JALAYIRID IRAN, DATED JUMADA II AH 763/MARCH-APRIL 1362 AD
 
This folio is a rare survival from the library of the Jalayrid ruler Shaykh Uways (r.1356-74). With their courts in Tabriz and Baghdad, the Jalayrids were important patrons of the arts of the illustrated book and were behind some of the most impressive manuscripts to survive from the later part of the fourteenth century.Although written sources present him as a great patron of the arts and literature, very few manuscripts actually refer to Shaykh Uways by name. Abolala Soudavar suggests that the ‘Five Suras’ manuscript, folios of which have sold in the major auction houses (see for example Sotheby’s, London, 8 October 2008, lot 19), was copied in Baghdad for his library (Soudavar, 1992, no.19, pp.50-51).In their article on Jalayrid manuscripts in the libraries of Istanbul, Filiz Çagman and Zeren Tanindi mention that only one manuscript which refers to him by name is published (Çagman and Tanindi, 2011, p.222). That reference is made by the calligrapher Haji Muhammad in one of the Topkapi Palace Albums which includes specimens by well-known scribes of the period (Ms B.411, f.107a). On the folio in question, which is dated AH 783/1381 AD, the calligrapher mentions ‘Shaykh Uways Bahadur Khan’. This is precisely the same format in which the ruler’s name is given on our folio.The illuminated headpiece of our folio is very finely executed. In both its colour and its small details it bears close resemblance to an illuminated shamsa that prefaces the only known copy of al-Tuhfat al-najibiyya li-hadrat al-saltanat al-Uwaysiyya (A Beautiful Present for the Ruler of the Uvaysid Sultanate), an Arabic work in nasta’liq script, now in the Topkapi Palace Museum Library (Ms.65, fol.1r). That manuscript is bound in fine brown morocco which bears an amazingly documentary tooled inscription stating not only that it was prepared ‘under the patronage of the son of the all-conquering and victorious Shah Uways’, but also giving the name of the person who made it and stating that it was done in Tabriz in the year AH 775/1373-74 AD, ten years after our manuscript was completed (Çagman and Tanindi, 2011, p.224). The fact that the illumination of the shamsa of that manuscript is so closely related to ours suggests that our manuscript might also have been produced in Tabriz.Our folio bears numerous interesting signs that give hints of its later provenance. An Ottoman library mark above the illuminated panel indicates that at some the manuscript travelled to Turkey – possibly taken at the time of the Ottoman conquest of Tabriz in 1514. A hint at its later history is in the note on the bottom of the recto of the folio which states that it was received from Algiers in July 184(3), during which time the French conquest of Algeria was ongoing.