2. f. 4r Commander (sardar) 'Abdullah Khan surrounded by courtiers. The image of the commander (sardar) 'Abdullah Khan (unidentified).

Source description:

Lot 7: Abd al-Rahman Baba, Divan, Sufi poetry, in two books, commissioned by 'Abdallah Khan Barakza'i, copied by the scribe Mulla Vali, with 47 illustrations

Kashmir, dated 4th Jumadi I, 1213/14th October 1798

Abd al-Rahman Baba, Divan, Sufi poetry, in two books, commissioned by 'Abdallah Khan Barakza'i, copied by the scribe Mulla Vali, with 47 illustrations Kashmir, dated 4th Jumadi I, 1213/14th October 1798 Pashtu manuscript on paper, 229 leaves, 2 later flyleaves, 2 doublures of marbled paper at beginning and end, with interleaves, 9 lines to the page written in two columns in an Indian naskhi script in black ink, headings and significant verses written in red ink flanked by panels decorated with floral sprays on gold ground, interlinear and intercolumnar rules in gold, outer margins ruled in colours and gold, catchwords in outer margins, 47 miniatures and 2 illuminated headpieces in colours and gold, extensive colophon written in clear naskhi script in red ink followed by a chapter written horizontally and diagonally in nasta'liq script in alternating black and red ink, contemporary or early 19th Century floral lacquer binding, covers decorated with sprays of flowers and foliage including wild red roses and tulips in colours and some gold on a black ground, doublures decorated with a central Kashmiri floral bouquet on a red ground.

Dimensions: 210 x 145 mm.

Footnotes

Provenance: Private Spanish collection: acquired by the seller's grandmother in the 1950s.

'Abd al-Rahman was a celebrated Pashtu Sufi poet known as 'Abd al-Rahman Baba (1632–1706). His poetry is regarded very highly in Pashtu literature, and texts were in wide circulation by the early 18th Century. His tomb is in the outskirts of Peshawar. Other copies of this work are in the British Library, the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

The main text end with a page of couplets written in red, mentioning the name Amin Khan, Governor of Kashmir (unidentified), the Amir, and 'me' (the scribe, or the poet) madly perambulating Kashmir.

The colophon reads: 'The book of 'Abd al-Rahman was completed by the order of [...] 'Abdulah Khan Barakza'i, the son of the deceased Khodadad [...] in the land of Kashmir [...] by Mulla Vali on 4 Jumadi i, 1213 (14 October 1798)', followed by two couplets asking the reader to pray for the scribe and forgive his sins.

The patron, his father and the scribe are not identified.

There follow three pages in nasta'liq script in black and red ink, comprising texts in Persian, stories of kings who had many wives, excerpts from different texts. On the very last page, there is a Persian couplet by the author.