Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center, Isl. Ms. 276Origin: As appears in colophon on final panel, executed by Ömer Sırrı, one of the students of Mehmet Sadullah Efendi, known as Arabzade. Date of transcription not specified, but likely during Ömer Sırrı's training and thus before the death of Arabzade Mehmet Sadullah Efendi.Binding: Boards covered in red-brown leather ; Type III binding (without flap) ; board linings and lining of opening and closing panel in light blue coated and textured paper ; upper and lower covers carry exquisite tooled vegetal design (swirling leaves and flowers set off by small rosette stamps surrounding central almond-shaped form) in contrasting shades of gold, set in gold tooled borders (also in contrasting colors) in a series of s-shaped stamps and rosettes ; panels edged in red-brown leather with gold-painted rule borders and hinged together with dark pink silk ; overall in good condition ; repairs in Japanese paper (rebacked).Support: Written area on well-burnished paper (untinted or tinted blue, red, etc. or marbled), set in frames of embossed paper (with vegetal designs) tinted various shades (pale peach, olive green, orange, yellow, turquoise, light blue, red, dark green, etc.) with colors of facing panels matching.Decoration: Written area surrounded by frame of heavy gold and colored bands (mainly in blue and red) set off by white fillets ; each specimen (kıta) set in a frame bordered in gold rules ; two specimens chrysographed ; leaves and floral sprays in blue, lavender, pink, green and gold flank colophon at close.Script: Nastaʻlīq (talik) ; exquisite specimen Ottoman calligraphy.Layout: Written in four lines per page with logograph for "سعي" under each line.Collation: Twelve 'panels' (mounted leaves) hinged together mainly in dark pink silk ; 'pagination' in red ink, Hindu-Arabic numerals in upper outer corner of panel (frame).Colophon: "نوشته شد بقلم شكتسه سيد عمر سرى كيه دار ناظر ديوان دعاوى صانه الله تعالى عن النقايص والمساوى از شاكر دان حضرت استاد مكارم اعتياد صدر والاى روم ايلى مولانا محمد سعد الله افندى الشهير بعرب زاده همه كا مش بادآ آماده"Explicit: "اثر اميدى ايله عالمده ايلدم بو قطعاتي تحرير اوقور اخوان صفا تاريخن اولدى والا اثر عبد فقير ١١٥٦ "Incipit: "بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم اعظم اسماء عليم حكيم محترمان حرم انس را تازه حديثست ز عهد قديم..."Title supplied by cataloguer.Ms. codex.Exquisite calligraphic specimen employing Jāmī's qaṣīdah on the basmalah for mürekkebât meșki exercises, executed by one of the students of Arabzade Mehmet Sadullah Efendi (d.1843).
Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center, Isl. Ms. 279Origin: Date below vase with large floral spray 1281 [1864 or 5] ; other features also suggest 19th century. As appears in opening text, possibly executed for the Ottoman statesman Mehmet Fuat Paşa (d.1869).Former shelfmark: "598 [?]" inscribed in pencil on verso of 'front' flyleaf ; "123" inscribed in pencil on recto of 'back' flyleaf.Binding: Pasteboards covered in dark green leather (appearance of straight-grain leather but likely impressed straight grain or other artificial grain) ; Type II binding (with flap) ; pastedowns and flyleaves in a streaked paper (in yellow, dark purple, etc. reminiscent of tree-marbling or stream marbling) ; upper and lower covers carry gold-stamped central vegetal pendant, corner accents and vegetal border ; sewn in red thread, four stations, failed ; overall in fair condition with abrasion, staining, etc.Support: Paper of written area embossed to carry text and figurative designs, set in surface-dyed frames of bright green and mounted on pasteboards.Decoration: Embossed borders (reminiscent of mountains) as well as vegetal and figurative designs with such animals as lions, dragons, stags, bulls, etc. accenting the calligraphy or filling a page.Script: Mainly nastaʻlīq with occasional thuluth ; exquisite calligraphic hand executed with the fingernail or stylus in the technique known as khaṭṭ-i nākhunī ( خط ناخنی / khaṭṭ-e nākhonī). Compare no. 1-85-154.63 at the Library of Congress and see description provided by Christiane Gruber in Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy (available online).Layout: Varies widely, pages carrying text with mainly 6-8 lines per page ; many pages carrying figurative or vegetal decoration only.Collation: Seven 'panels' (mounted leaves) hinged together with blue textile.Explicit: "ایا چرخ در پیش قدر تو واله ... تویی آنکه بر درگهت چرخ دربان كتبه ابو تراب افتاده"Incipit: "مديح سپهر رفعت بحر و قار و كدهي يكانه كوهر بحر كرم فؤاد پاشا ... "Title supplied by cataloguer.Ms. codex.Superb album of calligraphy (muraqqaʻ or murakkâ) employing verses of Anvari, etc. with interspersed figurative illustrations of lions, dragons, stags, bulls, etc. as well as vegetal motifs, all embossed in white paper likely with the fingernail, a technique known as khaṭṭ-i nākhunī ( خط ناخنی / khaṭṭ-e nākhonī). Contributions to the description from Ulrich Marzolph and Emily Neumeier.
Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center Isl. Ms. 278Origin: Neither signed nor dated ; decoration, paper, etc. may suggest late 18th or 19th century, though possibly later.Former shelfmark: "107" inscribed in pencil at opening ; "563 T. De M. [i.e. Tammaro De Marinis]" in pencil on lower pastedown.Binding: Boards (quite stiff) covered in tan and red brown leather ; Type III binding (without flap) ; pastedowns / doublures and flyleaves in block-printed faux marbled paper (evoking shell pattern in blue, green, yellow and orange) ; upper and lower covers carry stamped mandorla (filled with symmetrical vegetal composition, compare Déroche OSd 8), pendants and cornerpieces, with tooled and gold-painted borders ; panels hinged together with brown leather ; overall in fairly good condition with minor abrasion.Support: non-European (likely Persian) laid paper, written area well-burnished and surface-dyed shades of beige, pale yellow, etc., pieced and set in borders mainly of block-printed faux marbled paper (evoking shell pattern in blue, green, yellow and orange) and all mounted on dense boards ; border for opening panel in a true marbled paper.Decoration: Written area surrounded by 'gold'-painted frame defined by black fillets and mounted in borders mainly of block-printed faux marbled paper.Script: Nastaʻlīq (talik) ; large, exquisite calligraphic hand in a bold line.Layout: Written in 4 lines per page with logograph for "سعي" under each line ; frame-ruled.Collation: Three 'panels' (mounted leaves) hinged together with brown leather.Incipit: "ا ب ج د ر د ر س ش ص ط ع ف ق ك ك ل م ن و ه لا ى ي ..."Title supplied by cataloguer.Ms. codex.Fine album of calligraphy (muraqqaʻ / murakkaâ), namely pieces from a meşk murakkaa carrying alphabetic exercises (müfredat) through the letter sīn. Final piece incomplete with further excercises (mashq) on the reverse.
Manuscript. Persian. Title from colophon; each Gospel has separate caption title in red ink. Scribe not identified. Place of writing not determined; perhaps Iran. Paper; cream color, commercial laid paper with no visible chain lines or watermarks; black ink with rubrication; catchwords. Nastaʻliq; 17 lines in written area 25.5 x 16 cm. Fol. 1b-128a. Library of Congress. Persian manuscript, M103. Nineteenth century brown half leather binding with dark brown grain sides; commercial marbled pastedowns and marbled edging; binding separated from text block. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
Compostite manuscript written in at least three hands and on more than one type of paper containing eight treatises on astronomy and arithmetic with an introduction; diagrams within and between the works. Some of the works are dedicated to Muḥammad Valī Mīrzā, the third son of Fatḥ ʻAlī Shāh Qajar (see for example, f. 171v, 279r).
Collection of Persian poetry with an introductory table of contents by Saʻīd Nafīsī, a former owner (p.1). Several leaves copied by Nafīsī and inserted. They include two poems by Ḥāfiẓ (p. 156); 12 pages containing poems from the margins of a copy of Khusraw Dihlavī (p.197b-197l); and two poems missing from the Dīvān of Ḥakīm Tirmiz̲ī (unnumbered page after p. 259).
Collection of astronomical works by Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, which include material on sunset and sunrise, the size of the earth, the moon, the distance to the moon, the distance between the sun and the planets, movement of the spheres, and eclipses. Some marginal notes in another hand, affected by trimming.
Abstract: A collection of six texts on Sufism in Persian and Arabic.Binding note: Full burgundy leather binding with gilt-stamped fillets.Contents: 1. 20W, fol. 1b-9b: Treatise on the lawfulness of samāʻ. In Arabic.Contents: 2. 21W, fol. 14b-47a: Ḥasanāt al-ʻārifīn / Dārā Shikūh. In Persian; year of compilation is given as 1062H (1651 or 2) (fol. 14b).Contents: 3. 22W, fol. 48b-66b: Lavāyiḥ / Jāmī. In Persian. In Persian; dated Jumādá al-Thānī 1232H (April-May 1817) (fol. 66b).Contents: 4. 23W, fol. 67a-74b: Ṣulḥ-i kull / Khūb Muḥammad Chishtī. In Persian; composed in 1016H (1607 or 8) and dated Ramaḍān 1232H (July-August 1817) (fol. 74b).Contents: 5. 23W, fol. 75b-85a: Risālah / Muḥammad Bāqī Billāh. In Persian; dated Ramaḍān 1232H (July-August 1817) (fol. 85a).Contents: 6. 24W, fol. 86b-98b: Ayyuhā al-walad / al-Ghazzālī. In Arabic; dated Ramaḍān 1232H (July-August 1817) (fol. 98b). Followed by a short prayer in Arabic and Persian on fol. 99a.Ms. codex.Physical description: 15-19 lines per page; written in black by different hands on brown Arabic glazed, laid paper. Text 1 written in naskhi; texts 2-6 written in nastaʻliq. Catchwords and rubrication; a few marginal notes. Some insect damage. List of texts on fol. 1a and on label on front cover. Numbers 20-24 in Western numerals listed on label on back cover. Fol. 10a-14a, 47b-48a, 75a, 85b-86a, 99b-100 are either blank or contain title information by a later hand.Text 1 incipit: بسم الله ... الحمد لله الذي خص الاولىاء بحسن الاستماعText 2 incipit: بسم الله ... احدى راست حمد بىحد که حمد و حامد و محمود اوست و حمدى راستText 3 incipit: بسم الله ... رب وفقنا للتكميل والتميم لا احصى ثناء عليك كيف وكل ثنائي يعود اليكText 4 incipit: بسم الله ... حمد جلىلى را که بجمىع محامد محمد است و صلوات بر انسان کامل که در مرتبه جامع محمد استText 5 incipit: بسم الله ... الحمد لله الحمد لله که حقىقت از آفتاب روشن تر استText 6 incipit (after introduction): بسم الله ... ايها الولد العزيز المحب اطال الله بقاءك لطاعته
Probably a commentary or glossary, with words in an unidentified language, probably Persian.Condition: torn, holes, badly rubbed, stainedLayout: 17 lines