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back cover Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2014.405
People
Attributed to Mahmud Muzahhib-bashi
Title
Manuscript of the Gulistan of Sa`di, with lacquer binding
Classification
Manuscripts
Work Type
manuscript
Date
1883
Places
Creation Place: Middle East, Iran
Period
Qajar period
Culture
Persian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/351919

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer over metallic layer on pasteboard (covers) Ink, gold, and colors on paper (text)
Dimensions
23.8 × 14.1 × 1.8 cm (9 3/8 × 5 9/16 × 11/16 in.)
Text area: 11 × 6.5 cm (4 5/16 × 2 9/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Ezzat-Malek Soudavar, Geneva, Switzerland (by 2014), by descent; to her son Abolala Soudavar, Houston, Texas (2014), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2014.

Note:
Ezzat-Malek Soudavar (1913-2014) formed this collection over a period of sixty years. She purchased the works of art on the international art market.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of A. Soudavar in memory of his mother Ezzat-Malek Soudavar
Accession Year
2014
Object Number
2014.405
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
The manuscript opens with double illuminated text pages written in shikasta nasta'liq script. The text areas comprise of 11 lines written in black ink, reserved as clouds over gold ground. The last page provides the name of the scribe (Muhammad 'Ali Munshi Shirazi), the patron (Aqa-yi Sahib....), and the date Rajab 1301 H (April-May 1884). All the text panels have been remounted on thin grayish paper. The lacquer binding has intertwining grape vines growing upward from the ground and filling the entire field with smaller branches and leaves. The decoration is painted in gold over a black ground. The inner surfaces are decorated with a rectangle bisected on four sides by half circles traced in gold over a black ground.

Publication History

  • Massumeh Farhad and Mary McWilliams, ed., A Collector’s Passion: Ezzat-Malek Soudavar and Persian Lacquer, Harvard Art Museums and Freer/Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution (Cambridge, MA/Washington, D.C., 2017), contents page; p. 14, ill.; p. 105, cat. 28

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu