TWO LOOSE FOLIOS FROM A HISTORY OF THE PROPHET Kashmir, Northern India, late 18th century

TWO LOOSE FOLIOS FROM A HISTORY OF THE PROPHET
Kashmir, Northern India, late 18th century
Persian manuscript on paper, each folio with 21ll. of poetry in four columns of black ink nasta’liq script divided by narrow bands of floral scrolls, in gold and blue rulings, the chapter headings in blue against burnished and illuminated gold cartouches, comprising one folio with the history of the Battle of Khaybar, elaborating on the Prophet’s humane treatment of the Jewish community of Khaybar following his victory, and his marriage to his Jewish wife, Safiyya bint Huyayy (m.629-632), the illumination on the reverse relating to ‘the Prophet asking Ali to divide a metal gate, whereupon the saint pulls up his sleeves and tears the metal as though it was silk, and folds it as though it was made of dough’, while soldiers queue to weigh their booty on scales; and the latter folio relating to an imaginary public discourse between the Prophet and Abu Bakr regarding the supremacy of Imamat and the Mahdist principle versus the Caliphate, Abu Bakr kneeling before the enthroned Prophet with a flaming halo over his head, flanked by disciples, seated on a Mughal summer carpet, within a compound of North Indian architecture, mounted, framed in upright stand and glazed between two sheets of glass, the folio 22cm x 12.8cm, 37cm x 30cm including the frame.
the folio 22cm x 12.8cm, 37cm x 30cm including the frame
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