Lot 134. A highly important blue and white Iznik pottery charger, Turkey, circa 1480; 44.5cm. diam., 8.3cm. depth. Estimate £300,000 - £500,000. © Sotheby's.
LONDON.- One of the most important pieces of Iznik pottery remaining in private hands, this large and intact dish, or charger, represents a significant discovery in the field of Ottoman art. It belongs to the earliest group of Iznik – produced at the very advent of the art form during the reign of Mehmet II (‘the Conqueror’) – the finest examples of which are almost all held in museum collections across the globe. This small, and exceptionally rare, group of Iznik pottery is characterised by an intense, inky, blue-black colouring, which reflects the embryonic stage of firing control – roughly two decades before a brighter cobalt blue was accomplished. This special piece encapsulates a symbiosis of influences, both local and foreign, as well as a flair for invention.
The ‘Debbane Charger’ is a lost sibling to four other large dishes, all of which are held in museum collections – including Paris’ Musée du Louvre – and are published in Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby’s landmark book Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey in 1989, where it was suggested that they were used in banquets at the Court for large quantities of food. Though not identical, they display a number of shared elements – the huge scale, central floret, and use of both Rumi and Hatayi motifs, the names given to the rigorously executed arabesque decoration and Chinoiserie floral scrolls respectively. Sotheby’s sale catalogue is the first time that this discovered counterpart has been published.
The charger was formerly in the collection of prolific bibliophile and businessman Max Debbane (1893-1965), who patronised many leading cultural institutions in the town of his birth, Alexandria, as well as serving as President of the Archaeological Society. Opportunities to acquire works of Iznik pottery from this earliest period are indescribably rare, with the most significant examples dating back to Sotheby’s sales in 1993 and 1997.
Cf. my post: A highly important blue and white Iznik pottery charger, Turkey, circa 1480
ADVENT OF IZNIK POTTERY
Mehmet II was renowned for his intense interest in and patronage of the arts and architecture, and is celebrated for inviting foreign artists to his royal court. Exquisite Iznik pieces such as the ‘Debbane Charger’ could only have been born out of demand from the court itself, since only royalty could finance such an industry dictated by its exacting tastes. Aside from the Islamic arts of illumination and calligraphy, the decoration of this piece owes a debt to two other distinct influences – Chinese porcelain and Islamic metalwork. This group of five chargers is exactly the size of Yuan porcelain dishes, which were amongst the popular blue and white wares imported into the Ottoman Empire. The influence of Balkan silver bowls is also evident, as the laborious reserved decoration attempts to create the impression of relief metalwork.
FURTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Lot 112. An exceptional costume album, attributed to Fenerci Mehmed, Turkey, Ottoman, late 18th-early 19th century, watercolour and gouache on paper, 124 leaves plus 2 fly-leaves, in a brown binding with leather spine, accompanied by a type-written sheet of paper numbering and describing the illustrations in French; 26.5 by 18cm. Estimate £200,000-300,000. © Sotheby's
Provenance: From the collection of an Ambassador to Iran, thence by decent.
Acquired by the current owner in 1987.
His works made it as far as the Ottoman court, and his Anthology (Mecmua-i tesavir) is recorded to have been in the library of Hattar Ali Haydar Bey. It is also thought that Sultan Abdulaziz (r.1861-76) asked to see his works. He died in the middle of the nineteenth century, either at the end of the reign of Mahmud II (r.1808-39) or at the beginning of the reign of Abdulmecid (r.1839-61).
The term 'costume album' defines a book which contains portrait of individuals in different costumes; these were produced mainly for a foreign audience who wished to obtain detailed images of the different costumes worn at the time in Istanbul and had been common in Ottoman culture since at least the beginning of seventeenth century.
Three other albums painted by Fenerci Mehmed are known: one in the Topkapi Palace (inv. no.A.3690) composed of ninety-seven illustrations; one in the Istanbul University Library copy (inv. no.9362) with thirty-two paintings, and another in the Rahmi Koç collection, bearing ninety-seven plates, and including a colophon naming the artist and the year of completion (1226 AH/1811 AD). Occasionally single leaves or small groups of these watercolours have appeared on the market (most recently two sets of six plates at Alif Art, Istanbul, 26 May 2018, lot 242 and 243. An entire album, however, is incredibly rare, especially with such a large number of plates.
The present album gives us a comprehensive catalogue of the costumes of the Topkapi palace in the nineteenth century and the different costumes worn by the military during official ceremonies. Each subject is numbered and identified in Ottoman Turkish and later in French.
The various portraits encountered in this album can be divided into three main categories: characters who belonged to the political life of the court; characters who worked in the Topkapi Palace, and members of the military in both daily and parade attire. The first group contains paintings which depict various ministries in the palace and figures who were in the close entourage of the Sultan, for example the Foreign Minister (ill.35), the Harem Secretary (ill.20), the Maritime Minister (ills.39, 40), the Grand Vizir (ills.19 and 3) or the Judge (ill.10).
