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[DE-SMB-ISL] I. 4598

Shelfmark
  • I. 4598
Title
  • [Album of Painting and Calligraphy]
Institution

Content

Title

↳ Established form
  • [Album of Painting and Calligraphy]
Region
Content
  • The album was completed for Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier de Bottens (1741–1795) between October 1774 and 1780 at the earliest, either in Faizabad or Delhi, before Polier left the service of the Mughal emperor Shāh ʿĀlam (r. 1760–1806) and moved to Lucknow in 1780. This is evident from the leaves signed by contemporary calligraphers, which are dated between 1185/1771-72 (f. 24b, 26b), 11 October 1774 (f. 21b) and 1188/1774-75 (f. 10b) and the fact that Polier is titled in the dedicatory inscription as ‘representative (navvāb) of exalted dignity [i.e. of the Mughal emperor?]’.
    The earliest miniature in this album is dated 1018/1609/10 (f. 2a), the earliest calligraphic piece 992/1584-85 (f. 5b).
Completeness
Language
Script
Editions/Literature
  • Eighteenth-Century Indian Muraqqaʿs: Audiences – Artists – Patrons and Collectors (Islamic Manuscripts and Books, vol. 23) / Friederike Weis (ed.). Leiden/Boston: Brill, forthcoming.
    [Tab. 7.1; overview of all folios = fig. 7.10; f. 1b-2a = fig. 10.11; f. 5b-6a = fig. 7.14; f. 7b-8a = fig. 7.13; f. 10b = fig. 12.10; f. 14b-15a = fig. 7.15; f. 21b = fig. 12.1; f. 22b = fig. 12.2; f. 28a = fig. 12.5; f. 33b = fig. 12.3; f. 33ba = fig. 12.4; f. 40b = fig. 7.12 and fig. 9.9]
    *
  • India’s Fabled City: The Art of Courtly Lucknow / Stephen Markel with Tushara Bindu Gude (eds.). München et al.: DelMonico/Prestel, 2010.
    [f.19a = fig. 20]
    *
    Gladiß, Almut von:
    Albumblätter: Miniaturen aus den Sammlungen Indo-Islamischer Herrscherhöfe. München: Edition Minerva, 2010.
    [f. 2a = fig. 8; f. 3a = fig. 30; f. 6a = fig. 24; f. 15a = fig. 46, f. 20a = fig. 57; f. 38a = fig. 42]
    *
    Museum für Islamische Kunst: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Mainz: von Zabern, 2001.
    [f. 2a = illus. on p. 144]
    *
  • Indische Albumblätter: Miniaturen und Kalligraphien aus der Zeit der Moghul-Kaiser / Regina Hickmann (ed.). Leipzig/Weimar: Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, 1979.
    [f. 2a = pl. 5; f. 29a = pl. 45; f. 29b = pl. 46]
    *
    Kühnel, Ernst:
    Arbeiten des Rizâ 'Abbâsi und seiner Schule.
    In: Forschungen und Berichte (1957), S. 122-131.
    [f. 25a = fig. 12]

Description of the object

Record type
Format
Number of volumes
  • 1
Boxing
  • 41.5 x 29.0 cm
Binding
  • brown leather binding with gilded embossing at the edges and in the centre

Writing material

↳ Material
↳ State of preservation
  • disbound, loose folios, each with one page of calligraphy and one page of painting; f. 34 missing
Number of folios
  • 40, European pagination
Dimensions
  • 40.5 x 28.5 cm

Script

↳ Style
↳ Ink
Illumination
  • margins with floral decoration
Miniatures
  • 39 miniatures, 37 calligraphic compositions, one rosette (Shamsa) with dedicatory inscription

History of the object

Entstehung

Copy

Faizabad (Awadh) oder Delhi, Indien (GND: 4330287-7, GND: 4277882-7, GND: 4011371-1)

