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Lot Essay
The opening lines of this richly decorated manuscript reveal that it encloses a prayer that was passed down by the family of the Prophet Muhammad, al-sab‘iyyat marwiyyatun ‘an ahl al-bayt salawatalla ‘alayhim ajma‘in.
The manuscript is signed by master calligrapher Yahya al-Sufi who is recorded as one of al-Sittah, the renowned students of Yaqut al-Musta’simi. Our scribe is often confused with an Ottoman 15th century scribe also named Yahya al-Sufi, known as Edirneli Yahya al-Sufi after his birthplace (1400. Yilinda Kur’an-I Kerim, Istanbul, 2010, p.70). This later scribe was the father of 'Ali bin Yahya Sufi, who was responsible for the monumental thuluth inscriptions on the Topkapi Palace, although very little further biographical information or artistic material remains of this scribe.
One can, however, attribute this manuscript to the student of Yaqut on the basis of a twice signed panel of the Topkapi Album by the same scribe (inv.no.B411, folio 104a.). A close comparison of the smaller diagonal signature of that panel and the signature written here reveals a remarkable similarity in the naskh calligraphy. Of particular note are the reverse extended ya beneath the al-Sufi of the scribe’s name, and the slightly raised join of the ya and ra in al-faqir which are almost identical to the Topkapi panel.
Of all of Yaqut’s students, we are best informed on the life and works of Yahya al-Sufi. He first worked for the Ilkhanid Amir Chuban Sulduz (d.1327?) in Tabriz before moving to Shiraz where he served as the court calligrapher for the Injuid ruler Jamal al-Din Abu Ishaq (r.1343-1357) and later for the Muzaffarid rulers of Shiraz (Blair, Sheila S. "Yahya al-Sufi." Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press. Accessed 25 August 2021).
Our scribe is known to have produced a number of calligraphic specimens and manuscripts of the Qur’an dated between 1330-45 AD. These include an impressive multi-volume Qur’an in the Pars Museum, Shiraz which was probably commissioned by Abu Ishaq’s mother, Tashi-khatun, who bequeathed it to the Shah Chiragh Mosque at Shiraz (ms. 456, see Sheila Blair, S. S. Blair: ‘Yaqut and his Followers’, Manuscripta Orientalia, 9/3 (2003), pp.39–47, p.44, fig.3), and a Qurʾan manuscript dated AH 739/1338-9 AD, in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Istanbul (inv.no.K.430, see, Martin Lings, Splendours of Qur’an Calligraphy & Illumination, Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, 2005, p.64, no.48).
Notably, his name is recorded in the Baysunghur Album in the Topkapi Palace Museum Library (inv.no.H.2310), compiled for Timur’s grandson Baysunghur Mirza (d.1433), comprising 102 folios of calligraphic specimens completed by Yaqut al-Musta’simi and his followers. In the late 16th century, the album was refurbished under the Ottomans and an index of the calligraphers inserted, listing Yahya al-Sufi’s name as one of its contributors. A further calligraphic panel by him was sold in these Rooms, 23 April 2012, lot 8.
Not only was our scribe a proficient calligrapher of manuscript and works of paper, but his mastery extended into monumental inscriptions adorning buildings, mainly in Najaf and Shiraz. One such surviving inscription is preserved on the entrance wall of the small stone palace at Persepolis, built by the Achaemenid Darius the Great, comprising an eleven-line carved text, which records a visit to the site by the Injuid sultan Abu Ishaq, in 748 AH / 1347 AD (Blair, op. cit., p.45).
The masterful calligraphy of our scribe has been further enhanced in the Ottoman sixteenth century with elaborately stencilled borders in the ‘aks technique used in the Topkapi Palace workshops. Each double page is adorned with dynamic split-palmettes and intertwined arabesques with unique colour combinations. A similar technique was used on a manuscript of Qasidat al-Burda attributed to Muhyiddin Amasi and formally in the collection of Ekrem Hakki Ayverdi (see, Ekrem Hakki Ayverdi, Fatih Devri Hattatlari, 1953, pp.46-47 and Nabil Safwat, Understanding Calligraphy: The Ottoman Contribution, part two, London, 2014, pp.480-3, no.120). To illuminate the manuscript in such a manner would probably have come at great expense to its Ottoman patron. The Ottoman historian Mustafa 'Ali (d.1600) in his Menâkib-i Hünerverân enthuses "Yahya Sufi was a devotee in pure ecstacy and rapture in the path of calligraphy" Mustafa Ali, Mustafa ‘Âli’s Epic Deeds of Artists: A Critical Edition of the Earliest Ottoman Text about the Calligraphers and Painters of the Islamic World, ed., trans., and commented by Esra Akın-Kıvanç, Leiden and Boston, 2011, p.283). Like the Baysunghur Album which was refurbished twice under the Ottomans, this manuscript must have been a highly regarded possession to its Ottoman owner, greatly concerned with preserving the prized calligraphy within.
This manuscript is accompanied by a note in Ottoman Turkish by repute in the hand of art historian Ekrem Hakki Ayverdi. The note can be translated as follows: “I compared this manuscript with the calligraphies of Yahya Sufi, dated between 730-740 A.H. (1329-1339 A.D.), in the large album in the Baghdad Pavillion (B. 411) in the Topkapi Palace. I certify that this is Yahya Sufi the elder.”
