Anthology of Persian Poetry in Oblong Format (Safina)

Anthology of Persian Poetry in Oblong Format

Leaping hares, flying birds, and flowering vine scrolls enliven the small, delicately stenciled folio shown here—one of a number of similarly decorated pages from a fifteenth-century Persian poetry anthology in the Museum’s collection.[1] With its numerous stenciled folios, pseudo-marbleized pages,[2] and multicolored papers and inks, this manuscript displays many of the innovations in decorative techniques that developed within the book arts in Iran during this period.[3] The engaging "patchwork" conceit of its colorful pages echoes the collected nature of its text: a gathering of short, sonnetlike Persian ghazal-form poems from diverse authors, including ‘Iraqi, Salman Savaji, and Kamal Khujandi.

The calligrapher who copied these lyric verses signed his name as Sultan Muhammad [Nur] on three of the folios and added the date to one (A.H. 905/1499–1500 A.D.). Sultan Muhammad Nur (ca. 1472–ca. 1536) was active in Herat during the reign of the Timurid prince and art patron Sultan Husain Baiqara (r. 1470–1506). Evidence suggests that Sultan Muhammad Nur trained in Herat with the celebrated master calligrapher Sultan ‘Ali al- Mashhadi (active late 15th–early 16th century) and remained in that city for his entire career.[4] This manuscript has been ascribed to Herat, although it displays affinities with contemporary oblong-format manuscripts produced in Shiraz.

Often referred to as safina or bayaz, these elegantly shaped manuscripts survive in collections throughout the world—a majority of them comprising anthologies of lyric Persian poetry.[5] The word safina may be translated as "ship" or "vessel"—and, by extension, "ark"—perhaps reflecting the manuscript’s role as a carrier of assemblages of texts. The typically diminutive dimensions of these manuscripts allowed for portability; they could be easily tucked into a sash or hidden up a sleeve. Contemporary and later Persian paintings often depict such small poetry books being enjoyed at outdoor gatherings or in garden settings, as in a fifteenth-century painting on silk in the Museum’s collection (57.51.24).

Denise-Marie Teece in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]

Footnotes:

1. This manuscript has been previously published by Stefano Carboni in Carboni, Walker, and Moore 1998, color image on p. 11.

2. The "marbled" pages of this manuscript were mentioned in Blair 2006, p. 55 n. 53. However, further consultation with Yana van Dyke, paper conservator at the Metropolitan Museum, has determined that these papers are not examples of true marbling as the method of their production does not involve the use of a bath. The pages are instead more akin to the French nineteenth-century pseudo-marbled papers known as papier coulé, in which colors are applied directly to the paper; water is then introduced in a manner that results in a streaked or "rivulet" appearance, as seen here. For more on these papers, see Wolfe, Richard J. Marbled Paper: Its History, Techniques, and Patterns with Special Reference to the Relationship of Marbling to Bookbinding in Europe and the Western World. A Publication of the A. S. W. Rosenbach Fellowship in Bibliography. Philadelphia, 1990, esp. p. 114, and pl. 20, nos. 8–9.

3. For further discussion concerning the techniques of paper decoration in fifteenth-century Persian manuscripts, see Porter, Yves.Painters, Paintings and Books: An Essay on Indo-Persian Technical Literature, Twelfth–Nineteenth Centuries. New Delhi, 1994; Blair 2000; and Roxburgh 2005.

4. For more concerning this calligrapher, see Bayani, Mehdi. Ahval wa athar-i khushnivisan: Nasta’liq nivisan. Tehran, 1964, pp. 272–80, no. 387; Soucek in Thompson and Canby 2003, p. 52 and figs. 3.4–3.7, p. 65 and fig. 3.13. Soucek states that several sixteenth-century sources describe Sultan Muhammad Nur as a student of Sultan ‘Ali al-Mashhadi. Also see Blair 2006, pp. 55 n. 53, 466 n. 54, 467 n. 61, for Sultan Muhammad Nur’s skill in writing with colored inks. A folio very similar to those found in this manuscript—also displaying a signature by a Sultan Muhammad Nur—was sold at Christie’s London, on March 31, 2009, lot 26.

5. A number of terms have been used to refer to oblong-format manuscripts, among them bayaz. See Danishpazhuh, M.-T. "Bayaz." In Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, December 15, 1988, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bayaz.

Signature: Signed by Sultan Muhammad Nur on folios 45v, 56v and 85v.

Inscription: Signatures in Persian in nasta‘liq script on three folios as follows:

On folio 45 verso:
کتبه سلطان محمد نور
Written by Sultan Muhammad Nur

On folio 56 verso:
سلطان محمد نور تجاوز الله خمس و تسعمائة
Sultan Muhammad Nur, may God forgive [him,]
[in the year] A.H. nine hundred and five [ A.D. 1499–1500]

On folio 85 verso:
مشقه العبد سلطان محمد ابن نور الله
Written by the servant Sultan Muhammad, son of Nurallah

(Translation from "Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art," 2011, p. 187).

[ Massoud Nader, New York, until 1997; sold to MMA]

New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Sultan Ali of Mashhad, Master of Nasta'liq," January 19–May 27, 2001, no catalogue.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Balcony Calligraphy Exhibition," June 1–October 26, 2009, no catalogue.

Carboni, Stefano, Daniel Walker, and J. Kenneth Moore. "Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1997–1998; Islam." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 56, no. 2 (1997–1998). p. 11, ill. (color).

Blair, Sheila S. "Color and Gold: The Decorated Papers Used in Manuscripts in Later Islamic Times." Muqarnas vol. 17 (2000). pp. 24–36.

Thompson, Jon, and Sheila R. Canby, ed. "Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501–1576." In Hunt for Paradise. Milan; New York: Skira , 2003. pp. 52, 65, (related).

Roxburgh, David J. "From Dispersal to Collection." In The Persian Album, 1400–1600. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2005. pp. 148–79; 339–42.

Ekhtiar, Maryam, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby, and Navina Haidar, ed. Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 126, pp. 187–88, ill. p. 187 (color).

Haidar, Navina. "Visual Splendour: Embellished Pages from the Metropolitan Museum 's Collection of Islamic and Indian Manuscripts." Arts of Asia vol. 42 (2012). p. 114, ill. fig. 12 (color).

Ekhtiar, Maryam. How to Read Islamic Calligraphy. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018. p. 33, ill. fig. 24.