Marzubannama

The Marzubannama (Book of the Margrave) by Sa'ad ad-Din Varavini is a collection of 10th century fables in Persian dialect, translated into Arabic around 1220.

The text survives in an illustrated manuscript dating to 1299 (Ilkhanid period, MS 216 in the Archaeology Museum Library, Istanbul). It contains the earliest extant representation of Muhammad in a Persian manuscript, predating the cycle of MS Arab 161 by a decade.

References

• Komaroff and Carboni, The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353. New York, The Metropolitan Museum, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2002, fig. 200.