The second group contains a larger number of illustrations, all depicting characters encountered in the Topkapi Palace. One of the interesting aspects of this group is the variety of characters depicted. The range is not limited to very important members of the inner circle of the Sultan (see for example the Chief of the Doors (ill.23) or the Chief of the Ceremonial Costumes (ill.17), or the Head of the Prisons (ill.59)), but extends to every-day characters who could have been encountered at the court at that time (the water-distributor (ill.80), the coffee-waiter (ill.27), or the soldiers who distribute food during Ramadam (ill.76), an Egyptian (ill.123), the French Ambassador (ill.106), an Armenian (ill.115) or an English dragoman (ill.110)).
The third and largest group is the one depicting the military and it is this group which is probably the most interesting and it helps us advance a hypothesis as to the owner of this album. Soldiers from different regiments, grades and with different attire (every-day and parade) are depicted, providing the viewer with a comprehensive panorama of the Ottoman military at the time, and a very useful guide in identifying each character who could have been encountered at the time.
Different ranks are depicted: captain [(of the Armoury (ill.90); of the Garde (ill.37); of the Cavalry (ill.97)]; sergeant [of the Janissary (ill.77), of the Navy (ills.41 and 42)], and lower grade soldiers in their official uniform [see, for example, soldiers from the infantry (ill.102), from the Adjem Oghlu barracks (ill.70), from the ninth regiment (ill.96) and from the artillery (ills.94 and 81)].
Parade costumes are also illustrated: several ushers bearing flag stands are present (ills.58, 69, 50, 88 and 89); a portrait of an usher with the Turkish flag (ill.104); a bandsman holding a flute (ill.101), and several soldiers on horses (ills.98, 99 and 100), including a mounted vizir (ill.3) and full-page illustration of a horse dressed for the parade (ill.7) shows that this was very much a guide to identify the main characters during a military parade.
The presence of such a large number of military attires as well as diplomatic and political members of the Sultan’s entourage sustain the hypothesis that this album was made with a potential foreign diplomatic buyer, who would have needed a handy guide to identify who was who at the court of the Sultan. Suraiya Faroqui notes that often these costume albums were commissioned to "identify the dignitaries of the palace with whom the envoys had to interact during the course of their missions" (Faroqui 2005, p.20) and it is this hypothesis that Gwendolyn Collaço advances for the costume album now in the Biblioteka Narodowa, Warsaw (inv. no.BOZ 165) (Collaço 2017, p.254). It is plausible that this impressive album was purchased by a member of the diplomatic entourage in Ottoman Turkey at the end of the nineteenth century which was later acquired by an Ambassador to Iran at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Lot 132. A rare and important Ottoman bone and ivory-inlaid wooden Qur’an stand, Turkey, 15th century; 57cm. folded, 28.6 by 59 by 18.7cm. Estimate £70,000-100,000. © Sotheby's
of typical folding X-form, with geometric designs composed of green-stained ivory, ivory and bone tesserae arranged between wood and silver sections, featuring quadrangles containing square Kufic, decorative bands and hexagonal motifs near opening, with carved palmette terminals.
The tradition of inlaid woodwork, by which shapes were hollowed out into the wood base and filled with other types of wood or other materials altogether, such as ivory or mother-of-pearl, was already practised by the Seljuks and Mamluks but developed under the Ottomans (Atil, 1987, p.166). The present Qur’an stand displays carved rumi shapes along the edges of the top as well as a larger rumi in the middle of the arched legs. This motif was popular in Egypt and can be seen as an example of the lasting Mamluk influence on the woodcutters of the Ottoman Empire. It was mainly in the carving of the wood and the technique used to decorate the object that the Mamluk influence is visible. This Qur’an stand is particularly special as it uses the techniques of one tradition with the motifs of another.
Unlike the present Qur’an stand, early Ottoman examples from the thirteenth-century often used highly carved and painted wood rather than inlay. The restrained decoration and exceptional use of inlaid ivory and silver on the present stand displays the Mamluk influence and development of the Ottoman woodworkers (Roxburgh 2005, p.132). An iconic Ottoman motif consists of the so called 'square Kufic' (kufī al-ma‘qili) script used on this stand. One of the oldest motifs in the calligraphic tradition, and further established by the Seljuks, square Kufic was a well-known design in Ottoman architecture and decorative arts (Roxburgh 2005, p.111). One can see an example of this on the architectural tiles of Safa Camii in Diyarbakir (Tafel, 1933, p.147).
