Sotheby’s Arts of the Islamic World auction on 25 April covers over 200 works of art produced under the aegis of multiple Islamic Empires, spread over three continents over a period of over 1,200 years. Prominent among the works on offer are exceptionally rare pieces hailing from prestigious private collections, including an exquisite panel of Timurid tiles, a unique Iznik pottery pilgrim flask, a lavishly illustrated erotic Ottoman manuscript and three highly important early manuscripts on astronomy, mathematics and medicine. The exhibition opens in our New Bond Street galleries on Friday 20 April, as part of Orientalist and Middle Eastern Week.

IMPORTANT WORKS OF ART FROM HISTORIC COLLECTIONS
TIMURID TILES FROM THE COLLECTION OF MNAVZAGAN PRIDONOFF (d.1937)
Of monumental scale, superlative quality and impeccable provenance, the sale presents five rare examples of cut-mosaic tilework from the Timurid empire of the fourteenth/fifteenth century. Rediscovered in an attic in France in 1973, these tiles are listed as the first item on Pridonoff’s daughter’s marriage contract dated 28 July 1944. From there, they can be traced back to the eclectic and engaging collection of her father, Mnavzagan Pridonoff, who escaped the Russian Revolution and moved to France from Tiblisi in 1917.
A monumental Timurid cut tile mosaic mihrab panel, Central Asia or Persia, 14th-15th century (est. £80,000-120,000) With a distinctive palette of blue and turquoise cut-glazed tiles into which white and ochre inscriptions are laid, this panel even features a mirrored form of calligraphy at its centre. The fluid inscription reads: ‘The believer in the mosque is like a fish in water and the heretic in the mosque is like a bird in the cage’. A fine Mamluk silver-inlaid cast brass bowl, Egypt or Syria, first half 14th century (est. £60,000-80,000) An exceptional example of Mamluk metalwork, this elegant bowl is emblazoned with forumalic inscriptions and blessings, and the organic floral details typical of Mamluk art and architecture.

Thought to have been comissioned by a high-ranking offier at the Mamluk court, it was formerly in the collection of Aton Exner, an Austrian publisher who donated a collection of over two thousand works to the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna in 1948.

ONE-OF-A-KIND PIECES FROM OTTOMAN TURKEY
AN EXCEPTIONAL ILLUSTRATED OTTOMAN EROTIC MANUSCRIPT
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Mustafa al-Misri, A Turkish translation of Ruju al-shaykh ila sibah, ‘A Shaykh remembers his youth’, Turkey or Balkans, dated 1232 AH/1817 AD (est. £250,000-350,000) An extremely rare document, this is one of the most lavish copies of an erotic manual ever produced in Ottoman Turkey. It is thought to bear within it portraits of its patron (notable by his turban), a feature that is found nowehere else in the known corpus of Ottoman illustrated erotic literature. Although the name of said patron is not included, it is clear from the quality and quantity of miniature paintings that this manuscript was commissioned by a member of the nobility, who carefully edited the text over several decades. A collection of fanciful reminiscences of the adventures and romances of an inquisitive man – summed up by a free translation of the title ‘A Shaykh remembers his youth’ – this Ottoman manuscript is illustrated by 85 miniatures uniquely copied on vellum.