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171 - The Epistles of Wisdom, Rasâ'il al-Hikma, volume I, part 1, …
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Estimate €500 - €700
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Description
The Epistles of Wisdom, Rasâ'il al-Hikma, volume I, part 1, letters 1 to 14, Ottoman Levant, probably Mount Lebanon, undated Manuscript on laid paper with 15 lines of text per page in naskhi Arabic in brown ink, some terms in red ink like the discs punctuating the text. The text begins with the first letter and ends with letter 14, the last two letters being fragmentary and incomplete. Each epistle is introduced by a title illuminated with polychrome inks in a cartouche decorated with plant motifs. On the back of the first page, a collector's label showing a fish framed by alpha and omega in a blue medallion and accompanied by the pencilled initials K - B. 21 x 16 cm As is, mutilated and incomplete manuscript, stains, foxing and wetness, folds, folios detached, folios glued together, folios cut out and fragments of folios, binding missing. The Epistles of Wisdom, Rasâ'il al-Hikma, represent the canon of the most sacred texts and the main source of the Druze religion. This collection comprises 111 letters attributed to the early 11th-century authors Hamza ibn 'Ali ibn Ahmad (985-1021) and Isma'il at-Tamimi, then compiled into six books in the 15th century by Jamal al-Din Abdallah al-Tanukhi (1417-1479). Filled with symbolism and written with rigour, they deal with the themes of monotheism, the soul, knowledge, creation, cosmology, etc. Born in the 11th century in Fatimid Egypt around the teachings of the caliph al-Hakim, the Druze religion is derived from Ismaili Shiism. Its esoteric doctrine is based on the principle of Divine Oneness (Tawhid) and is strongly influenced by Arab Neoplatonism. Handwritten copies of the Epistles of Wisdom are rare and often incomplete due to the division of these writings into several volumes. Moreover, their attribution is not easy. Information on the context in which they were copied is generally lacking, as the copyists, out of religious conviction, do not give their names and rarely the date of the copy.
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About the sale Archaeology & Arts of Islam and India
Auction location
Auction time 06/26/2026 at 1:30 PM
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