Back
On fol. 1b, the decoration of the ornamental heading imitates Timurid style in red, orange, blue and gold and a small central golden medallion. This panel has probably been retouched in late 18th- or early 19th-century Turkey.
On fol. 67b, an ornamental panel signals the end of the book. The golden square is divided into different frames and vertical borders with arabesques and red-pink floral tendrils. They bear a rosette-shaped blue medallion with four circular extensions. Within this medallion, a central golden interlace star extends outwards into intricate golden arabesque configurations. Around this central form are cartouche shapes framed by green intertwined arabesque tendrils.
This full-page painting on fol. 10b depicts Humay beholding the image of Humayun in the Fairy (Pari) Palace. The typically richly decorated interior of a Timurid palace is shown through embellishments of gold, blue, light green, vermilion and white. Humay sits on a small golden throne in the middle of the picture and to his left and right are winged fairies standing in pairs. Above him hangs the image of Humayun, the daughter of the Emperor of China. As the story goes, Humay becomes so enchanted by her image that he falls in love with her. In the foreground, four additional fairies are playing music as seen in the bottom corners of the page, and in the centre is a table with drinking vessels. There are occasional cracks in the surface of the page, and some faces appear to have been rubbed off, particularly those in the lower left hand corner. Close connections can be established with a painting in an Iskandar anthology (BL Add. 27261, fol. 225b, British Library), while the later adoption of this composition for a different iconographic content is also apparent (H. 781, fol. 244b, Topkapi Sarayi).
This full-page miniature on fol. 32b depicts a hunt of Fagfur, the Emperor of China. The central action shows the emperor on horseback shooting an arrow that has pierced the hind leg and ear of a wild ass. Further up on the left, there are two escorts on horseback, one of whom holds an umbrella. The other horseman riding underneath the umbrella appears to have been (perhaps deliberately) rubbed off. Furthermore, on the right, placed frontally, is a mounted harpist and to his left are two people handling a drinking vessel and a cup. At the bottom, half-hidden by a rock, four men are watching two fleeing wild asses on the right. At the top-right corner, the cream- and violet-coloured desert and rocky landscape interrupt the painting frame, creating a gap in the rectangular frame of the text box. A few lines of verse are visible over the gilded sky on the left. Priscilla Soucek interpreted the hunting Emperor of China as Baysunghur, and the harpist on horseback as a portrait of the court musician and close friend of the Timurid prince, Yusuf Andakani (Yusuf Amiri). More broadly this composition offers a parallel to the frequently illustrated scene of Bayram Gur hunting with his lute player Fitna, for example as seen in MET 13.228.13.3 (Metropolian Museum of Art). It has been postulated that both paintings are derived from an unknown original model.
This full-page miniature on fol. 53a depicts Humay, who has been enclosed by Fagfur, the Emperor of China, in a palace surrounded by moats and walls. Humay looks sorrowfully out of a half-latticed window, above which is a calligraphed Arabic inscription: "Long may your strength and endurance be preserved!". Further to the lower right, above the iwan-like wide balcony or window, in which a maid and two servants are sitting, is written in kufic script in Arabic: "To his (the palace's) owners happiness and well-being". Above, there are two columns of the main text of the poem. The richly decorated and gilded palace in grey-blue and salmon-pink against a golden sky is surrounded by green and flowering trees and shrubs. Rocks also tower in the foreground, and a bridge leads across the (darkly oxidised) silver water of the moat to the closed pointed-arched gate of the castle wall crowned with battlements. Particularly in the lower part of the painting, the miniature is damaged by cracks which have caused the paint to chip off. A corresponding composition can be found in H. 796, fol. 155b (Topkapi Sarayi). As such, both miniatures must have had a common model.
This item has been added to the Database within the Explore Islamic Art Collections project. Information is available in: English, Arabic.
Name of Object:
Khwaja Kirmani, Mahmud Ibn-Ali, Humay u Humayun (Humay and Humayun)
Location:
Vienna, Austria
Holding Museum:
Austrian National Library (ANL)
About Austrian National Library (ANL), Vienna
Date of Object:
AH 831 / 1427-28 AD
Scribe(s):
Shams-ad-Din Muhammad b. Husam al-Harawi
Museum Inventory Number:
N.F. 382
Material(s) / Technique(s):
Ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper. Calligraphic nasta‘liq in three columns, 20 or 23 lines per page (Persian).
