Abu al-Fath Manuchihr Khan

Abu al-Fatḥ Manuchihr Khan (d. 1636), was a Safavid official and gholam of Armenian origin. Like his father Qarachaqay Khan, Manuchihr was established at Mashhad as the general and governor of Khorasan under the shahs (kings) Abbas I (r. 1588-1629) and Ṣāfi (r. 1629-1642). His brother Ali Quli Khan became prefect of Qom and head of the library of Abbas I. Manuchihr Khan's son, Qarachaqay Khan II (d. 1668), became also a governor of Mashhad. All of them were among the Safavid cultural and intellectual elite, known as “men of knowledge and integrity’ (ahl-i fazl u kamāl) and “of illustrious acts and deeds” (ṣāhib-i mu'āṣir u asrār).

A portrait of Manuchihr Khan

His works

Manuchihr Khan was a leading art patron, with a strong curiosity and interest in astronomy. He commissioned one of the finest illustrated manuscripts of the period, a Persian translation of 'Abd al-Rahmān ibn 'Umar al-Ṣūfī’s Ṣuwar al-Kawākib al-Thābitah ("the description of the fixed stars"), copied between 1630-1633 and conserved in the New York Public Library collection (Spencer, Pers. Ms. 6), see: Schmitz, 1992, p.122.

The Manuchihr Globe, Adilnor Collection, Sweden

In 1632-1633, Manuchihr Khan commissioned Hasan ibn Sa‘d al-Qa‘īnī, Master Mālik Husayn Naqqāsh Isfahānī, and Rezvan Beg Zarneshan to produce a celestial globe known later as the Manuchihr Globe.

Sources

• Babaie, Sussan (2004). Slaves of the Shah: New Elites of Safavid Iran. I.B.Tauris. pp. 1-256. ISBN 1860647219.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Schmitz 1992, no.123, p.55 ; Robinson, Sims, Bayani, 2007, p.19.
• The Manuchihr Globe