Qutb al-Din Mahmud b. Mas'ud b. Muslih Al-Shirazi (d. 1310-11)

Al-Tuhfat al-Shahiyya fi'l Hay'ah - The Present to the Shah on Astronomy

Signed Muhammad 'Ali b. Mahmud al-Tabrizi, dated 991H. (=1583-84)

Old copy of "Present to the Shah", Arabic treatise on astronomy, 314 leaves on paper, calligraphed in black "naskh" on 19 lines per page, titles and important words marked in red, framing fillets in gold and blue, with many fine diagrams in black and red ink. The manuscript opens with an illuminated frontispiece and ends with the colophon signed and dated.

Bound in embossed brown morocco.

Near East, 1583-84



The Tuhfat al-Shahiyya was composed in 1285H. and dedicated to the Wazir Taj al-din Mu'tazz bin Tahir. Al-Shirazi is considered the best student of Al-Tusi who first welcomed him in his observatory before considering him a rival and expelling him. Then Al-Shirazi went to Turkey and then to Iran, and joined the court of the Ilkhanids in Tabriz where he founded a new observatory.



Qutb al-Din Mahmud b. Mas'ud b. Muslih Al-Shirazi (d. 1310-11)

Al-Tuhfat al-Shahiyya fi'l Hay'ah - The Gift to the Shah on Astronomy

Signed Muhammad 'Ali b. Mahmud al-Tabrizi, dated 991H. (=1583-84)

An early copy of astronomy and planetary motions, Arabic manuscript on paper, 314ff., each folio with 19ll. of black naskh , important words and titles picked out in red, text panels ruled in gold and blue, with numerous finely drawn diagrams, catchwords, first folio with illuminated headpiece surmounting text, later owners' notes on doublure, final folio with signed and dated colophon possibly on a replacement page, waterstaining, in later stamped light brown morocco binding