Allah

4027 — India Early 20th century . Very good. Large painting on a manuscript leaf in Arabic from the "Sharh al-Wiqayah" by Burhan al-Shariah Mahmud ibn Ubayd Allah SEE BELOW 353 x 216 mm hinged onto plexiglas mount with clear tape so that the text of the manuscript is visible from the back; matted matte size: 500 x 360. A remarkable erotic Indian painting of an uncommon type which we describe as "zoomorphic erotica." The painting depicts a camel within a frame surrounded by an antilope a lion a horse a gazelle and a bull; within each animal is a depiction of an orgy comprised of six or in the case of the camel seven men and women all finely rendered by an artist of considerable skill. This is a very high quality piece. <br /> <br /> THE MANUSCRIPT on which the painting was applied belongs to a rare text: is an excerpt from the "Sharḥ al-WiqÄyah" a commentary on a work of Hanafi fiqh law by BurhÄn al-SharÄ«Ê»ah MaḥmÅ«d ibn Ê»Ubayd AllÄh d. 1274 or 1275 specifically from the chapter about PREPARING BODIES FOR FUNERALS. We are grateful to Kelly Tuttle for her scholarly generosity in identifying this text and for dating it to the early 20th century. <br /> <br /> MUST BE SEEN TO BE FULLY APPRECIATED. unknown