An illuminated manuscript of the Divan of Navai written in Herat (modern Afghanistan) by the calligrapher Sultan Ali Mashhadi and later illustrated with nine Mughal paintings.

Nizam al-Din Ali Shir (1441-1501), also known by his penname Navai meaning 'melody maker', is considered the Chaucer of the Turks. Navai was a close advisor to the Timurid ruler Sultan Husayn Mirza (1438–1506) at his court in Herat. As a statesman, he amassed great wealth and political power but he is best remembered today as a poet and a patron of the arts. He was the first to promote Chagatai Turkish as a literary language over the more widely used Persian.

This volume of Ali Shir’s Divan (Collected works) is composed of long lyric poems, (ghazals: ff.1-671a) followed by 27 poems written in rhyming couplets (masnavis: ff. 671b-735b) and ends with short single-verse poems (kitas and do-beytis: ff. 735b-765b) at the end. This volume is transcribed in the earliest form of his Divan with all the poems in alphabetical sequence.  Arabic phrases written at the beginning of every poem impart blessings on the author (‘God rest his soul’, ‘Forgive his sins’, etc.) which would suggest that this manuscript was a special commission of Navai’s collected work written shortly after his death in 1501.

The text is written in very fine Nastaliq script by the celebrated calligrapher Sultan Ali al-Mashhadi (1453-1520) on thick, sand coloured paper with gold and blue inks used for headings and blessings. The illuminated frontispiece on ff.1v-2r is ornamented with an Arabic prayer in Kufic script in the four gold cartouches.

The manuscript’s original 16th century illustrations were overpainted at the Mughal court in India after 1605 (see RCINs 1005033.a-h). Areas of flaked paint reveal traces of the earlier images including bulbous turbans and Chinese clouds. Persian numerals suggest that the original number of paintings was twelve (four more than survive). The paintings all bear ascriptions to Mughal artists, some of which have been mis-transcribed in later inscriptions in the page margins.

The green leather cover with envelope flap, blind stamped medallions and red doublures are original to the manuscript.

The volume’s history is unclear because the first folio is missing and any seals or inscriptions on the final folio (f. 766v) have been obscured by a painting of a flower. Muzaffar al-Din bin Nasr-Allah, the Amir of Bukhara (r. 1860-1885), sent the manuscript as a gift to Queen Victoria in May 1872.

The Royal Library holds another manuscript of the author’s work acquired by George III: the Khamsah of Navai (RCIN 1005032).

See also John Seyller “A Mughal Manuscript of the Diwan of Nawa'i.” Artibus Asiae 71, no. 2 (2011): 325-334.