Prophet Muhammad at the Gate of Medina (painting, recto; text, verso), folio from a manuscript of Hafiz-i Abru's Majma' al-Tawarikh (The Assembly of Histories)
c. 1425
Description
Written by the court historian Hafiz-i Abru at the request of the Timurid ruler Shah Rukh (r. 1405–47), Majma' al-Tawarikh (The Assembly of Histories) is essentially a history book modeled after the early 14th-century Ilkhanid Jami' al-Tawarikh, which covers the history from Adam up to the Ilkhanid rule. Hafiz-i Abru’s version extended the Timurid rule through Shah Rukh's reign. The manuscript, to which this and related folios belong, was originally composed of 407 large folios containing 150 paintings. It remained intact until at least 1928. Now, it has been dispersed to various collections. It had a leather binding, and its paintings were created in three different styles. All of them follow the horizontal format of the Ilkhanid Jami al-Tawarikh paintings but incorporate some Timurid details in style and iconography, such as clothing. This folio belongs to the section on the life of the Prophet Muhammad.
Dimensions
folio: 43 x 34 cm (16 15/16 x 13 3/8 in.)
Provenance
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, New York, (by 1948), bequest; to The Fogg Museum.
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