On the present example, each square repeats the names 'Muhammad' and 'Ali' four times; 'Muhammad' is repeated around the border, and 'Ali' is repeated in the centre. It is known that square Kufic was used to decorate fifteenth century Ottoman Qur’an stands (see Cevat Çulpan, Rahleler (Qur’an stands), Istanbul, 1968, fig.10). A Qur’an cabinet in the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum, Istanbul (inv. no.002), features Kufic inscriptions comparable to the square Kufic panels on the present Qur’an stand (Istanbul 2000, p.258). Another example decorated with square Kufic panels is a quiver dated to the sixteenth century, preserved in the Topkapi Palace (inv. no.1/10463), and published in the exhibition catalogue: Istanbul – The City and the Sultan, De Nieuwe Kerk, 2006, p.142. Furthermore, the ivory inlay on the edges of the present stand was executed in so-called 'dog’s tooth, a motif demonstrated by other Ottoman Qur’an stands of the sixteenth-century.
This is an exceptional object due to the fact it lies at the confluence of the Mamluk and Ottoman period. It ranks amongst the highest quality of craftsmanships and decoration, notable examples of which were produced for the court (see Istanbul 2000, pp. 252-9). By combining two decorative traditions the woodcarver created a quintessentially Islamic object from an era of transition and adaptation.
This lot is accompanied by a radiocarbon dating measurement report confirming an attribution (to a 95% confidence interval) between 1429 to 1470 AD.
Lot 11. Two rare works on astronomy in one volume: Kitab mafatih al-qada ('Keys of Solution'), 1294-95 AD; Abu’l-Hasan Kushyar ibn Labban al-Jabali, Majma’ al-usul fi ahkam al-nujum, Persia, 1295-96 AD; 21.4 by 15.8cm. Estimate £50,000-70,000. © Sotheby's
Note: The colophon of the first treatise, which bears a date 694 AH/1294-95 AD, states that the title of the book is Kitab mafatih al-qada, 'Keys of Solution'. The author of this text is still to be identified. Rosenfeld lists this work under the following two authors:
Abu ‘Uthman Sahl ibn Bishr ibn Habib ibn Hani al-Isra’ili (al-Yahudi) (d. circa 850 AD). He was a Jewish astrologer at the court of the viceroy of Khurasan, Tahir al-Husayn al-A’war (d.822 AD) and later under Ma’mun vizier al-Hasan ibn al-Sahl (d.850 AD). He was known in Europe as 'Zahel' and 'Zahel Benbris' (Rosenfeld & Ihsanoglu 2003, p.29 and Brockelmann, GAL S I 396).
Mashallah ibn Athari al-Basri (d. circa 815 AD), a Jewish man of science originally from Basra. An astronomer and mathematician, he was part of the group who carried out the preliminary survey for the foundation of Baghdad in 762-63 AD. He worked in Baghdad under the patronage of the Abbasid caliphs al-Mansur, Harun al-Rashid, Amin and al-Ma’mun (Rosenfeld & Ihsanoglu 2003, p.17). A copy of the mafatih al-qada is recorded by Rosenfeld & Ihsanoglu as being in Paris (II 895); the title is also recorded in Brockelmann Gal I 249.
Abu’l-Hasan Kushyar ibn Labban al-Jabali, better known as 'Gilani', as he was originally from Gilan on the Caspian sea, was a Persian astronomer, mathematician and geographer active between 971 and 1029 AD. His treatise Majma’ al-usul fi ahkam al-nujum, translated as 'Introduction to the Principles of Predictions of Stars', is also known under other similar titles (Kitab al-madkhal si sina’at ahkam al-nujum and Kitab al-mujmal (mudkhal al-usul fi sina’at) ahkam al-nujum) (see Rosenfeld & Ihsanoglu 2003, p.119). Several copies survive today; one dated 1061 AH/1651 AD is now in the British Library (inv. no.IO ISL 1514/3, Stocks & Baker 2001, p.379); see also Brockelmann GAL 252-3).
Lot 183. An Iznik pottery rimless ‘grape’ dish, Turkey, circa 1570-80; 29cm. diam. Estimate £40,000-60,000. © Sotheby's
Cf. my post: An Iznik pottery rimless ‘grape’ dish, Turkey, circa 1570-80
Lot 103. A Great Egret (casmarodius albus), North India, probably Lucknow, circa 1790, watercolour on paper watermarked ‘Whatman’; 76 by 53cm. Estimate £10,000-15,000. © Sotheby's
watercolour on paper watermarked 'Whatman', the reverse inscribed: Great Egret. Lai Lyn 5.11.91./Ardia Alba, Lin, numbered in Latin number CXXIV, framed.
Provenance: Christie's London, 5 June 1996, lot 20.
Previously the 'property of a Nobleman'
Note: Lucknow watercolours of animals usually depict them standing on shrubland. A further bird standing on similar grass and attributed to Lucknow, second half of the eighteenth century, was sold in these rooms, 10 July 1968, lot 154. This powerful portrait of an egret is unusual for its light blue background, which might be the result of a European influence, although it is undoubtedly original to the painting.
