Jalal al-Din Rumi - The Mathnawi (Arabic: مثنوي) - 1724

An illuminated folio copied in Lucknow in 1724 from the Mathnawi by Jalal al-Din Rumia great Sufi Muslim poets. The Mathnawi (Arabic: مثنوي mathnawī) or masnavi (Persian: مثنوی Mas̲navī), is regarded as the greatest and most influential poetic work of muslim mysticism, taking Rumi 25 years to dictate, although the 6th and final book was never completed before he died. It was composed for the benefit of a group of Rumi’s disciples in the Sufi order better known as the whirling dervishes.

The Mathnawi (or Masnavi as it is often referred to) is a series of six books of poetry that together amount to around 25,000 verses or 50,000 lines. It is poetic text derived from the Quran that teaches Sufis how to reach their goal of being truly in love with God.

This folio is scribed in black nasta’liq in a very fine hand with commentary in the margins. There are mirror image corner symmetrical arabesque illuminations that add both decoration and balance to the folio. A central illumination in the same style would mirror its equivalent opposite page. There is worm holing across the folio which rather than detracting from the image adds to its authenticity of a document that is 300 years old.

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