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The Night of Power (Shab-i Qadr)Folio from the Khamsa of Amir Khusraw Dihlavi (1253–1325)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Aga Khan Museum
About Aga Khan Museum, Toronto
ca. 1450
AKM13
Opaque watercolour and ink on paper
34.8 x 25.2cm
Timurid
India, Delhi
This folio illustrates an episode from a five-part poem known as the Khamseh (Quintet), written in Persian between 1298 and 1305[1] by the prominent Indian poet Amir Khusraw Dihlavi. Known widely as Khusraw, he also wrote historical epics and romances, and worked under Turkish nobles in India in the late 13th century before entering the patronage of the royal court in Delhi, India.[2] Khusraw’s Khamseh (Quintet) evokes in its form and style a five-poem collection by the Persian poet Nizami (d. 1209). This copy of the Khamseh was produced near Delhi in the 15th century.[3] At some point in its history, its contents were dispersed. 'The Night of Power' (Shab-i Qadr) is the sole folio in the Aga Khan Museum Collection that originates from this dispersed manuscript.
Former Prince Saddrudin Aga Khan Collection
[1] Junod, Benoît and Ladan, Akbarnia (eds), Los Mundos del Islam en la Colección del Museo Aga Khan, Barcelona: Fundación La Caixa, 2009: 74.
[2] Welch and Welch, Arts of the Islamic Book, Ithaca: Published for the Asia Society by Cornell University Press, 1982: 146.
[3] Junod, Benoît and Ladan, Akbarnia (eds), Los Mundos del Islam en la Colección del Museo Aga Khan, Barcelona: Fundación La Caixa, 2009: 74.
Junod, Benoît and Ladan, Akbarnia, Los mundos del Islam en la colección del Museo Aga Khan, Barcelona: Fundacion La Caixa, 2009. ISBN: 9788499000138.
Welch, Anthony and Welch, Stuart Cary, Arts of the Islamic Book: The Collection of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, Ithaca: Published for the Asia Society by Cornell University Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780801415487.
"The Night of Power (Shab-i Qadr)Folio from the Khamsa of Amir Khusraw Dihlavi (1253–1325)" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;ca;Mus21;14;en
MWNF Working Number: CA1 14
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