LONDON.- As part of Sotheby’s Orientalist and Middle Eastern Art Week, a group of three sales dedicated to art produced across the Islamic world from ancient to modern times, 236 lots sold to bring £12,960,125 / $15,661,120 (est. £8,617,700-12,351,800), with over half of the offerings exceeding their pre-sale high estimates. An auction record was set as an Ottoman panel from the collection of Argine Benaki-Salvago soared to £1.1 million / $1.4 million. Six artist records were achieved across the week including for works by pioneering Iranian modernist Bahman Mohasses, leading Egyptian Surrealist Fouad Kamel and 19th-century Bohemian painter Georg Emanuel Opiz. 

Edward Gibbs, Sotheby’s Middle East & India Chairman, said: “Our London auctions of Middle Eastern art continue to go from strength to strength, presenting an array of extraordinary artworks and objects of exceptional quality and rarity. There was strong private and institutional interest throughout, with museums buying in each of the three sales – a true reflection of the historical importance of the lots on offer. These were our first auctions following the opening of Sotheby’s Dubai, where we showcased many of the highlights, and we are delighted that the series has exceeded expectations, bolstered by a 23% increase in buyers from the MENA region.” 

Arts of the Islamic World: 
The Arts of the Islamic World presents rare and exquisite objects telling the story of over a thousand years of artistic exchange and influence in the Islamic world. Today’s edition was led by works from prestigious collections, bringing an above-estimate total of £6,078,375 / $7,799,163 (est. £3,730,200-5,436,800). 

Unseen for decades, the spectacular museum-quality Ottoman textiles from the collection of Argine Benaki-Salvago sparked fierce competition to total £2,277,875 / $2,922,741 (est. £433,200-654,300). The top lot of the group, a large and exceptional voided silk velvet and metal-thread panel (çatma), with çintamani and tiger-stripe design, achieved a world auction price for an Ottoman textile at £1,076,750 / $1,381,578 (est. £200,000-300,000). Benaki-Salvago was a grande dame of Alexandrian society in the 1930s and her celebrated collection epitomises the richness and diversity of Ottoman courtly taste from the 16th century onwards. 

Lot 139. A large and exceptional Ottoman voided silk velvet and metal-thread panel (çatma), with çintamani and tiger-stripe design, Turkey, late 16th-early 17th century. Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 GBP. Lot sold £1,076,750 / $1,381,578. Photo: Sotheby's.

(Cf. my post: http://www.alaintruong.com/archives/2017/04/21/35195519.html)

Appearing at auction for the first time in its thousand-year history, the earliest known dated astrolabe from Muslim Spain, signed by the celebrated Andalusi astrolabist Muhammad ibn al-Saffar – the first of his three known pieces and the only example in private hands – sold for £608,750 / $781,087 (est. £300,000-500,000). Also making an auction debut, a highly-important imperial Mughal 54.5 carat spinel, inscribed with the names of Emperors Jahangir, Prince Khurram and ‘Alamgir (Aurangzeb) and dated 1024 AH/1615 AD and 1070 AH/1659 AD achieved £272,750 (est. £60,000-80,000). 

Lot 170. A rare Umayyad brass astrolabe, signed by Muhammad ibn al-Saffar, Spain, Cordoba, dated in Western Abjad 411 AH/1020 AD, with later Ottoman Turkish rete, 16th17th century. Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 GBP. Lot sold £1,076,750 / $1,381,578. Photo: Sotheby's.

of typical round form, with simple, stylised throne, leading to 2 suspension loops, the reverse of the mater with central circular recessed section, original alidade with foliated terminals, later 16th/17th-century Ottoman rete with cursive inscriptions, replacement pin; 18.9cm. height, with suspension loop. 1cm. depth

Provenance: Private collection, France.

Note: This is the oldest known dated astrolabe from Muslim Spain - the mater and plates of a hitherto-unrecorded astrolabe made by the celebrated Andalusi astrolabist Muhammad ibn al-Saffar in Cordoba, dated 411 AH/1020-21 AD. It is a significant addition to the canon of known astrolabes from al-Andalus, and of major historical interest.  

This important new witness to the vibrant scientific tradition in Muslim Spain is the earliest known dated astrolabe from the Islamic East. It was made by a celebrated early-eleventh-century instrument-maker of Cordova already known by two other astrolabes. The rete is a late medieval (sixteenth/seventeenth century) replacement, from the lands of the Eastern Mediterranean. It fits perfectly, which suggests that the instrument had a second life far from its original habitat.

