Sunday, October 12, 2008

Vaqi'at-i Baburi


This book is copy n° 680 of the printed edition of a manuscript of the Babur Nama, illustrated with outstanding miniatures at the end of the 16th century. This copy was printed in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) in 1969, from slides of the original miniatures, slides provided by the British Museum (at the time the Keeper of the miniatures, which are now in the British Library, item Or. 3714). The book was bought by me [the cartoonist] in an antique shop in Kabul (Afghanistan) in 1975. It was much later that I found out about the original manuscript, which I thought was in Uzbekistan, while it was, instead, in the United Kingdom, kept within a secret vault, well guarded by fierce Dragons.

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