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A GROUP OF PRAYERS SELECTED FOR SULTAN QANSUH AL-GHURI SIGNED KUSBAY BIN TANAM, MAMLUK EGYPT, EARLY 16TH CENTURY Arabic manuscript on cream paper, 18ff., each folio with 7ll. of large black naskh, keywords and phrases picked out in red, gold and polychrome, rosette verse markers, final three pages with 3-4ll. of large black thuluth with red interlinear notes, the first folio with gold and blue illuminated title panel and roundel with dedication to Sultan Abu al-Nasr Qansuh al-Ghuri, final folio with colophon in a similarly illuminated roundel, signed, first folio and one folio with later owner's seal impression, in contemporaneous brown morocco with stamped central geometric roundel, brown leather doublures Folio 10 5/8 x 7in. (26.8 x 17.7cm.)
Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri (r. 1501-16) was the penultimate Mamluk sultan and his reign marks the culmination of Mamluk pious and artistic patronage. He commissioned a great number of buildings and built a commercial and residential quarter in Cairo. Works of art and works on paper from his reign are more limited however, and this manuscript is therefore a rare survival.
The manuscript is signed Kusbay bin Tanam. A Tanam al-Najmi was responsible for copying the Royal Qur’an made for Sultan Qaytbay, which sold in these Rooms, 2 May 2019, lot 11. It is tempting to suggest that this is the work of his son. Tanam al-Najmi gave his nisba as Al-Maliki al-Ashrafi, indicating that he was part of the royal scriptorium of Sultan Qaytbay. He copied the Qur’an for Qaytbay in 1489, just twelve years before Qansuh al-Ghuri came to power. That his son trained in the same discipline and was also a member of the royal scriptorium, working under the next Mamluk Sultan, is very probable.
Another manuscript commissioned for Qansuh al-Ghuri sold in these Rooms, 26 October 2017, lot 62.