Abu’l-Najib 'Abd-al-Qaher b. Abdallah al-Suhrawardî... Lot n° 134

Kitâb Âdâb al-Murîdîn - Book of conduct for Sufi aspirants. Written by Ahmad b. al-Suhrawardi in the month of Dhul hijja in the year 717H. (=1317) Probably Baghdad, Ilkhanid art. Arabic manuscript on ivory paper, 326 pages, calligraphed in beautiful and regular "naskh" on 9 lines per page, in gold and blue framing. The title appears on the first page, in "rayhan" in gold surrounded by black on an illuminated cartouche with a background of spiral arabesques and green flowers, framing borders decorated with garlands with inner margins decorated with floral scrolls, and the outer margins animated with arabesques and flowers tinted with red. This frontispiece is followed by a double page with illuminated and polychrome margins, decorated with arabesques and flowers again, with two vignettes in the text. The body of the work is divided into "fasl" chapters, noted in gold. The text ends with the colophon which mentions the name of the calligrapher and the date of his work, on a double page whose illumination was probably done later, at the end of the 14th century. Very beautiful brown morocco binding, with richly embossed decoration, inlaid with a central cartouche animated with carnations, and spiral arabesques with flowers. This binding, probably Italian of the late eighteenth century, was applied to the manuscript during its restoration in the early nineteenth century it seems. Condition : Complete manuscript, restored with pages remargées, and some inversions from p. 333. A few galleries. Colophon: - Min tasānif ash-sheikh al-imâm al-'allâmat al-'ārif al-rabbāny sheikh shuyūkh al-islām qutub al-'anām ḥujjat allāh 'alā al-khaliq Abû'l al-Najîb al-Suhrawardî qadas allâh ruwhu al-'aziza - According to the classifications of the Sheikh, the Imam, the scholar, the marker of the the Sheikh of the Sheikhs of Islam, the argument of God about the creation, Abu'l al-Najib al-Suhrawardî, may God sanctify his dear soul The author Abu'l al-Najib Abd al-Qâdir Suhrawardi is a Persian Sufi master who was born in 1097 in Sohrevard and died in 1168. He was the first of three mystics to bear this surname, and who together created the Sufi order that would bear their name, the Sufi brotherhood Sohrawardyya. He was the disciple of Ahmad Ghazali. Like him, he studied at the Nizamiyya in Baghdad and, after an interval, founded a convent on the west bank of the Tigris. His later teaching career was disrupted by the unstable politics of his time. He was obviously well versed in the "hadith", in addition to being an outstanding Sufi teacher and spiritual advisor. His main work is the treatise we present here, "Âdhâb al-Murîdîn". The text For the attention of young disciples, this text establishes the rules of good behavior of the "sufi" who by his behavior approaches the divine. With the 'Awârif al-ma'ârif written by his nephew, Shihâb al-dîn Abû Ḥafs 'Umar al-Suhrawardî (d. 1234), it is the first text that establishes a spiritual method and a reflection on Sufism, unlike the previous texts which were only compilations. This text will know a very important diffusion in the whole Islamic world. The calligrapher Coming from the author's lineage, Ahmad Ibn al-Suhrawardi al-Bakri (1256-1340) is often called "shaykhzada" (son of the sheikh). According to Qutubeddin Yazdi in his "Risale-i", Qutbiyye Sohravaerdi was the sixth student of the great calligrapher Yaqut al-Musta'simi (d.1298). In reality, it is while passing through the village of Shehrizur that al-Musta'simi met Sohravardi, that is why he is said to be a pupil of Yaqut (C.Huart, Les calligraphes et les Miniaturistes de l'Orient Musulman, Paris, 1908, pp.89-90). Sohravardi was illustrious in the drawing of great calligraphies, especially djeli, and he is considered as one of the most renowned calligraphers of the Ilkhanid era. He copied 33 Qur'ans, including the 30-volume Qur'an copied in Baghdad between 1302 and 1308 (dispersed Tehran, N. Mus.; Istanbul, Topkapı Pal. Lib.; Dublin, Chester Beatty Lib.; New York, Met.) He is credited with the finest Qur'anic manuscript produced for the Ilkhanids, made for Uljaytu between 1306 and 1313 and bequeathed to his mausoleum in Sultaniyya (dispersed, Leipzig, Karl-Marx-U.; Istanbul, Topkapı Pal. Lib.; Copenhagen, Kon. Bib.). Apart from these exceptional manuscripts, commissioned by the greatest and kept in precious libraries which preserved them, few of his works have survived. Although our manuscript does not rank among the royal Qur'ans, the extreme rarity of authentic works by the hand of Ahmad ibn al-Suhrawardi makes it extremely valuable. References: - A much later copy of this text is preserved in the National Library of Israel, (ref. 990034144030205171). - For a study of this text, see Kitab Adab al-Muridin by ibn Abd Alla Suhrave