Early Illustrated Manuscripts of Kashifi's Akhlāq-i Muḥsinī

Of the Many Recorded Manuscripts of Husayn Vaᶜiz-i Kashifi's Treatise on ethics, Akhlāq-i Muḥinī, only six were planned to have illustrations to the text. The manuscript bearing what is ostensibly the earliest date (900/1494-95), was acquired by the Royal Ontario Museum in 1997. It opens with a shamsah, inscribed with a dedication to the Timurid prince Abu’l-Muhsin, and containing the date 900 in numerals (fig. 1). On the last folio, a quatrain relating to the year of composition of the treatise contains a chronogram as well as the date 900 in numerals. The abjad date can, however, be read either as “900” or “907,” and Maria Subtelny has demonstrated convincingly that the latter date must be the correct one, as the text contains a reference to the reconciliation of Abu’l-Muhsin and his father Sultan-Husayn, which took place around 906/1500. Therefore, the work could not have been composed in 900 A.H., and, consequently, the attribution of the Toronto manuscript to this date is false.