Astronomy in al-Andalus

Astronomy flourished in al-Andalus, a term used for that part of the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim domination at any time, for several centuries. The new Islamic astronomy from the Islamic East imposed itself on the traditional folk astronomy of Visigothic Spain. The resulting Andalusi school of astronomy was progressive and actively encouraged, but it lacked the stability and ingenuity of the main regional schools of the Islamic East: Iraq, Iran and Central Asia; and Egypt, Syria and the Yemen. Thus, for example, the major astronomical handbooks with tables and explanatory text that were used in al-Andalus were those of al-Khwarizmi of Baghdad (c.825 AD, based on Indian theories) and al-Battani of Raqqa (c.910 AD, based on Ptolemaic models). By the eleventh century these were out-dated in the Islamic East and had been replaced by superior works, but in al-Andalus they reigned supreme and formed the basis of the Latin Toledan Tables, a hotchpotch of tables compiled c.1080 AD that was very popular in Europe as far as England until the fifteenth century. Europe never knew the wealth of Islamic astronomy in either the East or the West until orientalists, mainly French and German, began to investigate it in the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century a succession of Spanish historians in Barcelona – primarily José Mìllas Vallicrosa, Juan Vernet and Julio Samsó, and their students – have documented the history of Andalusi astronomy, paying due attention to the folk tradition and to instrumentation (two subjects usually given short shrift by historians of astronomy).

One well-known Andalusi astronomer was Ahmad ibn al-Saffar (d. Denia, 1035 AD). He taught arithmetic, geometry and astronomy in Cordoba, and together with his teacher al-Majriti, prepared a recension of the astronomical handbook of al-Khwarizmi, of which the Arabic original is lost but we have a Latin translation (published by H. Suter with an English translation by Otto Neugebauer). He prepared a treatise on the use of the astrolabe written in a “clear, simple and comprehensible style’’ which was used in Europe in Latin translation until the fifteenth century (see Sheynin for the most recent study). Ahmad also made a marble sundial for the latitude of Cordoba which survives in the Museo Arqueológico in that city (see King, ‘Sundials from Andalucia’, and article ‘Mizwala’ in Enc. Islam, 2nd edn.). But it is Ahmad’s brother Muhammad who concerns us here.

The celebrated Muhammad ibn al-Saffar and his three known astrolabes

The historian Sa’id al-Andalusi wrote in his universal history that Muhammad ibn al-Saffar constructed astrolabes like no one before him (Tabaqât al-umam, text, p.70, transl., p.131). Two other astrolabes signed by this maker have been known for some time, one for over half a century, the other for over a century and a half. They enable us to confirm the authenticity of this new astrolabe, for the distinctive engraving on all three pieces is identical. Yet there are subtle differences in the details.

The astrolabe by Ibn al-Saffar dated Cordoba, 417 AH/1026-27 AD, preserved in the Royal Scottish Museums (inv. no. T1959-62), Edinburgh, is missing the rete, a replacement being of Eastern Islamic provenance. It has never been properly published (which means more than publishing a picture of the front).

The astrolabe dated Toledo, 420 AH/1029 AD, is preserved in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek (Orientabteilung 2050), Berlin, and is complete. The plates for Cordoba and Toledo have the names of these cities added in a later hand. The piece was published in a model fashion by the orientalist Franz Woepcke in 1858 (see also Mayer, Islamic astrolabists, p.75). A single plate, preserved in the Museo Nazionale, Palermo (4025), can be identified as the handiwork of Ibn al-Saffar by means of the maker’s distinctive engraving. Its bears markings for latitude 40°, Toledo, on one side, and for latitude 42;30° (locality unspecified) on the other.

We can be confident that the present astrolabe by Ibn al-Saffar was originally graced with an elegant but delicate rete such as survives on the Berlin astrolabe. Indeed, his retes were too delicate and fragile for practical purposes, not least because the star-pointers tended to be overly long. Only one out of three has survived a millennium.

The earliest astrolabes from al-Andalus number less than twenty and are well documented (that is, detailed descriptions are available), if not yet published. Specialists have been surprised by the appearance of another such astrolabe, hitherto unknown to scholarship.

An illustration of a tenth-century Andalusi astrolabe signed by Khalaf ibn al-Mu’adh is found in an eleventh-century Latin manuscript; although the instrument bears no date it is clearly very early, not least because the plates serve the seven climates of Antiquity, as do the earliest Eastern Islamic astrolabe plates following Byzantine models. A single Andalusi astrolabe survives from the tenth century and is preserved in the British Museum (inv. no. OA+371), London; it is neither signed nor dated. Both are modelled after the Eastern Islamic astrolabes of the eighth-tenth centuries (all of which are published in King, In Synchrony with the Heavens, II, pp.403-544).

Otherwise there are some fifteen surviving Andalusi astrolabes from the eleventh century but none at all from the twelfth century. (For a list of all known Islamic astrolabes from before c.1500 see King, In Synchrony with the Heavens, II, pp.993-1020).

All numbers on the instrument are expressed in the standard Arabic alphanumerical system known as abjad (on this see Irani, “Arabic numeral forms’’). They are written in a distinctive unpointed sheriffed Western Arabic Kufic script, and even persons familiar with Arabic will falter at the sight of the year-number tâ’-ya’-alif = 400+10+1 = 411 in the dedication.

What is an astrolabe?