Lot 123. A Mamluk silver and gold-inlaid brass astrolabe, signed by Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Qawwas, Syria, dated 1351-2 AD, with later rete, alidade and three plates, possibly Ottoman period; 18.4cm. diam. Estimate £200,000-300,000. © Sotheby's
cast brass, with delicate silver and gold-inlaid foliate decoration to front of cusped throne, the reverse of the throne with corresponding decoration but with the inlay lost, the entire circular edge with a scrolling vine motif in silver, containing four plates (one of which is original), later, probably Ottoman rete, alidade, and suspension loops.
Provenance: Private Collection, UK, since 1977.
inscriptions: signed by Muḥammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Qawwas, made in Syria in 752 AH [1351/52 AD]
Original remaining sections include the mater and one plate
The instrument dates from fourteenth-century Syria, a milieu that was arguably the leading centre of astronomy in the world. The activities of the leading Syrian astronomers and instrument-makers are reasonably well documented, and it comes as something of a surprise to the few modern specialists that a fine ‘new’ astrolabe should come to light signed by a maker who is unknown to the literature. The leading astronomers of that period were Ibn al-Shatir, best known for his ‘new’ geometric models for the sun, moon and planets (which happen to be the same as the models used by Copernicus some 150 years later); al-Khalili, best known for his remarkable tables for solving all of the standard problems of spherical astronomy for any latitude (without parallel in pre-modern European astronomy); al-Mizzi, whose instruments fetched high prices already in his own time; and Ibn al-Sarraj of Aleppo, who constructed the most sophisticated astrolabe ever made (which functions for all latitudes in five different ways).
The maker of this ‘new’ piece is Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Qawwas. The nisba al-Qawwas means ‘archer’, from Arabic qaws, ‘bow’, and the nisba may be inherited. Archery was a fine art in Mamluk Syria, not least because of the need to keep any Mongol or European invaders at bay. Several manuals were produced identifying the different types of bows available and their use, and some of these have been published, notably that of the Mamluk prince Taybugha al-Ashrafi al-Baklamishi al-Yunani (Laatham & Paterson, Saracen archery. See also the article ‘qaws [= bow]’ in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edn.). This notwithstanding, our Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Qawwas is unknown to the medieval and modern literature on Muslim archery (Professor Rex Smith, expert on medieval Arabic and especially Muslim archery, has kindly confirmed that this al-Qawwas is unknown to him) and apparently also to the medieval Arabic biographical literature (Prof. Daniel M. Varisco, expert on medieval Islamic folk astronomy and agricultural practices, has pointed out that the name Muḥammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Qawwas is attested in the ‘Ilam al-nubala’ bi-ta’rikh halab al-shahba’, a biographical dictionary of scholars in Aleppo by M. Raghib ibn Mahmud al-Tabbakh al-Ḥalabi (V, pp.433-4), although he is recorded as having died in 934 AH/1527/28 AD.
In addition he is known neither to the literature on astronomy and mathematics in Mamluk Syria nor to the modern documentation on Syrian instrumentation (see King, ‘Astronomy of the Mamluks’; Charette, Astronomical instrumentation in 14th-century Egypt and Syria, and Brentjes, ‘al-Sakhawi on muwaqqits, mu’adhdhins, and the teachers of astronomy in Mamluk cities’; also King, ‘Astronomical instruments from medieval Syria’). On the other hand, there are two important astronomers with deceptively similar names known from the thirteenth century (namely Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Farisi, a man of Iranian extraction who worked in Aden, and Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Kawwashi from Quṣ in the Nile Valley – see King, Mathematical astronomy in medieval Yemen, pp.23-26 and 27).
The engraving
The maker of this astrolabe used a distinctive and singularly elegant ornamental Kufic script.
The numeral forms
In Islamic astronomy numbers were expressed in the sexagesimal (base 60) alphanumerical system known as abjad (a=1, b=2, j=3, d=4, etc., including letters for the tens and hundreds). Thus, for example, l-j k-z, stands for 33°27´. On this astrolabe, exceptionally, the date of construction is given in Hindu-Arabic numerals, which were generally used outside the realm of astronomy (Irani, Arabic numeral forms).
The throne
The front of the throne, whose outline is multi-lobed, is elegantly inlaid with silver and gold stylised floral scrolls. This is an unusual feature on Islamic astrolabes, even on Syrian ones; only the spectacular astrolabes of the thirteenth-century artisans ʿAbd al-Karim al-Miṣri (Museum of History of Science, Oxford, and British Museum, London, – see Gunther, Astrolabists, nos.103 and 104) and al-Sahl al-Nisaburi (Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg – see King, Synchrony, XIVb: 677-684) are decorated in this way.
The mater
The mater bears no markings. The outer scale is divided into 360° into 1° intervals subdivided and labelled for each 5°. The labels run (clockwise from the top):
5 - 10 - 5 - 20 - 5 - ... - 80 - 5 - 90 - 5 - 100 -
5 - 10 - 5 - ... - 90 - 5 - 200 - 5 - 10 - 5 - ... - 90 - 5 - 300 -
5 - 10 - 5 - ... - 5- 60.
