[Calligraphic specimen, 1281?, i.e. 1864 or 1865].

Superb album of calligraphy (muraqqaʻ or murakkâ) employing verses of Anvari, etc. with interspersed figurative illustrations of lions, dragons, stags, bulls, etc. as well as vegetal motifs, all embossed in white paper likely with the fingernail, a technique known as khaṭṭ-i nākhunī ( خط ناخنی / khaṭṭ-e nākhonī). Contributions to the description from Ulrich Marzolph and Emily Neumeier.Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center, Isl. Ms. 279Origin: Date below vase with large floral spray 1281 [1864 or 5] ; other features also suggest 19th century. As appears in opening text, possibly executed for the Ottoman statesman Mehmet Fuat Paşa (d.1869).Former shelfmark: "598 [?]" inscribed in pencil on verso of 'front' flyleaf ; "123" inscribed in pencil on recto of 'back' flyleaf.Binding: Pasteboards covered in dark green leather (appearance of straight-grain leather but likely impressed straight grain or other artificial grain) ; Type II binding (with flap) ; pastedowns and flyleaves in a streaked paper (in yellow, dark purple, etc. reminiscent of tree-marbling or stream marbling) ; upper and lower covers carry gold-stamped central vegetal pendant, corner accents and vegetal border ; sewn in red thread, four stations, failed ; overall in fair condition with abrasion, staining, etc.Support: Paper of written area embossed to carry text and figurative designs, set in surface-dyed frames of bright green and mounted on pasteboards.Decoration: Embossed borders (reminiscent of mountains) as well as vegetal and figurative designs with such animals as lions, dragons, stags, bulls, etc. accenting the calligraphy or filling a page.Script: Mainly nastaʻlīq with occasional thuluth ; exquisite calligraphic hand executed with the fingernail or stylus in the technique known as khaṭṭ-i nākhunī ( خط ناخنی / khaṭṭ-e nākhonī). Compare no. 1-85-154.63 at the Library of Congress and see description provided by Christiane Gruber in Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy (available online).Layout: Varies widely, pages carrying text with mainly 6-8 lines per page ; many pages carrying figurative or vegetal decoration only.Collation: Seven 'panels' (mounted leaves) hinged together with blue textile.Explicit: "ایا چرخ در پیش قدر تو واله ... تویی آنکه بر درگهت چرخ دربان كتبه ابو تراب افتاده"Incipit: "مديح سپهر رفعت بحر و قار و كدهي يكانه كوهر بحر كرم فؤاد پاشا ... "Title supplied by cataloguer.Ms. codex.Library of Congress no. 1-85-154.63, available onlineʻArabʻzādah, Abū al-Faz̤l. "Muʻarrifī-i as̲arī-i nādir al-vujūd va nafīs: Khaṭṭ-i nākhunī." Payām-i Bahāristān, dawrah-i 2, shumārah-i 4, (Tābistān 1388 [2009]):Zakariya, Mohamed. "Islamic calligraphy: A technical overview." In Brocade of the pen: the art of Islamic writing. Carol Garrett Fisher, ed. (East Lansing, MI: Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, 1991):Brocade of the pen : the art of Islamic writing. Carol Garrett Fisher, ed. (East Lansing, MI: Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, 1991),Superb album of calligraphy (muraqqaʻ or murakkâ) employing verses of Anvari, etc. with interspersed figurative illustrations of lions, dragons, stags, bulls, etc. as well as vegetal motifs, all embossed in white paper likely with the fingernail, a technique known as khaṭṭ-i nākhunī ( خط ناخنی / khaṭṭ-e nākhonī). Contributions to the description from Ulrich Marzolph and Emily Neumeier.Mode of access: Internet.Acquired by purchase (funds donated by Horace Rackham).Inscriptions in pencil "598 [?]" on verso of front flyleaf and "123" on recto of 'back' flyleaf ; red circular bookseller's sticker "De Marinis & Co. | 5 Vecchietti | Firenze" on 'upper' pastedown ; inscription in blue ink on recto of back flyleaf "على قوشى رسملى رسم ٧" ; clean copy

Dīvān-i Anvarī, [1265, i.e. 1849].

