The sale of manuscripts and books isn’t rare at auction; whole departments are dedicated to the sale of important texts. However, what is strange is the sale of a single page. On 1 May, Christie’s London will host its Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, including Rugs and Carpets auction, and leading the sale is a folio from a manuscript dated back to 1466.
Commissioned by Sultan Abu Sa'id Mirza, the ruler of the Timurid Empire from 1451 to 1469, this piece originated in what is now modern-day Afghanistan and is the opening page of a larger manuscript, the Nahj al-Faradis. It depicts the Prophet Muhammad meeting Jesus in heaven in an important part of the Muslim faith that appears in both the Quran and the oral tradition of hadith.
This single page of the manuscript is estimated to be worth between £2 and 3 million (around US$2.7-4 million). There are similar samples to it found elsewhere, but none that come close to this one’s completeness and quality, with many others thought to have been lost over time.
Lot 35 | Commissioned by Sultan Abu Sa'id Gurkan | The Prophet Muhammad Meets Jesus in the Bayt Al-Ma'mur and the Arrival at the Fourth Heaven
Probably 1466
Folio: 41.1 x 29.7 cm
Provenance:
- Made for Sultan Abu Sa'id Gurkan, Herat (r. 1458-1469)
- Private Collection, UK (inherited through family)
- With Francesca Galloway, May 2015
Estimate: £2,000,000-3,000,000 (around US$2.7-4 million)
Auction House: Christie's London
Sale: Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, including Rugs and Carpets
Date and Time: 1 May 2025 | 10:30 am (London Local Time)
The Timurid Empire was founded by Timur, a distant blood relative of Genghis Khan, who was one of the last nomadic conquerors of the Eurasian steppe region. At its height, his empire stretched from what is now eastern Turkey and Syria to Delhi, India. Ethnoculturally, they were Turco-Mongol, and the empire’s state religion was Sunni Islam.
Timur’s grandson was the patron of this lot, Sultan Abu Sa'id Mirza; however, the empire he presided over was already in its decline. While vast and powerful, the empire was heavily weakened by infighting and civil wars, which allowed outsiders to seize control of their land. Sultan Abu Sa'id Mirza, the sixth ruler of the empire, had sought to reunify its territories towards the east, in what is now modern-day Afghanistan, from opposing Timurid princes, seizing Herat in northern Afghanistan, and establishing a court there.
A painting from 1459 depicting Sultan Abu Sa'id Mirza
The Great Mosque of Herat, a prime example of Timurid architecture, and located in the same city where this lot was produced in
This manuscript, a lot of which is derived from it, came from when his court was in the area, which was incredibly generous to the patronage of the arts. The arts themselves were rather diverse, drawing from Safavid Iranian, Mongol, Mesopotamian, Turkish, and even Chinese influences. Patronage of the arts was also carried out for various reasons, the most likely being Sultan Abu Sa'id Mirza celebrating the birth of his son or some sort of celebration.
Regardless of its origins, the lot is an incredibly important piece as it showcases one of the most important scenes in the Islamic religion as part of a wider tradition of depicting the Mi’raj, when the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven and met Allah and other important figures in the wider Abrahamic faith along his journey.
The main part of the folio, with its three-segmented parts
Jesus, on the right, conversing with the Angel Gabriel in the center of the scene
In the seventeenth chapter of the Quran, the first references to the Prophet’s journey are found, and in them is how he was miraculously taken from Mecca to Jerusalem and then to Heaven. The tradition further developed over the years, and during it, he encountered other figures within the wider pantheon of Abrahamic faiths, including angels such as Gabriel.
This specific lot showcases the Prophet on the fourth level of Heaven interacting with Jesus, referred to as Isa in the Quran. Located under three arches between two columns, Jesus is on the left wearing brown robes, while the Prophet Muhammad looks on, sitting on a Buraq, his arms crossed over his chest in a sign of respect. A Buraq is a supernatural creature within the Muslim faith that the Prophet rode during this journey, with it being depicted as a Pegasus-like body and a woman’s head.
Interesting to note is the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad himself, as it is commonly held that Muslims, especially Sunni Muslims, oppose and in cases outright prohibit the portrayal of the Prophet in any way. However, Timurid art from this period seems to have been lax on this rule, as there are various examples in museums that show Timurid art portraying Muhammad.
The Prophet Muhammad riding the Buraq during his journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, then to heaven
The angels behind Jesus
Also featured on the lot are five bare-headed angels behind Jesus, with their arms crossed and their heads bowed in a pose that suggests a sort of obedience and reverence towards the other subjects. The person speaking to Jesus is Jibra’il, the Angel Gabriel, and the conversation they are having with the Prophet to the right is a common scene within the Mi’raj. The meeting between Gabriel and the Prophet Muhammad is a recurring motif in Muslim art, with other pieces depicting it.
What is interesting about this scene is that most texts describing the journey to heaven do not include an encounter with Jesus. However, this manuscript’s text, written in Ottoman Turkish, makes it clear that it is, in fact, Jesus in the image.
The arrival of the Prophet Muhammad in Heaven
This missing element of the meeting with Jesus is actually what links this lot to the Miraj Nameh, a manuscript from the 15th century, from the same region as this lot in what is now Afghanistan and Iran. Now held by the National Library of France, it comes from a relative of the sultan who commissioned this lot, another emperor of the Timurid Empire, and also depicts the miraculous journey of the prophet.
However, this manuscript is missing around two folios in the middle of it, which deal with a few different subjects. These pages were supposed to feature the Prophet’s meeting with the Angel Azra’il, or Azrael, his arrival at the White Sea, and, importantly, his meeting with Jesus. We know that they are missing, as the French Finance Minister, who acquired the manuscript back in 1675, mentioned that they were there in his description, and it is assumed that they went missing sometime in the late 17th century to early 18th century.
One of the missing pages is described by the French writers as Muhammad arriving at the fourth heaven with angels waiting for him with their arms crossed and with an air of respect being given to the main subject. Additionally, the French description added that “Muhammad arrives at a palace…where he confers with Jesus Christ.”
The lot is an incredibly similar scene to the one described in the missing pages of the manuscript owned by the French. However, due to those pages being lost in the full French-owned manuscript, this lot remains the only known portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad meeting Jesus in any piece of Timurid work, making this page uniquely important to the study of the region’s culture and religion and somewhat of a missing piece or link within manuscripts from that region.