Persian MS 599 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Decoration

Illumination: Headpiece on folio 1b, hastily rendered in blue, orange, pink, green, and gold. Marginal ruling throughout, with a wide rule painted in pale ochre imitating gold that is outlined on both sides with thin black single and double lines, surrounded by single lines of red and blue.

Illustrations: Nine illustrations, with space for another one never completed, hastily rendered in bright colours and embellished in gold by an unknown artist in the mid-19th-century. Perhaps completed in Kashimir, the depictions recall popular portraits of the last Mughal rulers Akbar Shāh II (b. 1760 r. 1806–1837) and Muhammad Bahadur Shah II (1775-1862; r. 1837–1857). Unfortunatley, a bookbinder trimmed off many captions written vertically on the fore-edge when binding the volume.

• 14a 90 × 100 mm. Iskandar and his troops approach Jahāngīr Shāh in his fortress.
• 17b 78 × 101 mm. Ruler seated against a yellow cushion on a raised throne set on a veranda with two standing attendants, one before him bearing a dish, and the other fanning him from behind.
• 19a 90 × 102 mm. Ruler seated against a pink cushion set on a veranda with two men seated before him, while a guard stands in the foreground.
• 21a 90 × 102 mm. Ruler seated against a pink cushion on a raised throne set on a veranda with a man seated before him while an attendant fans him from behind.
• 28b 90 × 102 mm. Ruler wearing a turban seated against a pink cushion on a raised throne set on a veranda with two standing men, one before him while another is behind him with his arm raised (perhaps missing his fan?).
• 30a 65 × 102 mm. Unpainted, but captioned.
• 32a 75 × 104 mm. A bearded sage wears a yellow turban and sits against a pink cushion by a door converses with young man seated before him.
• 40b 80 × 102 mm. Man enters a door before a seated female figure. Uncaptioned.
• 49a 90 × 100 mm. Man seated before a seated ruler on a veranda with a male attendant fanning the latter from behind.
• 51a 76 × 102 mm. Man seated before a seated female on a veranda. Caption states that it depicts a dervish.