The peg to hold the plates is offset from the vertical diameter at some 7° to the right. The cut-outs on the plates are situated accordingly.
The back
On the rims of the upper left and right quadrants of the back are two altitude scales, with labelled divisions for each 5° subdivided into divisions for each degree. Within these is a full semicircle of a sexagesimal trigonometric grid, resembling modern graph-paper. Normally a quarter-circle of such markings is found on some astrolabes. Here the maker has taken the trouble to mark the upper half of the instrument with a set of horizontal lines for each unit of the 60-unit vertical radius. These are intersected by a set of vertical lines for each unit of the double 60-unit horizontal diameter. The accuracy with which this grid has been achieved is impressive indeed. It compares with that of the grid on the back of the astrolabic quadrant for Damascus of al-Mizzi in the British Museum (On the other hand, such markings are attested already on the astrolabic equatorium of the Baghdad astronomer Hibat Allah al-Asṭurlabi dated 1120-21 AD (preserved in the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin), invented by the Baghdad astronomer Abu Jaʿfar al-Khazin c.950 (King, Synchrony, vol.1, pp.71-73). The markings here are labelled below the horizontal diameter, al-jayb [al-]sittini, ‘the sexagesimal sine’ or ‘the sine to base 60’. (In medieval Islam the sine and cosine function were to base 60 rather than 1 as we use today). On the lower left rim is a scale labelled ‘asr afaqi, ‘universal (scale for the altitude of the sun at the beginning of the) ʿasr (or mid-afternoon prayer)’. One sets the alidade at the midday solar altitude on the altitude scale on the upper left and the lower end will indicate the altitude of the sun at the beginning of the prayer time, and this works for any latitude. (If H represents the midday solar altitude and A represents the solar altitude at the time for the prayer, then cot A = cot H + 1.) As we shall see, 7 and 12 were also used as bases for these shadow functions. On the lower left rim is a scale labelled zill asabiʿ, ‘shadow in digits’, indicating the shadow of cast by a gnomon length 12, that is 12 x cot h. One sets the alidade at the instantaneous solar altitude on the upper left altitude scale and the lower end will indicate the shadow. The two squares below the centre of the back are for finding the horizontal or vertical shadows to base 12 on the left and 7 on the left. They are labelled murabbaʿ al-ẓill aqdam / aṣabiʿ, ‘shadow square for feet / digits’. The horizontal and vertical scales are marked, mabsuṭ, ‘horizontal’, and mankus, ‘vertical’. (It should be borne in mind that all six of the basic trigonometric functions were used from the ninth century onwards in Islamic astronomy, if not in mathematics.)
The signature is in an elegant cartouche below the horizontal diameter and reads:
‘Constructed by Muḥammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Qawwas in the year 752 (AH = 1351-52 AD).’
No other cartouches of this kind are known from other Syrian instruments - the closest examples on an astrolabe are from fourteenth-century Toledo (King, Synchrony, XV: 841, 847, 890-891).
The one original plate
On all plates the vertical and horizontal diameters represent the meridian and the east-west line. The base circles are marked for the Tropic of Capricorn on the outside and the Tropic of Cancer on the inside, the celestial equator being between these. Each set of markings includes circles for altitude from the horizon up to the zenith and for azimuth measured round the horizon.
One plate (no.1) is original, presenting two sets of astrolabic markings. Plate 1a has a set of markings stated to be for ʿard lj l’, ‘latitude 33°30´. This is undoubtedly intended for Damascus. Both Ibn al-Shatir and al-Khalili used this value; al-Mizzi preferred 33°27´ (the accurate value is 33°•••´). There are labelled altitude circles for each 2° from the horizon up to the zenith, and unlabelled azimuth circles for each 10° around the horizon.
Plate 1b bears a set of similar astrolabic markings for latitude l-z, ‘37°’, and here it is not immediately obvious which locality might have been intended. Al-Khalili’s corpus of tables for astronomical timekeeping and regulating the prayer times contains a geographical table giving longitudes and latitudes mainly in Syria and Palestine, but includes no significant localities with latitude c.37° (King, Synchrony, II: 390-3). Even the extensive lists of geographical coordinates from medieval Islamic sources do not indicate a possible candidate (Kennedy & Kennedy, Geographical coordinates from Islamic sources). It seems that three original plates are missing and have been replaced.
