SAFAVID IRAN, CIRCA 1520 SULTAN MAS'UD ACCOMPANIED... Lot 289

SAFAVID IRAN, CIRCA 1520 SULTAN MAS'UD ACCOMPANIED BY A TURKMENE Manuscript page on paper from a Gazurgahi Majalis al-'Ushshaq, 15 lines per page in ink on reverse. Polychrome and gold gouache, depicting the Seljuk Sultan Mas'ud hunting, holding his falcon in his arm, accompanied by his court and a young Turkmen man mounted on a black horse, under a golden sky (wear, tears, small stains, wormholes). Safavid Iran, circa 1520. A SAFAVID MINIATURE PAINTING ON PAPER, DIM. (VIEW) 19 X 11,5 CM (7 1/2 X 4 1/2 IN.) DIM (PAGE) 21,5 X 13,5 CM (8 7/16 X 5 5/16 IN.) DIM. (PAINTING) 13.5 X 8 CM (5 5/16 X 3 1/8 IN.) The Majalis al-'Ushshaq text from which this manuscript page comes is a collection of Sufi biographies written by Gazurgahi (Gâzorgâhî), completed in 909 AH / 1503-04. The author, born in 874 A.H./1469-70, although not a Sufi himself, was attracted to mysticism. Around 904 A.H./1498, the Timurid sultan appointed him Sheikh of the 'Abd-Allah Ansari shrine at Gazorgah near Herat. It was at this time that he completed his work Majalis al-'Ushshaq (Majāles al-ʿoššāq). Most copies of this work are later and were made in Shiraz in the second half of the 16th century, around 1575. The copy from which this page comes is therefore a rare very early copy executed quickly after it was written. Sultan Mas'ûd I (r. 1116-1156) was the third son of Kiliç Arslan I, Seljuk sultan of Rum, whose kingdom was based in Anatolia. Mas'ûd 1st died in Konya.