AN ILLUMINATED KASHMIRI ANWAR-I SUHAILI BY HUSAYN WAIZ AL-KASHIFI (d. 1504)
Kashmir, Northern India, 19th century

Persian manuscript on wove paper, 510ff., 2 fly-leaves and 2 endpapers, with 13ll. of free-flowing black ink nasta'liq script to the page, the opening bifolio with elaborate illumination featuring at the top three interlinked cusped arches infilled with floral blossoms and arabesque vegetal sprays, the text gathered in cloudbands against a gold ground, important words as well as corrections in red, marginal notes in black and sepia ink, catchwords, set within concentric polychrome and gold rules, with two rubbed personal library stamps and further owner's notes before the opening bifolio, in a European tooled and gilt morocco leather binding featuring the volume's title in English (The Lights of Canopus) on the spine.

The text panel 15cm x 7.5cm, the folio 22cm x 12cm

The Anwar-i Suhaili or 'Lights of Canopus' — commonly known as the Fables of Bidpai in the West — is a Persian version of an ancient Indian collection of animal fables, including the story of the two jackals Kalilah and Dimna. Originally called the Panchatantra, these fables were all written in Sanskrit. At the end of the 15th century, the Timurid Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqara (r.1469 - 1506) entrusted the poet Husayn Waiz al-Kashifi to produce a simplified version in Persian, which subsequently became very popular, especially among the Mughal Emperors in India who commissioned several luxurious copies. The success of the text did not cease in the 19th century, when this volume would have been produced.