A compendium of works relating to the Hajj, including Muhyi al-Din Lari (d.1526-27), Futuh al-Haramayn, signed by Muhammad Zakariya Ibn Mowla Muhammad Yusuf, Persia, Safavid, dated 990 AH/1582 AD

Persian manuscript on paper, 150 leaves plus 30 flyleaves, comprising 4 works, each with an illuminated headpiece, the first work containing 16 illustrations including 7 full page, including depictions of Mecca and Medina, the first 3 works 15 lines to the page, written in black nasta'liq script within 2 columns, margins ruled in colours and gold, keywords picked out in red, catchwords, the last work in a different hand within a single column, later red morocco binding with applied tooled medallions

In reasonably good overall condition, later binding with spine repaired and general wear and abrasions, manuscript thumbed, various stains, creasing, light water stains to leaf edges, text panels generally clean, illustrations bright, occasional paper repairs, and minor tears to leaf edges, some larger losses, as viewed.
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This manuscript represents a compendium of texts relating to the Hajj pilgrimage, including: the Futuh al-Haramayn by Muhyi al-Din Lari (d.1526-27); Jami’s Tuhfat al-ahrar and Subhat al-abrar (the Prophet’s sayings on pilgrimages to Mecca); measurements of the Masjid al-haram including all that is within it (such as the black stone, Maqam Ibrahim and Zamzam well); procedures in visiting the Ka’ba and the tombs; hilye and miracles of the Prophet.

The Futuh al-Haramayn, Jami’s Tuhfat al-ahrar and Subhat al-abrar were copied by Muhammad Zakariya Ibn Mulla Muhammad Yusuf (unrecorded) in Jumadi II 990 AH/1582. The rest were copied by a different unnamed scribe in Samarqand between 994 AH/1585-86 and 995 AH/1586-87.

The binding is a later addition which bears the stamped seal of the maker Nasir or Muhammad Nasir given in the legend: darad omid-e shifa’at ze-muhammad nasir

‘Nasir (or Muhammad Nasir) hopes for the intercession of Muhammad’

Another copy of Lari's Futuh al-Haramayn offered in these rooms, 5 October 2011, lot 96, bears many similarities in the illustrations to the present copy, and was also completed in the same year. A further work of a similar date is now in the Chester Beatty Library (see A.J. Arberry, The Chester Beatty Library: A Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts and Miniatures, Vol.III, Dublin, 1962, p.25, no.249).