One of the first illustrated manuscripts from Mawarannahr was bought by the French Ambassador Denis de La Haye Ventelet in Istanbul around 1653. This sumptuous Bustan of Sa‘di – now manuscript Persan 257 in the BnF – was first in the library of the famous Nicolas Fouquet (1615 – 1680), Superintendent of Finance of the King Louis XIV.
And when the too rich but unfortunate Superintendant was condemned to jail in 1667 the manuscript entered the King’s library. Few years later, again in Istanbul, Antoine Galland (1646 – 1715), universally renowned erudite orientalist and discoverer and translator of the “Thousand and one Nights”, who was at that time the young secretary of the French Ambassador, discovered in the shop of one bookseller and bought – for the price of 25 Ottoman piasters – the marvellous manuscript of the Mi‘raj-nama in Uighur script.
This extraordinary manuscript was sent by Ollier de Nointel, French Ambassador in the Ottoman capital, to Colbert, Minister of Louis XIV and big collector of books. Galland started to study the manuscript, which was only completely deciphered in 1882 – 1889 by the turcologist Pavet de Courteille.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "Illustrated manuscripts from Mawarannahr in the collections of France" (Volume XXIX) in the series "The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan".
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How much did the French ambassador buy Mirajname for?
As is known,Library of the Kings of France, which after the French Revolution became the Bibliothèque nationale (now Bibliothèque nationale de France, or BnF) is certainly one of the first libraries in Europe that collected important manuscripts from Central Asia.