Introduction

One of the many treasures from the Wellcome Library’s celebrated Asian Collections is a rare example of an astrological work entitled Nujum al-'Ulum 'Stars of Sciences'. The Wellcome manuscript is a fragment copied from an earlier work (dated AD 1575), which was probably commissioned by ‘Ali’ Adil Shah II of Bijapur in India.

Lavishly illuminated, this manuscript it is a rare example of the school of painting from the Deccan sultanates of central and southern India. The style characteristic of this school is a sensitive, highly integrated blend of indigenous and foreign art forms, possibly related to Vijayanagar wall paintings and reflecting Persian influence. Deccani art also had an effect on the development of miniature painting in the Hindu courts of Rajasthan and central India.

Among the illustrations in this text are representations of planets, some of which are shown as personifications. The planet Mercury, for example, is represented as a scribe. Particularly striking are the tiny miniatures, encapsulated in medallions, representing the thirty degrees of each of the zodiacal signs.

Illustrated texts – such as the ‘Stars of Sciences’ – were produced as manuals that set out the cosmological order of the heavens and explained their astrological significance.

Although we have has not digitised every page of the manuscript for this Turning the Pages version (the complete manuscript can be consulted in the Wellcome Library), the pages selected form a major part of the volume. They are as visually striking as they are factually interesting, providing insight into Islamic astrology and astronomy of the period in India.