Abu Bakr Shah ibn Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Shahrastani - Five Poems (Quintet) - Walters W605 - Exterior Closed

This copy of the Khamsah (quintet) of Nizami Ganjavi (died 605 AH/AD 1209), Walters manuscript W.605, was written by Abu Bakr Shah ibn Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Shahrastani and illuminated by Jamal al-Din ibn Muhammad al-Siddiqi al-Isfahani between 892 AH/AD 1486 and 900 AH/AD 1494-1495. The manuscript opens with a double-page illuminated frontispiece with an inscription giving the title of the work and the name of the author (fols. 1b-2a). There are 4illuminated titlepieces with the names of the individual poems and 26 repainted illustrations. According to evidence supplied by the colophons, the original binding was by the hand of Jamal al-Din ibn Muhammad al-Siddiqi al-Isfahani, as well. Unfortunately, it has not survived. The binding presently attached to the manuscript dates to the 12th century AH/AD 18th.