Les manuscrits à peintures de furūsiyya : illustrations d’un art militaire équestre de la période mamelouke

Abstract

This paper deals with several furusiyah painted manuscripts from the mameluke period. It brings new lights on these military and equestrian Art books : their contents and their movements from one library or museum to an other. As a matter of fact, many of them have been dislocated and dispersed around the world. The first part of this study is about Kitāb al-maẖzūn ǧāmiʿ al-funūn, a manuscript (ms. Arabe 2824) now located in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). The content of the manuscript is described, and the identity of its author and time of production is questioned. The second part of this study deals with an other manuscript, which have been copied and dislocated. The Islamic Art Museum in Cairo has been the beginning of this inquiry, before discoveries in the Keir collection of the Dallas museum (USA), in the David collection in Copenhagen and in the Nasser D. Khalili collection in London. Mohamed Ibrahim has identified the copies and the parts of the original manuscript.

Keywords

• furusiyah
• mamluk
• war
• manuscripts
• weapons
• equestrian