Dimensions:
242 x 145mm (166 x 90mm). ff. II, II*, 67 folios
Period / Dynasty:
Timurid
Place of production:
Herat, Afghanistan
Workshop / Movement:
Imperial workshop of Baysunghur at Timurid Herat
Provenance:
Herat, Afghanistan
Binding:
The half-leather binding has gold embossing on its spine while the front and back are composed of cardboard clad marbled paper, the style of which situates its production in 19th-century Vienna.
Description:
This manuscript is a copy of Mahmud Ibn-Ali Khwaja Kirmani’s (1290-1352) “Humay and Humayun”. It was calligraphed by the scribe Shams al-Din Muhammad (b. Husam al-Harawi) at an Imperial workshop of the Timurid prince Baysunghur (1397-1433) who was a famous patron of arts. The colophon gives the name of the scribe as well as the date AH 831 (1427-28 AD) and the place of completion, which was Herat. The manuscript belongs to a series of luxurious manuscripts executed in Herat for Baysunghur, but which are now scattered among many collections and museums all over the world. The scribe was also known as Shams Baysunghuri or Shamsuddin al-Sultani and he was a student of Maulana Ma’ruf who was a calligrapher brought to Herat by the Timurid ruler Shahrukh. His dated works range from this manuscript, in AH 831, to AH 833 (Kalila and Dimna, Istanbul, TSM, R. 1022). Regarding the text block throughout the manuscript, the outer column is inscribed obliquely compared to the two other columns on the page which perhaps represents an added commentary to the text. These columns are decorated with triangular arabesque vignettes in gold and blue in its corners, and the entire page is framed and divided by blue and gold borders. The headings in white or gold thuluth within golden-framed and blue-golden panels are decorated with gold, white or green arabesques. There are three full-page miniatures in total, which are thought to be the work of a single painter who was inspired by particular models. The miniatures are still to some extent in the tradition of the painting style that was developed in Tabriz and Baghdad in the late Jalayirid period; a comparable manuscript is BL Add. 18113 found at the British Library. The conquest of these cities by the Timurids and the transfer of the artists and manuscripts to the courts of Samarkand and Herat allowed for the perfection of these earlier styles.
How date and origin were established:
Colophon: name of the scribe, completed in residence Herat, date.
How Object was obtained:
Entered the Austrian National Library in 1842 with Hammer-Purgstall's second collection.
How provenance was established:
There is an added border with owner's oriental stamp and the date AH 1227 / AD 1812 on Fol. 67 b. The owner's stamp of Hammer-Purgstall is also present, and dated AH 1223 / AD 1808-09.
Link to catalogue/digitisation in Holding Institution’s database:
http://data.onb.ac.at/rec/AC14410595
Selected bibliography:
Duda, Dorothea, Islamische Handschriften I. Persische Handschriften, Die illuminierten Handschriften und Inkunabeln der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, vol. 4, Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1983: 91-93.
Holter, Kurt, “Hundert und eine, vorwiegend persische illuminierte Handschriften“, Codices manuscripti, 23/24 (1998): 16.
Robinson, B.W, Fifteenth-Century Persian Painting: Problems and Issues, New York: New York University Press, 1991.
Soucek, Priscilla, “Comments on Persian Painting”, Iranian Studies, Journal of the Society for Iranian Cultural and Social Studies, VII (1974): 72-87.
Wellesz, E., “Eine Handschrift aus der Blütezeit frühtimuridischer Kunst”, Wiener Beiträge zur Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte Asiens, 10 (1936): 3-20.
Citation of this web page:
Theresa Zischkin "Khwaja Kirmani, Mahmud Ibn-Ali, Humay u Humayun (Humay and Humayun)" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;at;Mus24;4;en
Prepared by: Theresa Zischkin
Copyedited by: Sophie-Anne Mullen
MWNF Working Number: AT4 04
RELATED CONTENT
Islamic Dynasties / Period
On display in
Download
As PDF (including images) As Word (text only)