THREE ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPTS
Mostly Kashmir and Northern India, 19th century

Arabic manuscripts on paper, comprising a volume described as the History of the Beginning of the World ( كتاب تاريخ مبتدأالدنيا - Kitab Tarikh-i Mubtada al-Duniya) by Ibn Ila al-Duniya, a later-added handwritten note disputing the attribution and presenting the tome as a biographical work on the lives of Arab scholars, poets and important personalities, 168ff.,1 fly-leaf, with 27ll. of black ink naskh script to the page, the illuminated opening bifolio with gold cusped arches and red borders with vegetal zig-zag fretwork, verse markers as gold roundels, titles in red, with marginal notes and catchwords, the last page inscribed by the calligrapher Ghilan Faqid Khan, in a tooled brown morocco leather binding with an inventory sticker on the front cover reading '539'; and two other manuscripts, one a possible compendium of Islamic law, respectively 130ff.,1 fly-leaf, 2 endpapers, and 255ff., 1 fly-leaf, 1 endpaper, both in tooled brown morocco bindings with Ottoman-style cusped arabesque medallions, with inventory stickers reading 69 and 182 on the respective spines.

The largest text panel 21.5cm, x 12.5cm, the largest folio 28.2cm x 17.5cm