English: MUNIF PASHA (d. 1910 AD): TAZKIREH-YE SOFARA (TREATISE ON TURKISH AMBASSADORS AT THE COURT OF FATH ‘ALI SHAH). SIGNED MUHAMMAD TAHIR, TEHRAN, QAJAR IRAN, DATED SAFAR AH 1291/ MARCH-APRIL 1874 AD

Ottoman Turkish manuscript on cream burnished paper, 9ff. plus two flyleaves, 11ll. of elegant black nasta'liq to the page, within gold and black rules, catchwords, illuminated opening headpiece, chapter headings in red nasta’liq within gold and polychrome cartouches, one fully illustrated folio, colophon signed and dated, in 19th century purple velvet binding with printed marbled paper doublures Text panel 8 ¾ x 5 3/8in. (22.2 x 13.6cm.); folio 11 ¾ x 7 ¾in. (29.9 x 19.4cm.)

Munif Pasha was a prominent Ottoman statesman and educational reformer of the tanzimat, a period of reform in the Ottoman Empire that began in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. Munif was the Ottoman ambassador in Tehran during the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah on two occasions: from 1872-77 and between 1895-96 (Encyclopaedia of Islam, VII, pp. 573). This manuscript was compiled by him during his first appointment as the ambassador in Tehran and completed in 1874. The text is of great interest since it provides an insight into the relationship between the Ottoman Court and Iran during the reign of Fath ‘Ali Shah.

Another copy of this manuscript is housed in the Michigan University Library. The text and layout of both manuscripts are identical. The Michigan copy includes portraits of eight Ottoman and Arab statesmen, including the following four Ottoman ambassadors mentioned in great detail in the text: Yasji Zadeh Sayyid ‘Abdul Wahhab Efendi, Jalal al-Din Efendi and ‘Abdul Rahman Pashay Baban and Suleyman Efendi. Our copy includes one illustrated painting which depicts Sayyid ‘Abdul Wahhab Efendi and Mir Katib who are both identified in elegant nasta’liq on the lower margin. The paintings in both manuscripts are extremely similar in size and style and were almost certainly created in the same workshop.