Fine copy of collected poems (mainly his qaṣāyid and muqaṭṭaʻāt without systematic arrangement) of Awḥad al-Dīn Anvarī (d.1189 or 90).Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Library, Isl. Ms. 283Origin: As appears in colophon on fol.227a (p.453), copied (حرره) by Muḥammad Taqī in the village of Ashtān [?] (در قصبه اشتان). Transcription finished 7th Ramaḍān 1265 [ca. 27 July 1849].Accompanying materials: Slip of laid paper with writing ; on one side in black ink, what appears to be a list of books, works ; on the other side in red and black ink, notes on grammar.Binding: Pasteboards faced in red leather with spine, edges / turn-ins, doublures and doublure hinges in rich, green-blue (teal) leather (leather faced and edged framed binding) ; Type III binding (without flap) though not flush with this text block ; two-piece binding (seam of overlapping flanges visible at spine) ; upper and lower covers bear central scalloped mandorla and pendants, blind-stamped with recessed onlays in green (reminiscent of oxidized "gold" paint) and traces of gold paint on floral design within ; border composed of a series of s-shaped stamps, gold painted and flanked by gold fillets ; sewn in green thread, two stations ; fine chevron endbands in purple and green ; in good condition with some minor abrasion, wear at corners, staining, etc.Support: Machine wove paper of a few different types, all fairly thick, well-burnished ; watermarks / countermarks include Cyrillic "Г г С" (large letters in script, see p.8, 16, 24, 122, etc.), possible Cyrillic "К Я" (in p.158 etc.), Cyrillic "A Б" (p.202, 402, 404, 432, 442, etc. and cf. example in Klepikov p.38 dated 1851), and possible numerals 1 8 (p.424 etc.) 4 6 (p.400, 420 etc.) suggesting year 1846 ; embossed mark in p.233, 247, 322, 447, etc. (oval with only trace of border inscription, etc.) ; some staining, moisture damage, ink smudges ; tacky ink has resulted in blocking in some places.Decoration: Illuminated headpiece (ʻunwān) on fol.1b (p.2) consisting of narrow rectangular panel with cartouche bearing the basmalah surmounted by scalloped w-shaped piece with swirling floral vegetal design in light blue, pink, orange, red, pistachio and white, on a field of gold with lapis lazuli accents ; above the piece stand vertical stalks (tigh) in blue ; the piece is framed in a well consisting of a heavy red band with scalloped decoration in white, flanked by bands of pistachio and gold ; text throughout is ruled in a simple frame consisting of a narrow gold band outlined in black fillets with an outermost blue fillet and at some distance in the margin a second blue fillet ; text rubricated with section headings, overlinings, etc. in red.Script: Nastaʻlīq ; small, elegant Persianate hand in medium line ; sans serif with characteristic descent of words to baseline, superscripting of final letters and words, elongation of horizontal strokes, pointing in distinct dots.Layout: Written in 25 lines per page ; single column divided to two columns to set off poetry ; frame-ruled.Collation: ii, 26 IV (216), III+1 (223), II (227), ii ; chiefly quaternions ; catchwords present ; pagination in pencil, Western numerals, supplied during cataloguing.Colophon: "Scribal," triangular, in Arabic and Persian, reads: "تمت الکتاب بعون الله الملک الوهاب بتاریخ یوم هفتم شهر رمضان المبارک سنه ۱۲۶٥ هزار و دویست و شصت و پنج هجری در قصبه اشتان حرره محمد تقی" followed by scribal verses.Explicit: "منم از قاضیان مشار الیه وان دگر کیر ماست عز علیه"Incipit: "مقدری نه بالت بقدرت مطلق کند ز شکل بخاری چو کنبد ازرق ..."Title from fore-edge.Ms. codex.[Klepikov, Sokrat Aleksandrovich] = Клепиков, С.А. Филиграни и штемпели на бумаге русского и иностранного производства XVII-XX вв [= Watermarks and stamps in paper of Russian and foreign production of the XVII-XX centuries] (Москва: Изд-во Всесоюзной Книжной палаты, 1959),Anvarī, Awḥad al-Dīn. Dīvān-i Anvarī, ed. Saʻīd Nafīsī. Tehran, 1959.Cat. Pers. MSS. Brit Mus.,Fine copy of collected poems (mainly his qaṣāyid and muqaṭṭaʻāt without systematic arrangement) of Awḥad al-Dīn Anvarī (d.1189 or 90).Mode of access: Internet.Acquired by purchase (funds donated by Horace Rackham).On fol.227a (p.453) an oval seal impression in black ink with inscription "ما اقا حسن...؟" and accompanied by ownership statement dated 25 Dhū al-Qaʻdah 1304 [ca. 15 August 1887] in the name of Shaykh Muḥammad Ḥasan (شيخ محمد حسن), reads "این کتاب مال اقل خلایق شیخ محمد حسن است فی یوم پنج شنبه ۲٥ ذی قعده ١٣٠۴" ; seal impression is repeated on fol.227b (p.454) ; former ineventory mark on verso of front flyleaf "100 T. De M. [i.e. Tammaro De Marinis" ; a few marginal corrections (mainly supplying omissions, some in red ink), a few notabilia (side-heads), otherwise very clean copy