Imagine the heavens as fixed on a sphere centred on the observer. The heavens appear to rotate about a celestial axis once in a period that we divide into 12 hours (or 360°) and thus individual celestial bodies appear to move parallel to the celestial equator. The astrolabe is a two-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional celestial sphere in the plane of the celestial equator. This is achieved by a mathematical projection known as stereographic. The rete or rotatable pierced frame bears pointers for significant stars and an eccentric graded circle for the ecliptic or apparent path of the sun against the background of stars. The rate can rotate over any of a series of plates for a series of preferred latitudes. One observes a star or the sun and sets the appropriate pointer or solar position on the ecliptic scale on top of the appropriate altitude circle on the plate below, and obtains immediately the instantaneous configuration of the heavens with respect to the local horizon and meridian. With this one is armed for over one thousand possible operations that the astronomer al-Sûfî outlined in his tome on the instrument. It is hardly surprising that the astrolabe was the favourite instrument of Muslim astronomers, although it was not the only one.

The interested reader should consult www.astrolabes.org or King, In Synchrony with the Heavens, II. There is much false information circulating about the astrolabe, namely, that it was used in navigation, that it was used with the moon or planets, that one can compute eclipses with it, that one can use it to find the qibla or local direction of Makkah, that one can determine horoscopes with it, and more.

All numbers on the instrument are expressed in the standard Arabic alphanumerical system known as abjad (on this see Irani, “Arabic numeral forms’’). They are written in a distinctive unpointed sheriffed Western Arabic Kufic script, and even persons familiar with Arabic will falter at the sight of the year-number tâ’-yâ’-alif = 400+10+1 = 411 in the dedication.

The throne

The unusual throne resembles a seal sitting up on its haunches, with its face at the round pin holding the shackle and ring (both original). Two diagonal lines intersect at the vertical line.

The mater

The outermost scale of the mater is divided and labelled for each 5°, with subdivisions for each 1°, clockwise up to 360°. The astrolabic markings inside the mater serve latitude 66°, where the longest day is 24 hours (see below on the plates).

The plates

The six plates bear altitude circles marked and labelled for each 6° and azimuth circles above the horizon for each 10°. On each set of markings below the horizon from right to left we find in addition to the curves for the seasonal hours, specials curves that would serve for regulating the times of Muslim prayer. The inscriptions identify the curves and their functions: al-maghrib (sunset), maghib al-shafaq (nightfall), al-zawal (meridian), awwal al-zuhr (beginning of the midday prayer), awwal al-‘asr (beginning of the afternoon prayer), akhar al-‘asr (end of the afternoon prayer), tulu’ al-fajr (daybreak), and al-mashriq (daybreak). Additional inscriptions on the altitude circle for 18° – al-shafaq on the right and al-fajr on the right – indicate that this curve can also be used to determine twilight (in conjunction with the point of the ecliptic opposite the solar longitude).

For each side of each plate the inscriptions identify one or two localities corresponding to the latitude for which the plate is intended. The hours and minutes of the longest day at each latitude are given, these having been calculated from the latitude using the obliquity of the ecliptic, in this case, the value 23;51,20°, derived by Ptolemy of Alexandria c.125 AD. Whilst Muslim astronomers in Baghdad in the early ninth century had derived the much better value 23;35°, Andalusi instrument makers and astronomers in general remained somewhat tradition-bound.

19°             Hejaz, Yemen              13;10h
21;40         Mecca                           13;24
25              Madina                          13;35
27;30         Hijaz Misr                   13;46
30               Cairo                             13;58                            
33               Qairawan                     14;  8
34               Damascus                    14;18
37               Malaga                          14;36
38;30          Cordoba                      14;45
40               Toledo                          14;54
42               Saragossa                     15;  8
44                        -                             15;23
66               [Arctic circle]               24

It is interesting to compare the two different selections on the Edinburgh and Berlin astrolabes, which range from Ghana to Samarqand. All geographical data on early Islamic and medieval European astrolabes is available for comparison (King, 'Geography of Astrolabes'). 

The back

The back features a circular depression of 10cm and 2.5mm depth concentric with the outer rim. It is by no means clear why this is the case. To start with, the space would not have served to fit a removable plate or two, of the kind we find in later Andalusi astrolabes of the eleventh century, namely, one fitted, say, with a universal plate (see ‘Shakkaziyya’ in Enc. Islam 2); we can assert this not least because such plates were not invented until several decades later. If there had been a plate or two then the alidade would not have fitted in the ensemble. As it is, the ends of the alidade are cut so that the extremities move around the outer scales and the body of the alidade rotates over the empty ‘mater’. Furthermore, there are no original markings on this back ‘mater’ except for a square frame and the inscription within a rectangle at the top thereof:

'Made by Muhammad ibn al-Saffar in the city of Cordoba in the year 411 (1020-21 AD).'

The outermost scale of the back is divided and labelled for each 5°, with subdivisions for each 1°, arranged as four altitude scales each running up to 90°. There are notches at each of the 5°-divisions. Within this is a second scale, in twelve parts, divided and labelled for each 5° up to 30°. The names of the corresponding zodiacal signs are engraved within the mater, counter-clockwise from the right-hand side, and immediately within these are the names of the appropriate Julian months, arranged around a very crude scale for the days of each month. The casual way in which these scales have been executed is very surprising, but there is no reason to suppose that they are not original.

There are incompetent markings for a double shadow square to base 12 below the horizon on the back mater'. The divisions are carelessly and incorrectly engraved. The numbering of the subdivisions on the scales (in alphanumerical notation) indicates that these were added still in medieval times. The problem with these markings is that they fit perfectly within the square around the inscription. In other words, they do not seem to be a later addition.

