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The Topkapı Manuscript of the Jāmiᶜ al-Tawārikh (Hazine 1654) from Rashidiya to the Ottoman Court: A Preliminary Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Mohamad Reza Ghiasian*
Affiliation:
University of Bamberg and University of Kashan
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Abstract

The famous Persian version of the Jāmiᶜ al-Tawārikh (Hazine 1654) has never been studied with the care it deserves. Since its transcription was completed a year before Rashid al-Din’s execution, it remained unfinished while approximately seven illustrations were inserted into it, and the locations of other illustrations were left blank. Careful examination of the manuscript reveals that almost all of the empty spaces left for narrative illustrations were painted during the last decades of the fourteenth century. Having decided to improve the quality of the manuscript, the kitābkhāna of Shāhrukh, in the fifteenth century, completed the missing passages of text and restored or overpainted some of its illustrations. The dedicatory inscription of Farhād Khān Qarāmānlu indicates that the manuscript was refurbished again in the Safavid period. The last artistic additions to the manuscript were overpainting an illustration and insertion of two illuminated friezes in the Ottoman Istanbul. This paper, which is a result of close examination of the original manuscript, explains the complicated life history of the book.

Information

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Association For Iranian Studies, Inc
Figure 0

Figure 1. Detail of folio 1a from a copy of the Jāmiᶜ al-Tawārikh, opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper, Tabriz, 1317. Topkapı Sarayı Library (Hazine 1654), photo by courtesy of the Topkapı Sarayı Library.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Detail of Figure 4.

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Figure 3. Detail of Figure 4.

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Figure 4. “Enthronement of Malikshāh ibn Alb Arsalān,” detail of folio 204b from a copy of the Jāmiᶜ al-Tawārikh, opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper, Tabriz, 1317. Topkapı Sarayı Library (Hazine 1654), photo courtesy of the Topkapı Sarayı Library.

Figure 4

Figure 5. Detail of Figure 1.

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Figure 6. “Moses orders to burn the golden calf,” detail of folio 283b from a copy of the Jāmiᶜ al-Tawārikh, opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper, Tabriz, 1317. Topkapı Sarayı Library (Hazine 1654), photo courtesy of the Topkapı Sarayı Library.

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Table A1. Table of the illustrations1

A correction has been issued for this article: