<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>Bought from D.I.Dolgorukiy in 1858; Gift of Nasir al-Din Shah to Prince Dolgorukov, Ambassador of Russia in Persia (1845-1854).</p><p>On f.1r there are several imprints of the owners' seals (four Persian and that of Prince Dolgorukiy). First additional folio contains the inscription proving the presentation of the MS to the Ambassador. The is no information about date and place of origin of the MS. According to its paleographic peculiarities can be dated back to the last decades of the 16th century.</p><p>The codex has 682 folios, with a double European pagination. The last folio is marked as 672 and 682. The text in good medium size nasta‘liq in Indian ink, headings in white in rectangular cartouches, filled in with elaborate ornament in gold, blue and polychrome. There are a lot of chalipa pages, where the triangular spaces are filled with gold and floral ornament.</p><p>The 18th-century binding is a wonderful example of early Qajar lacquered papier mache. Both the exterior and interior sides of the covers are decorated with four battle paintings – one per each side. On the outside the subjects are: Nadir Shah with the row of artillery (back cover), Shah Isma'il (front cover). On the interior sides scenes from Shahnama are depicted: Battle of Rustam and Isfandiyar (front cover) and Rustam mourning Suhrab (back cover).</p><p>The MS is in good condition. Restored in the 18th century. The European pagination must be corrected after f.310 (must be 320). Paper is of good quality, yellowed, slightly glossy.</p><p>It has a full copy of the text. Ff.1v-17r contain the Baysunghur Preface in a detailed version with poetic interpolations and the Satire on Mahmud (84 baits).</p><p>Incipit: iftitah-i sukhan…</p><p>The poem starts on f. 17v with the normative incipit. There are no major interpolations but there are some textual additions, missing in most editions, for example: ff.500r-501r (28 baits). Several folia are missing: between ff.396 and 397, 407 and 408.</p><p>Explicit: Zi ma bar ravan-i Muhammad durud / hami ta buvad ruz-u shab-u tar-u pud</p><p>The MS is richly decorated. Ff.1v-3r – a double-page once luxurious sarlauh, with two shamsa on both sides and wide arabesque decoration, covering the whole margins in gold, blue and polychrome. However now it is in quite a poor state: suffered from water, torn in places, the right lower corner is missing. Restored carefully.</p><p>Ff.2v-3r the text is surrounded by gold clouds with marginal decoration of flowers, trees and animals in gold.</p><p>Ff.17v-18r – a double page wide marginal arabesque decoration in gold, blue and polychrome with an 'unvan of a very refined hand. Also ff. 16v-17r (the end of the introduction), 18v-19r and all double pages with a miniature are decorated with marginal herbal and animalistic designs in gold, and the text is surrounded by the gold clouds with the floral ornament over it. Chalipa pages are decorated with golden fillings of the triangular spaces with the patterns in Indian ink and red over gold.</p><p>There are 30 miniatures, executed in the manner close to that of Dorn 334. The subjects of the first and the last paintings do not correlate with the subjects of the poem. Probably they depict the patroness of the MS. The paintings are full page, mostly covering margins with a rather sophisticated composition of mass scenes. The yellow paint is dominating, which is a quite rare feature for this period. This pigment got dark, and the green is oxidized and partly missing (Gyuzalyan and Dyakonov, pp. 53-57).</p></p>