The manuscript is signed by master calligrapher Yahya al-Sufi who is recorded as one of al-Sittah, the renowned students of Yaqut al-Musta’simi. Our scribe is often confused with an Ottoman 15th century scribe also named Yahya al-Sufi, known as Edirneli Yahya al-Sufi after his birthplace (1400. Yilinda Kur’an-I Kerim, Istanbul, 2010, p.70). This later scribe was the father of 'Ali bin Yahya Sufi, who was responsible for the monumental thuluth inscriptions on the Topkapi Palace, although very little further biographical information or artistic material remains of this scribe.
One can, however, attribute this manuscript to the student of Yaqut on the basis of a twice signed panel of the Topkapi Album by the same scribe (inv.no.B411, folio 104a.). A close comparison of the smaller diagonal signature of that panel and the signature written here reveals a remarkable similarity in the naskh calligraphy. Of particular note are the reverse extended ya beneath the al-Sufi of the scribe’s name, and the slightly raised join of the ya and ra in al-faqir which are almost identical to the Topkapi panel.
Of all of Yaqut’s students, we are best informed on the life and works of Yahya al-Sufi. He first worked for the Ilkhanid Amir Chuban Sulduz (d.1327?) in Tabriz before moving to Shiraz where he served as the court calligrapher for the Injuid ruler Jamal al-Din Abu Ishaq (r.1343-1357) and later for the Muzaffarid rulers of Shiraz (Blair, Sheila S. "Yahya al-Sufi." Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press. Accessed 25 August 2021).
Our scribe is known to have produced a number of calligraphic specimens and manuscripts of the Qur’an dated between 1330-45 AD. These include an impressive multi-volume Qur’an in the Pars Museum, Shiraz which was probably commissioned by Abu Ishaq’s mother, Tashi-khatun, who bequeathed it to the Shah Chiragh Mosque at Shiraz (ms. 456, see Sheila Blair, S. S. Blair: ‘Yaqut and his Followers’, Manuscripta Orientalia, 9/3 (2003), pp.39–47, p.44, fig.3), and a Qurʾan manuscript dated AH 739/1338-9 AD, in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Istanbul (inv.no.K.430, see, Martin Lings, Splendours of Qur’an Calligraphy & Illumination, Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, 2005, p.64, no.48).
Notably, his name is recorded in the Baysunghur Album in the Topkapi Palace Museum Library (inv.no.H.2310), compiled for Timur’s grandson Baysunghur Mirza (d.1433), comprising 102 folios of calligraphic specimens completed by Yaqut al-Musta’simi and his followers. In the late 16th century, the album was refurbished under the Ottomans and an index of the calligraphers inserted, listing Yahya al-Sufi’s name as one of its contributors. A further calligraphic panel by him was sold in these Rooms, 23 April 2012, lot 8.
Not only was our scribe a proficient calligrapher of manuscript and works of paper, but his mastery extended into monumental inscriptions adorning buildings, mainly in Najaf and Shiraz. One such surviving inscription is preserved on the entrance wall of the small stone palace at Persepolis, built by the Achaemenid Darius the Great, comprising an eleven-line carved text, which records a visit to the site by the Injuid sultan Abu Ishaq, in 748 AH / 1347 AD (Blair, op. cit., p.45).
The masterful calligraphy of our scribe has been further enhanced in the Ottoman sixteenth century with elaborately stencilled borders in the ‘aks technique used in the Topkapi Palace workshops. Each double page is adorned with dynamic split-palmettes and intertwined arabesques with unique colour combinations. A similar technique was used on a manuscript of Qasidat al-Burda attributed to Muhyiddin Amasi and formally in the collection of Ekrem Hakki Ayverdi (see, Ekrem Hakki Ayverdi, Fatih Devri Hattatlari, 1953, pp.46-47 and Nabil Safwat, Understanding Calligraphy: The Ottoman Contribution, part two, London, 2014, pp.480-3, no.120). To illuminate the manuscript in such a manner would probably have come at great expense to its Ottoman patron. The Ottoman historian Mustafa 'Ali (d.1600) in his Menâkib-i Hünerverân enthuses "Yahya Sufi was a devotee in pure ecstacy and rapture in the path of calligraphy" Mustafa Ali, Mustafa ‘Âli’s Epic Deeds of Artists: A Critical Edition of the Earliest Ottoman Text about the Calligraphers and Painters of the Islamic World, ed., trans., and commented by Esra Akın-Kıvanç, Leiden and Boston, 2011, p.283). Like the Baysunghur Album which was refurbished twice under the Ottomans, this manuscript must have been a highly regarded possession to its Ottoman owner, greatly concerned with preserving the prized calligraphy within.
This manuscript is accompanied by a note in Ottoman Turkish by repute in the hand of art historian Ekrem Hakki Ayverdi. The note can be translated as follows: “I compared this manuscript with the calligraphies of Yahya Sufi, dated between 730-740 A.H. (1329-1339 A.D.), in the large album in the Baghdad Pavillion (B. 411) in the Topkapi Palace. I certify that this is Yahya Sufi the elder.”