Folio from a Mihr-u Mushtari by Shams al-Din Muhammad Assar Tabrizi (d.1382)

Maker(s)
Calligrapher: Ibrahim Khalil
Historical period(s)
Shaybanid dynasty, Uzbek period, 1523 (929 A.H.)
Medium
Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Dimensions
H x W: 26.4 x 16.8 cm (10 3/8 x 6 5/8 in)
Geography
Uzbekistan, Bukhara
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1932.4
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Manuscript
Type

Manuscript folio

Keywords
illumination, nasta'liq script, Uzbek period (1500 - 1598), Uzbekistan
Provenance

Before 1914-? 
Victor Goloubew (1878-1945), method of acquisition unknown [1]

About 1914-1932
Ownership information unknown [2]

?-to at least 1932 
H. Kevorkian, New York, method of acquisition unknown [3] 

From 1932 
The Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from H. Kevorkian, New York [4] 

Notes:

[1] See Philipp Walter Schulz, “Die Persich-islamische Miniaturmalerei” v.2 [book] (Leipzig: Verlag von Karl W. Hiersemann, 1914), pl. 118a. Schulz attributes the folio to the collection of Victor de Goloubew. Victor Goloubew was a Russian aristocrat who collected Persian, South-Asian, and European art. An archaeologist and engineer, he was among the first to use aerial photography to study Angkor Wat in Cambodia. He moved to Paris in 1904, and after losing his property in the Russian revolution he sold most of his collections.   

[2] See Laurence Binyon, J.V.S. Wilkinson and Basil Grey, “Persian Miniature Painting: Including a Critical Descriptive catalogue of the Miniatures Exhibited at Burlington House, January-March, 1931” [book] (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), p. 123, no.106, pls. LXXIX-LXXX. Entry states: “Four full-page miniatures. Lacquer binding. Lent by Kalebdjian [sic.], Paris”. Kalebjian Frères was an antiquities gallery in Paris operated by brothers Hagop and Garbis (1885-1954). They also maintained business in Cairo. See also note in TMS: the folio is part of a set (F1932.2a-b – F1932.8) and is the frontispiece of Ms. F1937.3a-b; an archived note in TMS for ms. F1932.3a-b states: The book was unbound March 23, 1932, at the Freer Gallery.

[3] Hagop Kevorkian (1872-1962), was a dealer and collector of Islamic and Persian works with eponymous galleries in New York and Paris. See March 17, 1932, letter to J.E. Lodge, copy in object file; see also note 3. 

[4] See H. Kevorkian invoice to Freer Gallery of Art, February 2, 1932, and marked approved on February 2, 1932.  

Research Completed December 15, 2022

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Hagop Kevorkian 1872-1962
Victor Goloubew 1878-1945

Published References
  • Richard Ettinghausen, Ernst Kuhnel. A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present. 6 vols., London and New York, 1938 - 1939. vol. 3: p. 1871.
  • Philipp Walter Schulz. Die Persisch-Islamische Miniaturmalerei: Ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte Irans. 2 vols, Leipzig. vol. 2: pl. 118a.
  • Stanley Lane-Poole. The Muhammadan Dynasties. Orientalism: Early Sources, vol. 2, reprint. London. p. 272.
Collection Area(s)
Arts of the Islamic World
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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