Completed in 1492 in Herat (modern-day Afghanistan), this manuscript is the earliest Islamic bound volume in the Royal Library. It is also one of the earliest surviving copies of the Khamsah (‘Quintet’), a collection of poems composed in 887-90 AH (AD 1483-5) in Chagatai Turkish by Nizam al-Din Ali Shir (1441-1501), best known by his penname Navai (‘melody maker’). Celebrated as the first writer to promote Chagatai Turkish as a literary language over the more widely used Persian, Navai’s work marks a turning point in Central Asian literary history. Beyond its text, the manuscript serves as a portable gallery of Timurid, Shaybanid and Mughal art.

In addition to being an accomplished writer, Navai was a close advisor to the Timurid ruler Sultan Husayn Mirza (1438-1506) at his court in Herat. Although he amassed wealth and political influence as a statesman, Navai is remembered today primarily as a poet and a patron of the arts.

His Khamsah consists of five long narrative poems (masnavis): Hayrat al-Abrar (The Wonders of Good People), Farhad va Shirin (Farhad and Shirin), Layla va Majnun (Layla and Majnun), Saba-yi Sayyar (The Seven Planets), and Sadd-i Iskandari (Alexander’s Wall).

The text is written on highly burnished gold sprinkled paper and set into gold-flecked borders, which range in colour from very pale sand to dark brown. The text is usually arranged into four horizontal columns, although at times it appears in alternating diagonals. The panels are ruled in dark blue, gold, and green.

Completed during Navai’s lifetime, the manuscript was transcribed by the court calligrapher Sultan Ali al-Mashhadi (1453-1520). While he was regularly employed by both Sultan Husayn and Navai, the colophon’s Persian verses in praise of Sultan Husayn suggest that this manuscript was a royal commission.

All illumination and one of the paintings belong to the original campaign, signed by the celebrated artist Haji Mahmud at the Herat court. More paintings were added in 1540 in Bukhara (modern-day Uzbekistan), whose ruling Shaybanid dynasty took Herat after Sultan Husayn’s death. Mughal paintings were also added around 1605 when Emperor Jahangir inherited the manuscript and removed all but one of the original paintings, which he probably added to his albums of Timurid art.

The manuscript’s six paintings (RCINs 1005032.d-.i) are found in the first poem (ff.5, 6, 12, 20, 30, 35). The last painting has an inscription that includes the date 947 AH (AD 1540), which may indicate that the pages reserved for paintings had been left blank until then. There is also an illuminated frontispiece and illuminated headings at the start of each of the poems (ff.53, 122, 165, and 222).

The square seal on f.1r, dated 968 AH (AD 1560-61), is that of Hamida Banu Begum, wife of the second Mughal emperor Humayun. After her death in 1604, the manuscript passed to her grandson: the fourth Mughal emperor Jahangir. Around 1615, the first five paintings were removed (possibly for inclusion in his albums) and new paintings by his own artists pasted on top. For the sixth illustration, part of the paint surface was scraped off and repainted by a Mughal artist, suggesting that paint loss and flaking may have been the reason why the page was not removed like the others. Presumably the original illustrations on folios 5 and 6 were read as a single composition over a double page, while the new Mughal insertions are two distinct paintings.

Inscriptions in the hand of Mughal emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan on f.1r state that they inherited the book on their respective ascent to the throne. Jahangir calls it ‘one of my most treasured books’ and gives a value of 1,000 ashrafis – a valuation which Shah Jahan almost doubled to 20,000 rupees. This folio also contains the tear-drop-shaped seals of Emperors Shah Jahan and Alamgir.

After the Mughal imperial libraries were dispersed in the mid-18th century, the manuscript was acquired for the royal library in Lucknow: it contains inspection notes from 1781, 1782 and 1786. In 1798, the new ruler of Lucknow, Saadat Ali Khan, presented this volume with five other manuscripts (RCINs 1005015, 1005017, 1005022, 1005025, and 1005068) to Lord Teignmouth, Governor-General of Bengal during 1793-98, intended as gifts for George III. Once in Britain, the manuscripts were brought to George III’s library at Buckingham House (now Buckingham Palace). In 1872, Queen Victoria received another manuscript of Navai’s poetry written by the same calligrapher (RCIN 1005033), a gift from the Amir of Bukhara.

Binding description
Lucknow, 1780s. Black goatskin with gilt stamped medallions and borders. The textblock was trimmed when the book was rebound at this stage.