The rete is a replacement from the Islamic East, either Egypt or Syria, or more probably Turkey, dating from the sixteenth or seventeenth century. It is typical in design of rates from those regions: simple and practical and without adornment. The back of the rete shows signs of having been reworked and modified. The pointer for the star Regulus, which is close to the ecliptic, is at Leo 24°, which corresponds to an epoch of c.1550. The rete fits perfectly within the mater of Ibn al-Saffar’s astrolabe. Likewise, the replacement rete from Iran which is found on Ibn al-Saffar’s Edinburgh astrolabe fits perfectly. Both astrolabes, now fitted with replacement retes with updated star-positions, could have had a new lease of life with the appropriate plates.

There are pointers for 6+8+5+7 = 26 stars, named as follows (counter-clockwise from the vernal equinox on the left, and arranged in four quadrants):

/1/ batn al-qaytus / al-ghul / al-dabaran / al-‘ayyuq / rijl al-jawza / mankib al-jawza /2/ al-shi’ra al-yamaniya / zahr al-asad / rijl (al-dubb) / ra’s al-asad / ‘unuq al-shuja’ / qalb al-asad / zahr al-dubb / janah al-ghurab /3/ al-simak al-a’zal / al-ramih / al-fakka / dhanab al-‘aqrab / al-jathi /4/ (al-)nasr al-waqi’ / (al-)nasr al-ta’ir / dhanab al-dajaja / mankib al-faras / dhanab al-jady / unlabelled on horizontal bar  / dhanab qaytus

We are indebted to Professor David King for providing the above catalogue note.

Bibliography: Enc. Islam 2, articles 'Ibn al-Saffar', 'Asturlab', 'Mizwala', 'Zidj'
Enc. Islam 3, article 'Astrolabes, quadrants and sundials’
B. R. Goldstein, article 'Ibn al-Saffar' in Enc. Islam, 2nd edn.
A. K. Irani, 'Arabic numeral forms', Centaurus 4 (1955): 1-12, repr. in Kennedy et al., Studies, pp.710-721. S. Kennedy, colleagues and former students, Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences, eds. M. H. Kennedy and D. A. King, Beirut, 1983.
Sa’id al-Andalusi, Tabaqat al-umam, ed. L. Cheikho, Beirut, 1913, trans. R. Blachère, Catégories des nations, Paris, 1935.
D. A. King, 'Three sundials from Islamic Andalusia' (1978), repr. in idem, Islamic Astronomical Instruments, London, Variorum, XV.
D. A. King, 'The geographical data on early Islamic astronomical astrolabes' (1999), repr. in idem, In Synchrony with the Heavens, vol.2, pp.915-962.
David A. King, In Synchrony with the Heavens – Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping and Instrumentation in Medieval Islamic Civilization, 2 vols., I: The Call of the Muezzin, II: Instruments of Mass Calculation, Leiden & Boston, Brill, 2004-05.
L. A. Mayer, Islamic Astrolabists and their Works, Geneva, Albert Kundig, 1956.
R. W. Plenderleith, 'Discovery of an old astrolabe', Scottish Geographical Magazine 76 (1960): 25.
F. Sezgin, ed., Arabische Astronomische Instrumente, 6 vols., Frankfurt, IGAIW, 1990-91.
M. Rius, article 'Ibn al-Saffar, Ahmad …', in Th. Hockey et al., eds, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, New York, Springer, 2007, pp.566-7.
H. Y. Sheynin, 'Claudius Ptolemy? Pseudo-Ptolemy? The Main Source of Moses Almosnino’s Treatise on Astrolabe', Journal for the History of Astronomy 46 (2015), pp.343-350.
F. Woepcke, 'Über ein in der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin befindliches arabisches Astrolabium', Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1858, pp.1-31, repr. in Sezgin, ed., Arabische Astronomische Instrumente, vol.2, pp.1-36.

Lot 191. A highly-important imperial Mughal spinel, inscribed with the names of emperors Jahangir, Prince Khurram and ‘Alamgir (Aurangzeb), India, dated 1024 AH/1615 AD and 1070 AH/1659 AD. Estimate £60,000-80,000. Lot Sold £272,750 / $349,966. Photo: Sotheby's.

(Cf. my post: A highly-important imperial Mughal spinel, India, dated 1024 AH/1615 AD and 1070 AH/1659 AD)

Following on from the outstanding results of last October’s sale, the second part of the renowned collection of the late Jafar Ghazi, which comprised 19 manuscripts and calligraphies, sold for £377,875 / $484,851 (est. £122,000-180,000). Each work was selected by Ghazi as an example of the highest-quality calligraphy from multiple Islamic courts over several continents and the selection was led by an illustrated Arabic manuscript of Kitab al-kawakib (‘The Book of Fixed Stars) dated 742 AH/1341 AD that sold for four times its estimate at £50,000 / $64,155. The demand for manuscripts continued throughout the sale, including an impressive large illuminated scroll, containing a series of fine paintings related to the Hajj accompanied by text in Persian and Arabic, which sold for £320,750 / $411,554 (est. £50,000-70,000). 

ink and gouache heightened with gold on paper, backed with silk; 794.2 by 36.7cm.

Note: This impressive scroll contains a series of fine paintings related to the Hajj accompanied by text in Persian and Arabic connected to Sufi reverence of the twelve ‘imams.

Hajj scrolls and certificates are a tradition known from the twelfth century onwards, although early dated examples are rare. Their production increased from the sixteenth century, although the scroll format as in the present example is not common. Most of the surviving scrolls lack text bands on the side and are usually composed of a single band alternating text and illustrations (see examples in the British Library, inv.no.MS27566, and Christie’s London, 7 April 2011, lot 267). This lot is particularly interesting as it bears two side columns of text. Towards the end the scribe gives reasons for writing the scroll, but unfortunately since it may be missing a few lines at the end, we don’t have additional information on its dating of for whom it was produced.

While a precise dating of this scroll is problematic, the place of production can be attributed to India (or at least Indian artists), due to the style of painting and palette employed. Whilst visiting Mecca, Richard Burton noted that many of the artists painting the holy shrines were of Indian origin (Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, London, 1893, p.341, quoted in Stephen Vernoit, Occidentalism, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, 1997, p.33). The architectural style of Mecca and in particular the onion-shaped domes recall Indian prototypes (for a comparable see Christie’s London, 10 October 2014, lot 373).

The text:

After a genealogy of the Prophet, the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs and the fourteen Sufi ‘imams, the central columns name other Qur’anic and Prophetic figures including Sheth, Noah, Sam, Hud, Ibrahim, Ya‘qub, Harun, Yunus and Moses; the line then passes through the Prophet Muhammad, the Rightly Guided Caliphs and then the fourteen Sufi ‘imams whose names are given as: Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir Gilani, Hazrat Shaykh Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi, Hazrat Shaykh Najm al-Din Kubrawi (sic), Hazrat Amir-i Kabir Mir Sayyid ‘Ali Hamadani, Khwajah Mu‘in al-Din Chishti, Khwajah Qutb al-Din Chishti, Shah Sharaf al-Din, Hazrat Shah Naqshband Mushkil Gushay, Shaykh Muhammad ‘Ishqi, Sa‘id al-Junaydi, Shaykh Muhammad Firdausi, ‘Shaykh al-Mashayikh ‘Abdullah Sattari (sic. for Shattari), Shaykh al-Mashayikh Ahmad Yasawi and ‘Ala al-Din.

The Persian text within the chevron-form side panels is a collection of different topics. It starts with a history of mankind, mentioning Adam and Eve, the wives and children of The Prophet and the twelve ‘imams. Also included are instructions on the correct behaviour during the Hajj and passages from the Nata’ij-i Anfas, a Persian text attributed to the poet Jami, in which are reported the stories of ‘Ali ibn Musa al-Reza, the eighth Shi'a imam, and the Munajat (supplications) he made to God. It follows mentions of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, prayers and praise of the Prophet and the Shi‘a imams and a description of Mecca.

List of illustrations:

The Haram and the Ka’ba in Mecca.
The Safa and Marwah hills in Mecca. 
Jabal Abu Qubays, a hill overlooking Mecca. 
Shrines marking the birth places of the Prophet, Zahra and ‘Ali. 
The Zawiya of Abu Bakr.
The street of al-Mud'a (the place where prayers are answered). 
The tomb of Khadijah, the birthplaces of ‘Umar and Hamza. 
Jabal al-Nur, where The Prophet received his first revelation. 
Jabal al-Thaur, where The Prophet hid in a cave from the Quraysh.
Jabal ‘Arafat with pilgrims' tents and candelabra. 
Al-Khaif Mosque in Mina.
The Hanif Mosque. 
Jabal Mafrah, between Mecca and Medina. 
The Dhu’l-Khulayfah Mosque. 
The Mosque in Medina with The Prophet’s tomb. 
The Quba Mosque.

Seventeen works of art from renowned literary publisher and author Tom Maschler’s collection sold for £202,500 / $259,828 (est. £83,500-120,500). Introduced to Indian miniatures by the artist and devoted collector Howard Hodgkin, Maschler bought his first miniature when he was only twenty-one. The group was led by an early 17th century depiction of Mughal nobleman Inayat Khan, one of Emperor Jahangir’s favourite couriers, which sold for thirteen times its pre-sale estimate at £75,000 / $96,232. The result follows landmarks sales of museum-quality collections of Indian miniatures at Sotheby’s, most recently the prestigious Khosrovani-Diba collection that took place last year.  

Lot 92. Inayat Khan holding a portrait of a European soldier, India, Mughal, early 17th century. Estimate £5,000 — 7,000 . Lot sold £75,000 / $96,232. Photo: Sotheby's.

gouache with gold on paper, framed; painting: 6.3 by 9cm.

