Or 16430 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

A single illustrated folio containing verses by the great lyric poet Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ (d. ca. 791/1389). For a detailed discussion of Ḥāfiẓ in English, see the various articles under ‘Ḥāfeẓ (Hafez), Šams al-Dīn Moḥammad’, in EIr XI, pp. 461-507.

This is an example of work produced in an archaistic style, very probably for the tourist market. The folio has no overpainted text and was probably formerly blank but for the text frames. It contains parts of two ghazals, one of which does not appear in all the critical editions of the Dīvān. The painting, an outdoor scene, depicts a man, who is kneeling, a young lady, who is standing, attended by two men and by two women, one a harpist. It exemplifies the more skilful type of archaistic painting, imitating late 10th/16th or 11th/17th century models. The pigments used are of poor quality, and while hair and beards are well executed, fingers are excessively elongated.

Undated. Both text and painting are probably 13th/19th or 14th/20th century.

Indifferent nasta‘līq script. 12 lines. No catchwords. Text frames; Black, gold, red. Gilt panel with floral ornament beside the concluding bayt and above the miniature. Off-white medium laid paper. Small tears (one in the miniature) and creases. 1 folio. 195 x 123 mm.; 106 x 59 mm.; miniature 96 x 62 mm. Unbound. Acquired with two manuscripts as part of a single auction lot.

Purchased from Bonhams (19 April 2007, lot 29/3).