Item Summary

Illustrated Persian manuscript on magic and astrology, including a book of spells describing incantation and talismans, and 56 painted illustrations.

Descriptive Information

Title
كتاب عجايب مخلوقات
Transliterated Title
Kitāb-i ʻAjāʾib-i makhlūqāt.
Call Number
Islamic Manuscripts, Third Series no. 349
Identifier
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/pc289j126
Publisher
Iṣfahān, [1921]
Language
Persian
Date Created
1921
Format
Manuscript
Extent
147 leaves : paper, ill. ; 218 x 175 (140 x 110) mm. bound to 225 x 180 mm.
Source Acquisition
Purchase; Hurst Gallery (Cambridge, Mass.) ; 1997
Rights Statement
No Known Copyright
Notes
Ms. codex.
Title from end of text (written with tāʾ marbūtah).
Physical description: 11 lines per page ; written in medium small nastaʻlīq in black ink. Arabic written in naskh. From fol. 50b on: written in nastaʻlīq in purple ink. Wove paper with embossed seal with inscription in Cyrillic on a few leaves. Annotations in English on the margins of the first leaves. Picture representing a young man placed at the end of the copy.
56 illustrations in watercolor representing the signs of the Zodiac, demons linked to these signs, constellations, birth of stars, and archangels such as Mikāʾīl and Jibrāʾīl.
Origin: According to note on fol. 1a, copied in Iṣfahān, Shaʻbān 1324 H. [Sept.-Oct. 1906] by ʻAlī Muḥammad ibn Jaʻfar Abū al-Ḥasan al-Nāʾinī(?) al-Muṣāḥib. At the end of several texts accompanying the illustrations is the name Raṣṣād(?) B̄āshī, son of the late Jaʻfar, with dates ranging from 1330 to 1339 H. [1911 to 1921].
Incipit: بسم ... بكير از زير قدم او يكمشت خاك واين جعارا هفت بخواند ... بسم ... اللهم اله السموات والارض اعجل اعجل اعجل ارجع ارجع ارجع حب الخير
Binding Note
Blind stamped and tooled red leather.

Discovery Information

Subject
Islamic magic
Astrology, Iranian
Astrology, Arab
Talismans—Specimens
Monsters—Pictorial works—Specimens
Archangels—Pictorial works—Specimens
Zodiac—Pictorial works—Specimens
Constellations—Pictorial works—Specimens
Curiosities and wonders
Manuscripts, Persian—New Jersey—Princeton

Physical Characteristics

File Count
302

Institutional Information

Collection
Manuscripts of the Islamic World
IIIF Manifest URL

https://figgy.princeton.edu/concern/scanned_resources/064f7caf-0663-46d4-8566-974c37b9d259/manifest