After 1894, Agnes Robinson, the widow of the famous scholar James Darmesteter (1849-1894), who specialized in Sanskrit and Zoroastrianism and traveled through India and Afghanistan, mainly in the Peshawar area in 1886, made a valuable contribution to understanding the history of book art in Central Asia. It was executed by the calligrapher Mir Hussein Husayni katib al-hakani from Bukhara in 964/1556-1557. The epithet “Khaqani” means that he was the court calligrapher of the Khan of Bukhara. The text of Saadi is illustrated with four miniatures, but for a reason unknown to us, two of them are dated 963 AH, a year before the end of the copy. Nevertheless, three miniatures have an inscription that reads: "During the [reign] of the khan of the era of Abu-l-Ghazi Nauruz Ahmad Bahadur-khan", who was a contender for the throne. Unfortunately, it is unknown where Darmesteter acquired this manuscript.
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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