scribe’s name and the date 12 Ramadan 894 (9 Aug 1489). The codex contains 385 folios (including the last two replacements) and is incomplete. Several notes and seals at the beginning have been obliterated. The notes in French on the first flyleaf indicate that the manuscript was owned by Basile B. Corpi in 19 June 1885 in Constantinople. The binding has dark brown grainy coarse leather on the outside cover, decorated with stamped pieces in gold and green, inlaid on the central lozenge, pendants and corner pieces, and light brown plain leather on the inside cover.

1489

Manuscripts

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Loan from A. Soudavar in memory of his mother Ezzat-Malek Soudavar

9.2015

Ink, colors, and gold on paper; leather binding

29 x 18 x 6 cm (11 7/16 x 7 1/16 x 2 3/8 in.)

Ezzat-Malek Soudavar, Geneva, Switzerland (by 2014), by descent; to her son Abolala Soudavar, Houston, Texas (2014), loan; to Harvard Art Museums, 2015. Note: Ezzat-Malek Soudavar (1913-2014) formed this collection over a period of sixty years. She purchased the works of art on the international art market.

Harvard Art Museums