Among Zoroastrian burial items, there is a camel-shaped zoomorphic OSTADON lying there. It was found…
The first French royal library, known as the Bibliothèque du Roi, was founded by Charles V in the 14th century. In the 16th century, under Louis XI, a new collection was created. Around this time, the first Arabic manuscripts began to enter the library, and in the 17th and 18th centuries, scholars and librarians actively acquired books in the Middle East during expeditions to the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Persia, and India. However, Central Asia remained out of reach. Nonetheless, the first manuscripts from the region were transferred to the library in the 17th century during the reign of Louis XIV.
One of the most significant acquisitions was the manuscript "Mirajnama."
The world-renowned Orientalist, pioneer, and translator of "One Thousand and One Nights," Antoine Galland, while still a young secretary to the French ambassador in Istanbul, discovered an exquisite manuscript with a Turkish bookseller and purchased it for 25 Ottoman piastres (approximately equivalent to 570 grams of pure gold). This manuscript turned out to be "Mirajnama" ("The Book of the Ascension"), which narrates the journey and ascension of the Prophet Muhammad, written in Uyghur script. The young scholar handed the manuscript over to his superior, Ambassador Olye de Nointel, who, in turn, sent this unique artifact to Louis XIV's minister, a major book collector, Colbert.
The manuscript was fully deciphered only in the late 19th century by Turkologist Pavé de Courteille. It holds immense significance for the study of ancient Turkic literature and civilization. The manuscript contains two texts bound together: "Mirajnama" and another text in Uyghur script, a Turkic translation of "Tazkirat al-Awliya" ("Anthology of Saints") by Farid al-Din Attar. It appears that both texts were copied around 1430-1440 by the same calligrapher, Haru Malik Bakhshi, likely a member of the Turkic divan in the Timurid administration. You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "Illustrated manuscripts from Mawarannahr in the collections of France".
