Divân by Âsafî Heravî Eastern Iran, Khorassan,... Lot 17

Divân by Âsafî Heravî Eastern Iran, Khorassan, probably Herat, Timurid or Safavid period, early 16th century Initial illuminated double page from a manuscript on paper, each laminated on a cardboard backing. Polychrome gouache, gold and black ink. Wide margin adorned with gilded arabesques and large frame decorated with floral motifs framing six text cartouches of a poem on love with an invocation to God, praying him to give satisfaction to a loving heart, in nasta'liq script arranged in staggered rows. Old no. 101 glued to the spine on the cardboard backing to which the two pages are attached. (Wear, double page separated, slight discoloration, margins slightly cut, pages laminated to cardboard backing. 27.4 x 17.2 cm and 27.7 x 16.8 cm Provenance: Former collection Mihran Sevadjian (1884- 1964 ?); Sale Maîtres G. Muel et E. Ader, Persian Art. Collection Sevadjian. 2nd sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 23, 1960, lot 101. Rare and beautiful double page of a poem by Âsafî Heravî. Âsafî Heravî, Âsaf b. Na'îm-al-dîn Ne'matallâh b. 'Alâ-al-dîn 'Ali Qohestânî, was a poet of the Timurid period, who died in 923H./1517. His father was the vizier of the Timurid sultan Abû Sa'îd (r. 1451-69) and his pen name Âsafî comes from the name Âsaf, a conventional title for a vizier. In Herat, he was a pupil of the great poet 'Abdal- Rahmân Jâmî (Jami) during the reign of the Shaybanid dynasty. He also lived part of his life in Shiraz and sometimes wore the Shîrazî nisba. His works include a mathnawî and over 400 gazals (lyric poems) totalling over 2,000 verses, collected in a Dîvân (Collected Poems) (Encyclopaedia Iranica, Âsafî Heravî, https: //iranicaonline.org/articles/asafi-heravi-asaf-b). This sumptuously illuminated double-page spread of a continuous poem corresponds to the very beginning of the first gazal of Âsafî Heravî's Dîvân, as the end of each distich ends with the letter alif. This Dîvân was probably copied just after the poet's death. ISLAMIC ARTS Rare set of 16th-century Safavid paintings and illuminations from the former Sevadjian collection (Lots 17 to 22) Mihran Sevadjian (1884-1964 ?) was an Armenian dealer in oriental art and archaeology, originally from Egypt and based in Paris near Drouot, successively at 19 rue Buffault, 37 rue de Châteaudun and 17 rue Le Peletier. He lent numerous works to the 1903 and 1907 Paris exhibitions of Muslim art, as well as to the 1910 Munich exhibition, and sold to museums, notably the Louvre. Part of his collection was sold at Drouot, Paris, on June 1, 1927 and April 13-14, 1932. His entire collection was subsequently sold at Drouot on November 23, 1960, April 18-20, 1961 and October 31, 1961, when Sevadjian was elderly and in financial difficulties. At the sale of November 23, 1960, which included the five lots shown below, the Musée du Louvre acquired nine miniatures (lots 2, 29, 33, 36, 150, 151, 52 and 154), now inventoried as MAO 367 to MAO 375. Several of these pages almost certainly came from the same albums (muraqqa') as those presented here. We would like to thank Francis Richard, Honorary Curator of the Bibliothèque Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris for his help in compiling these notes, and Armen Tokatlian, art historian, for his information on Sevadjian.