Indo-Islamic Painting in the Unpublished Miniatures in the Manuscript "AJA’IB AL-SANA'I" Preserved in the British Library (Or.13718), Malwa Region in the Khalji Dynasty Era

This paper investigates and publishes a collection of miniatures in the manuscript "Aja’ib al-Sana’i" for the first time. It represents the Persian copy of the manuscript "al-ḥiyal al-handasīyah” by al-Jazarī, which was copied and decorated in Mandu, the capital of the Malwa in India during the rule of Nasser Shaha Khalji(906-916AH/1500-1510AD). The translated copy of Al-Jazarī's manuscript of "al-ḥiyal al-handasīyah" from Arabic into Persian, with its decoration and presentation named "Aja’ib Al-Sana’i" is one of the manuscripts with new topics of the Islamic painting in India during the era of the sultans. It is distinctive, especially in light of the dominance of Iranian artistic influences, on the one hand and the prevalence of artistic heritage among artists, on the other. The manuscript's illustrations provide new archaeological evidence of scientific and artistic connections between India and the Islamic states of Egypt, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. Concerning the artistic style, which was prevalent in Mandu during the Khalji era, it has been studied in terms of the drawings of people, the clarity of social classes, the choice of animals, mythical creatures, and birds that are the artist's favorites, in addition to the colors, which were largely limited, and the extent to which the Indian artistic heritage was evident. The research illustrates the transfer of geometric illustrations from the original Arabic version of the manuscript and discusses the core differences between the Indian, Persian, and Arabic versions in terms of the design of the mechanical devices and the method of drawing live models, whether human or animal, inside the devices and the extent of the artist's success. In addition, just as the name changed, there are many core differences between the Indian version under study and the Persian and Arabic versions, especially the lack of commitment to realism that characterized al-Jazarī’s illustrated copies and the different approach in the geometric illustrations of the famous device from the manuscript of al-ḥiyal, which is the elephant clock. The descriptive, analytical study refutes the number of participants implementing the illustrations and provides evidence through the implemented artistic method.