A Compendium of Chronicles: 27 (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art) - Tapa dura

The Collection owns a section of what is, without doubt, one of the most important illustrated medieval manuscripts from either East or West. The Jami` al-tawarikh or `Compendium of Chronicles' was written by the 14th-century court historian Rashid al-Din, under the patronage of the Ilkhanids. The 59 folios in the Collection - reproduced here in colour for the first time after their recent restoration - together with those in the Edinburgh University Library, form a fragment of the earliest surviving Arabic copy of the work. An appendix in this volume reintegrates these folios and reconstructs their original order. The author discusses the identity and techniques of the calligraphers and painters involved, analyses the sources for the illustrations, and reveals the importance of this manuscript in the history of the Persian book. The author also traces the manuscript's journey from Rashid al-Din's scriptorium in Tabriz, through Timurid Herat, through the 19th-century Mughal court and the East India Company, to its acquisition by the Royal Asiatic Society. The volume also includes a translation by W.M. Thackston of the articles of endowment of the Rabi' Rashidi.

This work reconstructs the often complex history of the Nasser D. Khalili Collection's ownership, explains its role in the evolution of the illustrated Persian book, and challenges the belief that the Nour fragment and that at the University of Edinburgh are parts of different manuscripts. The Nasser D. Khalili Collection is the greatest collection of Islamic art in private hands. Among its holdings of manuscripts is a fragmentary copy in Arabic of the Jami al-Tawarikh or Universal History, one of the greatest illustrated medieval manuscripts to have survived from either East or West. Written by the historian and vizier to the Ilkhanid court, Rashid al-Din, and copied in Tabriz between 1310 and 1315 by the author's own calligraphers and illustrators, the manuscript's importance as the first world history was quickly recognized. Sheila Blair reconstructs the often complex history of its ownership, explains its seminal role in the evolution of the illustrated Persian book, and challenges the belief of previous scholars that the Nour fragment and that in the Library of the University of Edinburgh are parts of different manuscripts. Her study of the manuscript's text and miniatures - accompanied by numerous colour details and duotone illustrations of comparative material - provides fascinating insights into the state of pre-Mongol painting and the working practices of a Persian atelier over six hundred years ago.