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Jami (1414-92)

Tuhfat al-ahrar تحفة الاحرار (The Gift of the Free) c. 1500 - c. 1550

Manuscript on gold-sprinkled paper with illumination on f.1v, and section headings written in blue and gold. | 23.9 x 15.9 cm (book measurement (conservation)) | RCIN 1005019

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  • An early sixteenth-century volume of the Persian mystical poem the Tuhfat al-Ahrar (Gift of the Free) by Abd al-Rahman Jami (d. 1492), signed by Mir Ali Haravi (d. 1544).

    Jami was a Sufi scholar and spiritual leader of the Timurid period who wrote poetry and prose in both Persian and Arabic. His works are permeated by the mysticism of the Andalusian philosopher Ibn al-Arabi and make conscious references to the Persian literary past. The Tuhfat al-Ahrar is the third of Jami’s seven masnavis (very long, rhyming poems) known collectively as the Haft Awrang (Seven Thrones). He wrote it in 1481 in response to Nizami’s Makzan al-Asrar and dedicated it to his Sufi spiritual guide, Khwajah Ahrar. It contains twenty maqala (discourses), each expounding a different religious or moral theme (prayer, alms-giving, pilgrimage etc.) followed by a narrative anecdote.

    This copy of the text is signed by Mir Ali Haravi (Haravi meaning ‘of Herat’), a master Persian calligrapher and poet attached to the Timurid court and student of Sultan Ali Mashhadi (see RCINs 1005032 and 1005033). The text is written on panels of highly-burnished gold-flecked handmade paper enclosed in wider gold-flecked paper borders. Many of the manuscript’s original sixteenth-century borders are dyed blue. Some of these survive, but others are later, thicker, replacements in a pale sand colour. The opening page features an illuminated heading, original to the manuscript, and later intertextual illumination appears on folios 1v-2r and 69v-78r.

    The gilt stamped black morocco covers date to c.1800 and are no longer attached to the text block.

    For large-scale qitas (short pieces of poetry), signed ‘Mir Ali’ see RCINs 1005039 and 1005068.

    For a Mughal portrait of Jami, see RCIN 1005038.ba
  • Medium and techniques

    Manuscript on gold-sprinkled paper with illumination on f.1v, and section headings written in blue and gold.

    Measurements

    23.9 x 15.9 cm (book measurement (conservation))


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