Replacement parts
The rete and other three plates, as well as the alidade, are additions; the maker has made an attempt to imitate the distinctive engraving of the first. A distinct difference from al-Qawwas’ astrolabe is the late form for ‘20’ in numbers like 20+4 = 24, written as الد . This curious form of ‘k’ for ‘20’ is typical of certain Ottoman hands. However, it is by no means clear when these parts might have been added. The engraving cannot be modern, to reproduce the distinctive script of the original, neither can the astronomical markings on the three plates be modern, for even though they are not competent – the horizon does not properly intersect the horizontal east-west diameter at the east and west points – the constructor at least made them for appropriate latitudes. Since all of the replacement parts are not modern and they are clearly based on or copied from components of the original astrolabe of al-Qawwas, they merit our detailed attention.
Although the rete features star-pointers that are more or less in the right places, and most of the star-names are correct, it appears to have been copied from an original rete that was broken. On the ecliptic ring the signs of the zodiac are 180° out of place, that is, they begin on the right rather than on the left, and there is a meaningless Arabic inscription around the outside of the ring, on which there are no divisions for a scale. On the ecliptic ring the names of the signs are correctly written but there are no divisions on the outer rim. The ‘text’ on the outer part of the ecliptic ring reads:
ح ط يا يب كا كد كز ل يه ح ط يب كد كز كا يه ح ي يا و ح يب كد كز ل يه ح و يا يب كا ح ي يه كد كز ط ح و ل كا يه
8 9 11 12 21 24 27 30 15 8 9 12 24 27 21 15 8 10 11 6 8 12 21 24 27 30 15 8 6 11 12 21 8 10 15 24 27 9 8 6 30 21 15
The mainly meaningless numbers surely represent a very unsuccessful attempt to reproduce the sequence 6 - 12 - 18 - 24 - 30 in each zodiacal sign. Furthermore, the ’15’ is used where one would expect a border between the zodiacal signs, inevitably not properly divided into 12. The star-names on the rete are the following, most of them designating well-known astrolabe-stars. Diacritical points have been added here where necessary, giving the maker the benefit of the doubt. Names that are incorrectly written are underlined. Correct or more complete versions are given for names which are in error or abbreviated. The K-numbers are those in Paul Kunitzsch’s list of 60 astrolabe stars (Kunitzsch, Arabische Sternnamen in Europa, pp.59-96).
There are three replacement plates with six sets of standard astrolabic markings of different kinds. On three we find the meaningless inscription ʿarḍ / saʿat , ‘latitude/ hours’, with no associated numbers, whereby it should be borne in mind that most astrolabe plates show the latitude and the associated length of maximum daylight in hours and minutes. The altitude circles are for each 3° (not 2° as on the original plates) and the azimuth circles for each 10°. Two sets of markings (plates 2a and 2b) are for latitude c.22°30´, that is, Mecca, though this is not stated (On early values of the latitude of Mecca see King, ‘Earliest Muslim geodetic measurements”, pp. 225-6). The appearance of the ‘identical’ markings for the same latitude is not identical. Another set of markings (plate 3b) is for latitude c.43°. These derived latitudes have been determined from the solar midday altitude at the equinoxes (= 90° minus latitude) and, given the inexact nature of the markings, can only be considered approximate.
A plate of full horizons has been less successfully achieved. The lower half displays horizons labelled for each 3° of latitude from 3° to 90° inside the equatorial circle, and the lower half the same horizons outside the equatorial circle. The horizons are so cluttered near the two circles on the horizontal diameter representing the east and west points that they are not continuous. For lower latitudes the horizons do not even pass through the east and west points.
A plate of half horizons, which can in theory be used for operations involving only the horizon (so one does not need any altitude circles), shows four sets of half horizons serving the following latitudes, constituting a complete set from latitude 10° (to the south of Yemen) up to the Arctic Circle:
10 - 18 - 26 - 34 - 42 - 50 - 58 - 66
12 - 20 - 28 - 36 - 44 - 52 - 64
14 - 22 - 30 - 38 - 46 - 54 - 62
16 - 24 - 32 - 40 - 48 - 56 – 60
At each of the quadrants there is a scale with no divisions. It is labelled [al-]mayl al-kulli, ‘maximum declination’, that is, the obliquity of the ecliptic, c.23°30´. The arguments for the declination are presented even though there are no divisions to the scale:4, - 8 - 12 - 16 - 20 - 24. The curious ‘20’ is used on this plate so that even though the astronomical markings seems to be in order, it belongs to the spurious additional parts. There is an astrological plate labelled at the centre ‘latitude 32°’, most probably originally intended for Jerusalem, also a centre of limited activity in the fourteenth century and thereafter. The markings consist of a principal set of arcs emanating from the centre labelled with the (masculine) ordinal numbers in words for each of the 12 astrological houses thus: ṭaliʿ (ascendant, marking the beginning of the first house) - thani (second) - thalith (third) - thani ʿashar (twelfth). The intervening spaces are divided by similar arcs for each 6° of each house, labelled 6 - 12 - 18 - 24 - 60. The ’20’ of ’24’ is written as two vertical lines. The markings are incorrectly drawn and have gone quite awry at the top (See Gunther, Astrolabes, I, between pp.250 and 251, for such a plate, correctly constructed, from eleventh-century al-Andalus).
