Shirin Entertains Khusraw

This pavilion scene from Walters manuscript W.624 depicts the Armenian princess Shirin welcoming Khusraw in Armenia. The illustration is the work of ('amal-i) Manuhar.

This is a deluxe copy of the Khamsah (quintet) of Amīr Khusraw Dihlavī (d. 725 AH / 1325 CE). The manuscript was written in nastaʿlīq script by one of the greatest calligraphers of the Mughal atelier, Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-Kashmīrī, honored with the epithet Zarrīn Qalam (golden pen). This copy of Dihlavī's Khamsah, likely produced in Lahore (present-day Pakistan) in the late tenth century AH / sixteenth CE, is associated with the patronage of Akbar (r. 963-1014 AH / 1556-1605 CE). The manuscript bears the names of a number of painters and illuminators. The illustrations bear ascriptions to the following artists: Laʿl (Lāl), Manūhar, Sānwalah, Farrukh, Alīqulī, Dharamdās, Narsing, Jagannāth, Miskīnā, Mukund, and Sūrdās Gujarātī. The illuminators are Ḥusayn Naqqāsh, Manṣūr Naqqāsh, Khvājah Jān Shīrāzī, and Luṭf Allāh Muẕahhib. The borders are all elaborately illuminated with animal, bird, and geometric motifs, as well as human figures engaged in such activities as hunting, praying, and reading. The lacquer binding, decorated with pictorial scenes, is contemporary with the manuscript. Eight leaves from this copy of the Khamsah of Dihlavī are housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (13.228.26-33).

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Muhammad Zaki, 1241 AH/AD 1825-1826 [1]; 'abd al-raji Muhammad Shafi', 1247 AH/AD 1831-1832 [2]; Muhammad 'Ali [3]; Henry Walters, Baltimore; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.

[1] Oval seal, fols. 1a, 211a
[2] Rectangular seal fols. 1a, 211a
[3] Large oval seal with no date on fol. 211a