Note: This painting depicts the Mughal nobleman Inayat Khan, one of Jahangir's favourite courtiers. A very similar portrait appears on a page in the Kevorkian Album in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (see Welch et al 1987, no.26, and Crill and Jariwala 2010, no.16, upper right), along with three other portraits of courtiers. The brown background of the present work is seen in a number of portraits of the first decade or so of Jahangir's reign, including two on the aforementioned Kevorkian Album page. Inayat Khan died in 1618 as a result of addiction to opium and wine, and an uncontrolled appetite. Jahangir recorded his decline in the Jahangirnama (see Jahangirnama, p.279-80) and was so struck by the emaciated state of Ianayat Khan when he saw him a few days before his death that he ordered his artists to record a faithful likeness. Two portraits survive showing Inayat Khan on his deathbed, one in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (MS. Ousely Add.171, fol.4v, see Crill and Jariwala, no.18), the other, a drawing, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (14.679, see Crill and Jariwala, no.17).

Benedict Carter, Sotheby’s Head of Auction Sales Middle East: “In today’s auction, fascinating stories captured the imagination of museums and private collectors from around the world. The Ottoman textiles, Andalusian astrolabe and imperial Mughal spinel were all important historical rediscoveries, hitherto unknown to the market. Freshness and rarity, combined with impeccable provenance and great beauty, led to intense competition and the superb results that we witnessed in the saleroom.”  

20th Century Art / Middle East: 
A vibrant and exciting international platform for Modern and Contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish art in London, Sotheby’s 20th Century Art / Middle East auction was led by highly sought-after masterpieces to bring £3,494,500 / $4,474,707 (est. £2,029,500-2,714,000) – with a sell-through rate of 88.3% and almost 60% of the lots exceeding their pre-sale high estimates. 

The top lot of the sale was the second largest work by Fahrelnissa Zeid to appear at auction, as the kaleidoscopic 2 by 6 metre Towards a Sky, 1953 sold for £992,750 / $1,271,216 (est. £550,000-650,000) – ahead of the artist’s retrospective opening at the Tate Modern in June. One of the most influential female Turkish artists, Zeid’s dynamic works embody a fusion of influences from Islamic, Byzantine, Arab and Persian art combined with stylistic elements from post-war Europe such as Fauvism and Cubism. Zeid kept a photograph of this painting in a frame at her bedside until she passed away and this was the first time that it had appeared on the market since it was last exhibited in 1957. 

A rare work by one of Iran’s greatest modern masters Bahman Mohasses tripled the artist’s world record at auction selling for £584,750 / $748,772 (est. £280,000-380,000). Requiem Omnibus (Death of Martin Luther King), 1958 was a personal and raw response to the assassination of Martin Luther King. A further record was set for Fouad Kamel, one of the earliest Surrealist painters in the region and a member of the Art & Liberty movement, as his forceful, twisted composition The Drinker, 1941 sold for £93,750 / $120,047 (est. £22,000-28,000). This was one of seven works from the distinguished collection of German art critic Ursula Schernig, a gallerist who was instrumental in ensuring the legacies of many of Egypt’s leading artists. The Schernig Collection sold for a combined £214,375 / $ 274,508 (est. £84,000-116,000). The auction also saw a record for pioneering female figure of Iraqi modernism Madiha Omar, as The Flying Saucers, 1958 sold for £37,500 / $48,019. One of the first artists to explore the formal qualities of the Arabic letter in contemporary art, Omar was also the first Iraqi woman to receive a scholarship from the government to study in Europe. Benchmarks were set for three dynamic artists from the seminal Contemporary Art Group, Cairo, including Mahmoud Kahlil, Salem el Habashi (Mogli) and Maher Raif. 

Mahmoud Said’s Portrait de Mme. Batanouni Bey was acquired for the collection of the soon to be opened Halim Museum of Time & Glass in Chicago. The painting, which sold for £392,750 / $502,916 (est. £150,000-250,000), depicted the beautiful and independent cousin of the artist, Ferdous Hamada. 

Ashkan Baghestani, Sotheby’s Contemporary Arab and Iranian Art Specialist and Head of Sale, said: “A wider audience than ever is discovering the talents of these pioneering artists. This was evident throughout, particularly in the enthusiasm that we saw for the work of Fahrelnissa Zeid – which I’m sure will continue into the summer with the opening of her major Tate retrospective in London. In today’s sale, internationally sourced works were met with international buying as we saw fresh to the market museum-quality works proving their perennial appeal.”  

The Orientalist Sale: 
Launched as an annual event in 2012 and now in its sixth season, The Orientalist Sale brought a total of £3,387,250 / $4,337,374 against a pre-sale estimate of £2,858,000- 4,201,000. Bringing together paintings and sculpture representing the landscapes, people, and customs of North Africa, Egypt, the Levant, Arabia, and the Ottoman world during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the sale was led by a masterpiece by Bohemian artist Georg Emanuel Opiz. The Arrival of the Mahmal at an Oasis en Route to Mecca, a lavish and wonderfully detailed rendition of the Ottoman caravan of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, realised £944,750 / $1,209,752.  

Lot 10. Georg Emanuel Opiz (German, 1775 - 1841), The Arrival of the Mahmal at an Oasis en Route to Mecca, signed G. Opiz p. lower right, oil on canvas, 165.5 by 253cm., 65 by 99½in. Estimate £800,000 — 1,200,000. Lot sold £944,750 / $1,209,752. Photo: Sotheby's.