The alidade has the names of twelve signs of the zodiac written along its length, six on each sides; further proving that the maker of the additional or replacement parts was not familiar with the scientific functions of an astrolabe.
Notes: On Islamic astrolabes, see Gunther, Astrolabes of the World (1932). On astronomy in medieval Syria and numerous surviving instruments, see King, ‘L’astronomie en Syrie à l’époque islamique’, partly reworked in idem, In Synchrony with the Heavens, XIVb: ‘Astronomical instruments from medieval Syria’. On the astrolabe see most recently idem, ‘The astrolabe: what it is and what it is not’. On the latitudes associated with astrolabes see idem, Synchrony, XVI: ‘The geographical data on early Islamic astronomical instruments’.
Sotheby’s is grateful to Professor David A. King for his assistance in describing this astrolabe.
Bibliography: Sonja Brentjes, ‘Shams al-Din al-Sakhawi on muwaqqits, mu’adhdhins, and the teachers of various astronomical disciplines in Mamluk cities in the 15th century”, in Emilia Calvo, Mercè Comes, Roser Puig and Mònica Rius, eds., A Shared Legacy: Islamic Science East and West: Homage to professor J.M. Millás Vallicrosa, Barcelona, 2008, pp.129-150.
François Charette, Mathematical instrumentation in 14th-century Egypt and Syria – The illustrated treatise of Najm al-Din al-Misri, Leiden, 2003 (analysis of over 100 instrument-types, mainly astrolabes, quadrants and sundials).
Robert T. Gunther, The Astrolabes of the World, 2 vols., Oxford, 1932, repr. in 1 vol., London, The Holland Press, 1976.
Thomas Hockey et al., eds., The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, New York: Springer, 2007, available at http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/: standard reference on significant Muslim astronomers, containing articles on Ibn al-Shatir, al-Khalili, and al-Mizzi.
Rida A.K. Irani, ‘Arabic numeral forms’, Centaurus 4 (1955), pp.1-12, repr. in Kennedy et al., Studies, pp.710-721.
Kennedy et al., Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences, D. A. King and M. H. Kennedy, eds., Beirut, 1983.
– & Mary Helen Kennedy, Geographical coordinates of localities from Islamic sources, Frankfurt am Main: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1987.
David A. King
– , ‘The astronomy of the Mamluks’, ISIS 74 (1983), pp.531-555, repr. in idem, Islamic Mathematical Astronomy, London, Variorum, 1986, III.
– , Mathematical Astronomy in Medieval Yemen – A Bio-Bibliographical Survey, (Publications of the American Research Center in Egypt), Malibu CA, Undena, 1983.
– , ‘L’astronomie en Syrie à l’époque islamique’, in Sophie Cluzan & Eric Delpont & Jeanne Mouliérac, eds., Syrie, Mémoire et civilisation, Paris, 1993, pp.386-395, and [‘Instruments astronomiques syriens’], pp.432-443 & 480, and pp.485-7; original English text expanded in In Synchrony with the Heavens, XIVb: ‘Astronomical instruments from medieval Syria’ (pp.659-724).
– , ‘The earliest Muslim geodetic measurements’, Suhayl – International Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilisation (Barcelona) 1 (2000), pp. 207-241, repr. in idem, Islamic Astronomy and Geography, Aldershot & Burlington VT, Ashgate-Variorum, 2012, X.
– , In Synchrony with the Heavens – Studies in astronomical timekeeping and instrumentation in Islamic civilization, 2 vols., 1: The Call of the Muezzin, & 2: Instruments of Mass Calculation, Leiden & Boston, 2005 (vol.1 deals with astronomical timekeeping, vol.2 with instrumentation). Contains: XIIIa: ‘The neglected astrolabe – A supplement to the standard literature on the favourite astronomical instrument of the Middle Ages’; XIVb: ‘Some astronomical instruments from medieval Syria’; XVI: ‘The geographical data on early Islamic astronomical instruments’; XVIII: ‘A checklist of Islamic astronomical instruments to ca.1500, ordered chronologically by region’.
– , ‘The astrolabe: what it is and what it is not’ (2018), available at www.davidaking.academia.edu.
Paul Kunitzsch, Arabische Sternnamen in Europa, Wiesbaden, Otto Harassowitz, l959
– , ‘Al-Sufi and the astrolabe stars’, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften 6 (1990), pp.151-166, repr. in idem, Stars and Numbers – Astronomy and Mathematics in the Medieval Arab and Western Worlds, Aldershot & Burlington VT, Ashgate-Variorum, 2004, XIII.
John-Derek Latham and W.F. Paterson, Saracen archery: An English version and exposition of a Mameluke work on archery (ca. A.D. 1368), London, The Holland Press, 1970.
Oxford, Museum of the History of Science: www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/astrolabe/, webpage of the world’s largest collection of astrolabes.
