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This item has been added to the Database within the Explore Islamic Art Collections project. Information is available in: English, Arabic.

Name of Object:

The Night of Power (Shab-i Qadr)
Folio from the Khamsa of Amir Khusraw Dihlavi (1253–1325)

Location:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Holding Museum:

Aga Khan Museum

About Aga Khan Museum, Toronto

Date of Object:

ca. 1450

Museum Inventory Number:

AKM13

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Opaque watercolour and ink on paper

Dimensions:

34.8 x 25.2cm

Period / Dynasty:

Timurid

Provenance:

India, Delhi

Description:

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.

How Object was obtained:

Former Prince Saddrudin Aga Khan Collection

Selected bibliography:

[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.

Citation of this web page:

 "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

RELATED CONTENT

 Artistic Introduction

Islamic Dynasties / Period

Timurids


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