Provenance: The Fine Art Society, London
Purchased from the above by the present owner in 1978

Exhibited: London, The Fine Art Society, Eastern Encounters: Orientalist Painters of the Nineteenth Century, 1978, no. 78, illustrated in the catalogue
London, Leighton House, Romantic Lebanon: The European View 1700-1900, 1986, no. 52, illustrated in the catalogue

Painted some 100 years later, Ludwig Deutsch’s The Procession of the Mahmal through the Streets of Cairo, achieved the second highest price, selling for £308,750 / $395,354. The Fortune Teller, Cairo by Ludwig Deutsch tripled its low estimate to bring £248,750 / $318,524, while a beautifully cast, silvered bronze of an Arab Sheik of Cairo by the great French 19th-century sculptor Charles Cordier, the model for which was conceived on a trip to Egypt in 1866, sold for £87,500 / $112,044.  

Ludwig Deutsch (Austrian, 1855-1935), The Procession of the Mahmal through the Streets of Cairo, signed and dated L Deutsch / 1909 lower left, oil on canvas, 284 by 294cm., 111¾ by 115¾in. Estimate £250,000 — 350,000. Lot sold £308,750 / $395,354. Photo: Sotheby's.

Provenance: Purchased by the present owner in the 1970s

Literature: Lynne Thornton, Du Maroc aux Indes: Voyages en Orient, Paris, 1998, p. 148, illustrated
Olga Nefedova, A Journey into the World of the Ottomans: The Art of Jean-Baptiste Vanmour (1671-1737), Milan, 2009, p. 70, fig. 53, illustrated; p. 63, discussed.

Note: Procession of the Mahmal Through the Streets of Cairo is a veritable tour de force by Deutsch, both in terms of the complexity of the subject and the sheer scale of the work. Stylistically, too, it marks a new departure in Deutsch’s oeuvre, away from the highly poised and minutely observed portraits towards a freer, bolder, more impressionistic idiom befitting the dynamic scene portrayed. The painting is clearly grounded on Deutsch’s personal participation at a public event in Islamic Cairo, the procession of the Mahmal – the camel-mounted litter containing the holy Qu'ran, and the centrepiece of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca – as it leaves the Egyptian capital. With the incense billowing, the banners floating, the flaring of fires in portable braziers, the musical instruments playing, the crowd peering and pointing, Deutsch gives life to celebration central to Muslim life.

The procession of the title is wonderfully arranged. Foremost is a dervish, someone who follows a Sufi Muslim tariqa or path. These mendicant ascetics are known for their poverty and austerity. The man’s expressive features portray his participating emotion. He holds a censor whose smoke drifts up towards the amulet on his chest. Behind him follow other members of the religious community, identified by the colour of their turbans: dark green for the Rifa’iya order, red for the Ahmadiya order, and white for the followers of `Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani. With staves in their hands they fan in an arc towards the figure in green, probably a Sufi shaykh and presumably a Sharif, a descendant of the Prophet. This central figure is positioned directly below the Mahmal, the focus of the festive occasion, and a central part in the annual departure and return of the pilgrimage caravan.

Pilgrimage to Mecca is the ‘fifth pillar of Islam’, first ordained for the Prophet Abraham. It is a duty incumbent on every Muslim adult male who must perform it at least once in his lifetime if he has the means to do so. The pilgrimage takes place in the first two weeks of the Islamic lunar month of Dhu’l Hajj.

The Mahmal (literally, the place of that which is carried) is a palanquin of wood, its base broader than its length, surmounted by a four-faced pyramid whose corners and apex are capped by ball-shaped finials, the whole covered by richly embroidered brocade. The origins of the mahmal’s shape and its ceremonial purpose is disputed, but in Egypt its use as a political symbol goes back to the time of Baybars, the first effective Sultan of the new Mamluk dynasty. Following the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols in 1258, Baybars re-established the Abbassid caliphs in Egypt. In 1266 Baybars sent the Mahmal to Mecca, as a symbol of the new political authority residing in Cairo and of the sovereignty this new dynasty claimed over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

In the painting, the triangular shape of the Mahmal’s cover rises out of a mist of incense. The singular man in a reddish wrap riding the camel - whose head with its yellow upright tassel is just visible over the throng - seems to be the ‘Sheykh of the Camel’, depicted as described by Edward Lane, a British scholar of Islam who lived in Cairo during the 1830s and who witnessed many such processions: ‘a long haired brawny, swarthy fellow, almost entirely naked.’ (Edward W. Lane: Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, 1836 (1963 edition), p. 446). To the left, the rider on the white horse is probably the Shaykh al-Bakri, official head of all the Sufi tariqas of Cairo. Again, Deutsch acclaims this central area through the outstretched arms, left and right, of the people in the crowd.

‘The streets of Cairo’, the third element in the title, is the most difficult to identify. The wide street space, the festive pennants and awnings fluttering from roof-top cords, the tall façade on the left with its elevated white marble entrance platform, and the indistinct roundel (between the first and second banners), all suggest that the procession is moving north in front of the double complex of the Sultan al-Ghuri madrasa-mosque, the last of the great Mamluk buildings erected in the early sixteenth century.   

