Tarikh'i Pitr'i Kabir [and] Tarikh'i Sharl'i Davazdahhum,

Voltaire in Persian translation

This extraordinary manuscript is most probably the first translation of Voltaire from French into Persian. Little is known about the life of the translator, Mirza Reza Tabrizi, however he is known to have been working as a civil servant in Khorasan in 1846 and spent the years 1853-58 as an interpreter and instructor in French at the Dar al-Fonun.

This manuscript is particularly striking for the remarkable decorated marbled borders, of many varying designs and patterns, that adorn all the text pages. The use of marbled paper borders in a bound manuscript, as here, is very unusual. Marbled paper was often used to decorate album pages and calligraphic panels from the sixteenth century onwards and was very much a decorative tool elevating the design and appeal of a single artistic creation (i.e. a miniature or calligraphic exercise), it's use to adorn the margins of every text leaf is a sign of great luxury and decadence.

The only other known textual manuscript to include marbled borders to this degree was copied by the same scribe as the present manuscript and was entitled Tarikh'i Iskander (History of Alexander the Great), assembled by James Campbell; a reference to this primary text is given in the preface of the other manuscript: 'Ibn Muhammad Khan Safdar 'Ali is to produce this text as well as the History of Peter the Great' thus confirming that the two volumes were undeniably associated at the time of production and assembled in this style at the bequest for the same patron. Although notably the secondary volume was completed a year later and in Kabul, Afghanistan, indicating that the patron of these works was likely travelling with the scribe and engaging with them as they worked. For more information on the secondary associated manuscript, see item 33 in Shapero Rare Books' Catalogue Maghreb to the Far East (London, 2023).

Single volume, illuminated manuscript on paper with fine marbled paper borders, in Farsi, 141 leaves, complete, 323 x 215 mm; single column, 11 lines to the page written in neat nasta'liq script in black ink, occasional headings and significant words in blue, inner margins ruled in gold and blue, outer borders throughout decorated with fine marbling, one fine illuminated opening headpiece, later ink inscription to recto of first leaf, else very clean and bright condition; contemporary leather over pasteboards, covers and extremities a little scuffed and rubbed.