Folio of the second Discourse from Nizami's Treasury of Secrets

Folio of the second Discourse from Nizami's Treasury of Secrets

Signed Hussein Ali al-Katab, Herat, circa 1522

Ink, gouache and gold on paper pasted on a cardboard page, eight in Persian, in nastaliq, in reserve in the clouds on a gold background trimmed with foliage. Text: 19 x 9 cm. Page: 29 x 8.5 cm. This folio is taken from a Persian anthology manuscript whose pages are scattered between the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin (inv. Per 209 and 210) and those sold at auction. The name of the recipient of this anthology, Shah Duran Ustajlu, a Safavid dignitary, appears on a polylobed marginal cartouche in a scattered page (Christie's 28.10.2021, lot 75) and also in a copy of Nizami's Quintet kept at the Cleveland Museum. The particular ornamentation of all these pages, and that of two other known and complete manuscripts, reflects the taste for decorative stencilling in Khorasan towards the end of the 16th century. The folio's poly-lobed marginal cartouches, bordered by foliage, feature polychrome painted figures, Savoji quatrains and the name of the calligrapher Hussein Ali al -Katab, who similarly signed another manuscript preserved in the Russian National Library (inv. PNS 145) dated 1598. An illustration of the second Discourse, from a Treasury of Secrets by Nizami, Signed Hussein Ali al-Katab, Herat, circa 1522