<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>Provenance: brought by general Simonich, 1868.</p><p>A muraqqa', comprising examples of miniature painting and calligraphy, dated back from the 16th to the 19th centuries. It has a classical album structure – a harmonica, where the paintings (court scenes or just portraits of flowers) or the calligraphic etudes were attached to each other by textile strip along the edges.</p><p>Binding is a typical Qajar papier mache. The exterior sides of the covers are decorated with under laquer paintings. The upper covers represents a mass interior royal reception of two young princes. One is sitting on the traditional throne, with his legs crossed and hidden, another one, the older – is sitting on the European chair, also very richly decorated. They are surrounded by their royal relatives, also sitting on the throne-like chairs in crowns; courtiers, servants, guards and two European guests kneeling in the first plane, opposite the musicians. It seems that all of them are listening a musician, playing setar in the centre of the scene. However the musician is much smaller than all others. The back cover represents an enigmatic scene. In the centre there is a young prince sitting on a Persian gold throne, on four thin legs, decorated with a red floral ornament. The prince is dressed in the traditional Qajar long red coat and crown with rubies and emeralds and two peacock feathers. However, there is a flaming halo around his head. To his left there is a male group of princes, warriors and courtiers, among whom are Rustam and two divs, one of them is white. Opposite to them there is a female group, where only one girl has a veil, ruby brooch and two royal peacock feathers on her head, while all others are bare headed and dressed in European dresses. In the space between these two groups there are different kinds of animals, lying on the ground and birds flying in the sky. The royal couple could be Yusuf and Zulaikha or Sulaiman and Bilqis, which is more likely. The cover is spoiled in places by scratches, some of which are very deep.</p><p>The interior sides are decorated with paintings depicting the flowers, mostly roses and nuts, and birds in three medallions and in the frame. The medallions are of traditional shape: the central one is of multi-tooth almond shape, two others above and below the central one are lotus-like. The foreground is very dark brown.</p><p>In general the manuscript needs restoration: both covers of the binding are detached, several paintings are detached from the binding. However the paintings themselves are in good condition. The paper is not a paper for writing. It is thin cardboard sheets, used for painting.</p><p>The muraqqa' is luxuriously decorated in different techniques, especially the calligraphic passages, on gold paper.</p><p>There are three full page paintings without any text with heavily decorated margins of floral ornament. All three miniatures are signed by one painter: Muhammad Sadiq and dated 1120.</p><p>One of the paintings, Bahram Gur and Azada hunting, having no date, can be attributed to the Shahnama conditionally: a young Qajar prince is shooting a deer with his arrow. The deer is shot in its head and bleeding. A girl, mounted on the brown horse and surrounded by two others, is playing a harp. The painting is surrounded by a wide frame, decorated with triple floral ornaments. The widest on the dark brown foreground is very close to that of the covers on the inside sides: they are roses, cherry blossoms and birds.</p></p>