Autograph

1774-1780

  • Calligrapher
↳ Name
↳ Note on the Person
  • signature on f. 4b:
    مشق میر محمد حسین عطا خان مرصع رقم
    mashq-i Mīr Muḥammad Ḥusayn ʿAṭā Khān Muraṣṣaʿ Raqam
    signature on f. 21b:
    در فیضاباد بتاریخ ثنجم شهر شعبان المعظم سنه ۱۱۸۸ هجری مطابق سنه ۱۵ جلوس حضرت شاه علام ...غازی خلده الله ملکه و سلطنته
    قلم کمترین بندگان الله میر محمد حسین عطا خان مرصع رقم تحریر نمود
    dar faiz̤ābād ba-tārīkh-i panjum-i shahr-i Shaʿbān al-muʿaẓẓam sana 1188 hijrī muṭābiq-i sana 15 julūs-i ḥaz̤rat-i Shāh ʿĀlam ... Ghāzī khallada Allāh mulkah wa-salṭanatah / qalam-i kamtarīn bandagān Mīr Muḥammad Ḥusayn ʿAṭā Khān Muraṣṣaʿ Raqam taḥrīr namūd
    'In Faizabad, on 5 Shaʿbān 1188 AH/ 11 October 1774 corresponding to the 15th year of the accession to the throne of the venerable Šāh ʿĀlam ... Religious Warrior; May God make his kingdom and his kingship last forever. The pen/Qalam of the least of God's servants Mīr Muḥammad Ḥusayn ʿAṭā Khān Muraṣṣaʿ Raqam wrote [this]'.
    signature on f. 28b:
    راقم میر محمد حسین عطا خان
    rāqamahū Mīr Muḥammad Ḥusayn ʿAṭā Khān
    'Mīr Muḥammad Ḥusain ʿAṭā Ḫān wrote this'.
    signature on f. 30b:
    قلم میر محمد حسین عطا خان مرصع رقم
    'Qalam von Mīr Muḥammad Ḥusain ʿAṭā Ḫān Muraṣṣaʿ Raqam'.
    signature on f. 33b:
    میر محمد حسین عطا خان مرصع رقم ه
    Mīr Muḥammad Ḥusain ʿAṭā Ḫān Muraṣṣaʿ Raqam h
  • Calligrapher
↳ Name
↳ Note on the Person
  • signature on f. 8b:
    الراجی الی الله حافظ نورالله در فیض آباد تحریر نمود
    ar-rājī ilā-Allāh Ḥāfiẓ Nūr Allāh / dar Fayz̤-ābād taḥrīr namūd
    'Hoping for God [to forgive him], Ḥafiẓ Nūr Allāh wrote [this] in Faizabad'.
    signature on f. 24b:
    کتبه حافظ نورالله ۱۱۸۵
    katabahū Ḥafiẓ Nūr Allāh 1185
    'Ḥafiẓ Nūr Allāh wrote this in 1185/1771-72'.
    signature on f. 25b:
    حافظ نورالله تحریر نمود
    Ḥafiẓ Nūr Allāh taḥrīr namūd
    'Ḥafiẓ Nūr Allāh wrote [this]'.
    signature on f. 26b:
    ذره بیمقدار حافظ نورالله تحریر نمود ۱۱۸۵
    ẕarah bī-maqdār Ḥafiẓ Nūr Allāh / taḥrīr namūd 1185
    'A speck of dust without substance, Ḥafiẓ Nūr Allāh wrote [this] 1185/1771-72'.
  • Calligrapher
↳ Name
↳ Note on the Person
  • signature on f. 9b:
    نیازمند اعجاز رقم خان
    niyāzmand Iʿjāz Raqam Khān
    'The needy Iʿjāz Raqam Khān'
    signature on f. 10b:
    کتبه اعجاز رقم خان سنه ۱۱۸۸
    katabahū Iʿjāz Raqam Khān sana 1188
    'Iʿjāz Raqam Khān wrote this in the year 1188/1774-75'.
    signature on f. 11b:
    لکاتبه اعجاز رقم خان
    li-kātibih Iʿjāz Raqam Khān
    'By its writer Iʿjāz Raqam Khān'
    signature on f. 36b:
    اعجاز رقم خان
    Iʿjāz Raqam Khān
  • Calligrapher
↳ Name
↳ Note on the Person
  • signature on f. 27b:
    مشق عبد الرحیم
    mashq-i ʿAbd al-Raḥīm
    'Calligraphic exercise by ʿAbd al-Raḥīm'
  • Calligrapher
↳ Name
↳ Note on the Person
  • signature on f. 38b:
    کتبه مرید خان طباطبا
    katabahū Murīd Khān Ṭabāṭābā
    'Murīd Khān Ṭabāṭābā wrote this.'
Colophon
  • dedicatory rosette (shamsa) on f. 40b:
    هو الله العزیز
    مرقع چهل ورق با مفردات و قطعات نسختعلیق و
    شکسته و غیره بخط خوشنویسان روزکر بابت سرکار فیض آثار
    نواب والاجناب افتخار الملک امتیاز الدوله میجر پولیر بهادر
    ارسلان جنک دام اقبله

    Huwa Allāh al-ʿazīz
    muraqqaʿ-i chihil varaq bā mufradāt va qiṭʿāt-i naskh-taʿlīq va / šikasta wa-ġairuhu az khushnavīsān-i / rūzigār bābat-i sarkār-i fayz̤-ās̠ār / navvāb-i vālājanāb Iftikhār-al-Mulk Imtiyāz-ad-Dawlah Mayjir Pūlīr Bahādur / Arsalān Jang dāma iqbāluhu

    'He is God Almighty!
    Album of forty leaves of calligrafic set of models for individual letters (mufradāt) and pieces of Naskh-Taʿlīq, Shikastah and others by contemporary calligraphers [was produced] for the excellent commander, the representative of sublime dignity, pride of the empire, ornament of the government, Major Polier, hero, lion of battle – may his prosperity last forever.'

Provenance

Provenance
  • 1882
  • London
  • acquired by the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett from the 12th Duke of Hamilton, handed over to the Königliche Museum für Völkerkunde (Royal Museum of Ethnology) in 1891
  • 1844
  • Hamilton Palace, South Lanarkshire, Scotland
  • passed into possession of the Hamilton family through marriage of Alexander Hamilton Douglas (10th Duke of Hamilton) with Susan Euphemia Beckford
  • 1799-1800
  • Lausanne
  • presumably acquired from the guardian of Polier's sons
  • between 1774 and 1780
  • Faizabad, Awadh (today's Uttar Pradesh) or Delhi, India
  • produced for

Access and usage

Institution
Shelfmark
  • I. 4598
Additional numbers
  • old classmark: IC 24348
Editor
  • weis
Status of edit
  • First input complete
Static URL
https://mymssportal.dl.uni-leipzig.de/receive/DEMUS019014Book_manuscript_00000017
MyCoRe ID
DEMUS019014Book_manuscript_00000017 (XML view)
Export
Metadata license
CC0 1.0
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