Ludwig Deutsch, as an Orientalist painter, is among the most coveted among collectors of the European artists who came to Cairo at the end of the nineteenth century. Although Deutsch was an Austrian by birth and training, he was a long time resident of Paris, and in his meticulous attention to authentic detail he was a disciple, if not a pupil, of the great French Orientalist artist Jean-Léon Gérôme. In the 1880s and 1890s Deutsch made several trips to Cairo, where he sketched what impressed him. While there he acquired also a large collection of props, artifacts and costumes which he used to create many of his tableaux in his Paris studio. In his resulting works, Deutsch is praised for his meticulous attention to detail, his ability to render textures and pattern, and his devotion to a few figures composed to illustrate aspects of Islamic culture. His most intriguing works are those in which he adds decorative details which are identifiable to specific buildings, and in which his intuitive perception of Islam can be felt.

We are grateful to Caroline Williams for this catalogue entry.

Provenance: Purchased by the great grandparents of the present owner in New York between 1888 and 1898; thence by descent.

Note: In the setting for the present work Ernst has taken inspiration from the portal of the Sultan Hasan Mosque in Cairo, regarded as the greatest mosque of the medieval Islamic world. Commissioned by Sultan al-Nasir Hasan, construction began in 1356. The Sultan Hasan also houses a madrasa and is located near the Citadel of Cairo; its walls rise to thirty-six metres, and its minarets to sixty-eight.

Ernst depicts a side gate to the mosque, with its great copper doors and niche with muqarnas decoration, in whose entrance a fortune teller or sufi mystic dispenses his wisdom to a man wearing a Turco-Egyptian hat known as a tarboosh. Men queue up in their dozens in the the blazing afternoon heat to await their turn to be blessed or enlightened.

Ernst's fascination with Islamic culture was sparked by his journeys to Andalusia, the Ottoman Empire, and Egypt in the 1880s, and his paintings reflect not only his skills as an artist but the breadth of his knowledge of the cultures he visited. His meticulous finished paintings are worked up from the sketches, photographs, and props and costumes brought back to Paris from his travels. The close cropping of the present composition, particularly of the figure on the right, is clearly indebted to photography, and gives it the sense of a snap shot of everyday life. 

Lot 17. Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier (French, 1827 - 1905), Cheik arabe du Caire (Arab Sheik of Cairo), signed on the proper left shoulder: C.CoRdieR., silvered bronze, on a gilt bronze socle surmounted by a probably original variegated yellow marble socle, bronze overall: 43cm., 17in.;, marble socle: 13cm., 5 1/8 in. Estimate £30,000 — 50,000. Lot sold £87,500 / $112,044. Photo: Sotheby's.

Provenance: Private collection, France

Note: The present, beautifully cast, silvered bronze is a reduced version of the full size bust which measured 90cm. The location of the prime version is unknown, but it is believed to have also been silvered bronze, and appears in a photograph of Cordier's stand at the 1867 Exposition universelle (L. de Margerie, op. cit., pp. 80-81).

Charles Cordier was one of the greatest French 19th-century sculptors. Appointed ethnographic sculptor to the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris in 1851, a post he held for fifteen years, Cordier established an international reputation for himself through his sympathetic and arresting portrayals of different racial types. The ethnographic busts for which he became most famous often betray a startling naturalism, tempered by dramatic poses and exotic costumes. 

Interest in the different peoples of the globe preoccupied French society in the nineteenth-century. The fields of anthropology and ethnology became increasingly high profile. Exhibitions which showcased living people from other regions of the world drew huge crowds. Chiefly concerned with the search for beauty in all peoples, Cordier wrote in 1865 before his trip to Egypt, ‘I wish to present the race just as it is, in its own beauty, absolutely true to life, with its passions, its fatalism, in its quiet pride and conceit, in its fallen grandeur, but the principles of which have remained since antiquity’ (as quoted by Margerie, op. cit., p. 28). Few contemporary commentators, with the exception of writers such as Victor Hugo, the Abbé Grégoire, and Madame de Staël, offered such enlightened views. In his official role at the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Cordier embarked on a number of government sponsored missions to different parts of the world in order to record a series of modern racial types in sculpture. He travelled to Algeria in 1856, where he modelled his famous Mauresque d’Alger chantant (Moorish Woman of Algiers Singing) and to Egypt in 1866, where he conceived the present, highly celebrated model, Cheik Arabe du Caire (Arab Sheik of Cairo). 

RELATED LITERATURE: L. de Margerie and É. Papet, Facing the Other. Charles Cordier. Ethnographic Sculptor, exh. cat. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec City, and Dahesh Museum of Art, New York, 2004, pp. 80-81, 154-155, nos. 85-97 

Claude Piening, Sotheby’s Head of Orientalist Paintings, commented: “The sale saw competitive bidding from collectors in the MENA region and beyond, and established new auction records for three artists: Eugène Baugniès, Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ, and Georg Emanuel Opiz, whose exquisitely rendered early depiction of the Hajj pilgrimage led the sale. Works of the German and Austrian schools – including by Deutsch, Ernst, and Bauernfeind – were in particularly strong demand, with a 100% sell-through rate. The market for Orientalist art continues to show strength, especially for evocative subjects that bring the region to life or shed light on its history.”