An illuminated bi-folio copied in Lucknow in 1724 from the Mathnawi by Jalal al-Din Rumia great Sufi Muslim poets. The Mathnawi (Arabic: مثنوي mathnawī) or masnavi (Persian: مثنوی Mas̲navī), is regarded as the greatest and most influential poetic work of muslim mysticism, taking Rumi 25 years to dictate, although the 6th and final book was never completed before he died. It was composed for the benefit of a group of Rumi’s disciples in the Sufi order better known as the whirling dervishes. The Mathnawi (or Masnavi as it is often referred to) is a series of six books of poetry that together amount to around 25,000 verses or 50,000 lines. It is poetic text derived from the Quran that teaches Sufis how to reach their goal of being truly in love with God. This bi-folio (each folio being sized 17.5x19cm) contains a wonderful illuminated head piece (tazhib) with rich blue and gold floral patterns mirroring one another, with the text shown below. The text is scribed in black nasta’liq in a fine hand. An inner rectangular text box is surrounded by an outer margin in gold decorated in the corners and centre with patterned floral triangles, again, mirror images. The details is fabulous and the condition good. The centre line is punctuated with what would have been the stitches holding the artifice together. Around the outside to the folio pages edges is a complex floral pattern on gold leaf. Please note that shipping costs are not solely the cost of the postal delivery service itself. Included within the shipping price is the work undertaken to prepare the article, for photography, for uploading to Catawiki, for preparation and packaging the article securely and for transporting the article to the postal delivery agent for processing. Also, please consider when bidding on this lot that this artwork is shipped from the UK. Import duties will now have to be paid by the recipient to the Postal Service when the parcel arrives in your country. This will likely vary between 5% and 20% of the sale price depending on your country's Import Rate, so please check this if you are concerned. This is a Tax collected on behalf of your Government and is not an additional fee charged by us.