Lot 186. A monumental Iznik polychrome pottery tankard, Turkey, circa 1575-80; 27.5cm. height, 15.2cm. diam. Estimate: £50,000 - £70,000. © Sotheby's
Cf. my post: A monumental Iznik polychrome pottery tankard, Turkey, circa 1575-80
PERSIAN AND INDIAN PAINTINGS FROM THE ESTATE OF JOE AND HELEN DARRION
Born in New York to Russian immigrant parents, Hellen Solomon Darion studied the violin and modern dance. She married Joe Darion, an American lyricist best known for writing the lyrics for the long-running musical ‘Man of La Mancha’. Sharing a love of the arts, the couple had eclectic collecting taste and travelled the world with a tireless appetite for learning.
The Persian and Indian paintings in their outstanding collection span a period of around three hundred years, with examples of manuscript illustration from Safavid Persia, lyrical scenes from Mughal India and the Deccan, and examples of Hindu painting from the Pahari Hills of North India.
Lot 75. Akbar enthroned with courtiers under a canopy, possibly a previously unknown illustration from the 'British Library/Chester Beatty' Akbarnama of 1602-03, India, Mughal, early 17th century; painting: 21.3 by 13.1cm., leaf: 42 by 29.5cm. Estimate: £8,000 - £12,000. © Sotheby's
ink with use of gold and colours on paper, mounted on an album page with borders of calligraphic panels and gold-decorated cream paper, reverse with a calligraphic panel in nasta'liq written vertically both ways, inner borders including panels of nasta'liq calligraphy, outer margins filled with flowering plants in gold.
Provenance: Ex-collection Joe and Hellen Darion, New York.
Acquired from Bernard Quaritch, London.
The present drawing corresponds closely in size to others from the manuscript: it measures 21.5 by 13.3cm, exactly in the size range of the surviving illustrations. The manuscript is usually dated to 1602-03 based on two small inscriptions giving regnal year dates of Akbar’s reign. One appears on a folio in the British Library and the other on a folio in the Chester Beatty Library. There has been considerable discussion as to how to read these dates, and as well as the generally accepted 1602-03, a reading that gave a date of 1597-98 was proposed by Seyller in 1987. This latter dating was refuted by Leach in 1995 and recent publications have kept to the dating of 1602-03. For a detailed analysis and discussion of the manuscript see Leach 1995, vol.1, pp.232-294, particularly p.240 for the discussion of the dating; see also J. Seyller, 'Scribal Notes on Mughal Manuscript Illustrations', Artibus Asiae, 48, 1987, pp.261-2. 275; for a more recent discussion see Losty and Roy 2012, pp.58-69.
A notable aspect is the fact that Akbar is sitting on a European style chair. Chairs of this type began to appear in Mughal painting in the 1570s, derived from European prints brought to India by the Portuguese, with whom Akbar first had contact in 1573 (see Akbarnama, transl. H. Beveridge, vol.III, p.37). For early examples of this type of chair in Mughal miniatures see M. Rogers, Mughal Miniatures, London, 1993, p.84 (British Museum, inv. 1948.10-9,072); Sotheby’s, 6 April 2011 London (Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Part One), lot 89; David Collection, 55/2013; M. Brand and G. Lowry, Akbar’s India, New York, 1986, p.101.
Miniature pasted on an album leaf. ”A Nursing Princess”, India, Mughal; c. 1580-1585 (miniature), Iran; 19th century (leaf). Leaf: 47.7 × 31.6 cm; Inv. no. 55/2013 © David Collection
Lot 66. An illustrated and illuminated leaf from a manuscript of Firdausi's Shahnameh: Bahram-e Chubineh attacks Khusraw Parviz’s army at night, signed by Mu'in Mussavir, Persia, Safavid, 17th century; painting: 25 by 14.1cm., leaf: 36.2 by 22.8cm. Estimate: £4,000 - £6,000. © Sotheby's
ink and gouache heightened with gold on paper, 10 lines to the page written above and below the painting, written in nasta’liq in black ink, signed in the lower margin, ruled in red, green, gold and blue, reverse with 30 lines of text in nasta'liq.
Provenance: Ex-collection Joe and Hellen Darion, New York.
Exhibited: Olsen Travelling Exhibition, Persian Miniature no.55 (label on reverse of frame).
On loan:
North Carolina Museum of Art, 1962 (loan number Olsen Persian Miniature TL.62.10.65, label on reverse of frame).
Lot 85. Bhisma felled in battle, an illustration to the Mahabharata, India, Pahari, first half 19th century; painting: 28.3 by 39.9cm., leaf: 34.8 by 44.3cm. Estimate: £8,000 - £12,000. © Sotheby's
gouache with gold on paper, inner blue borders decorated with floral band, outer pink borders, numbered '10' in Hindi on the reverse.
Acquired from Walter Randel, New York, 1960s.