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Lot Essay
The illustrations included this manuscript are as follows:
1. The abstemious hermit is questioned by Khezr about his alleged wine-drinking
2. The widow laments her son who was killed by the King out hunting who mistook him for a bird
3. Khusraw before Shirin's palace
4. Shirin inspects the canal dug by Khusraw
5. Khusraw arrives at Shirin's palace
6. Khusraw and Shirin united
7. Layla and Majnun at school
8. The battle between the tribes of Layla and Majnun
9. Layla takes Majnun's head on her lap and weeps
10. The Farangis lasso the Chinese warrior Palanguy
11. Iskandar pitches camp with Khizir and Ilyas and the local inhabitants approach to complain of Yajuj
12. Alexander orders the scribe to recount the marvels of the sea
13. Bahram Gur hunting
14. Bahram Gur in the yellow pavilion
15. Bahram Gur in the green pavilion
16. Bahram Gur in the pomegranate-flower coloured (Gulnari) pavilion
17. Bahram Gur in the violet pavilion
18. Bahram Gur in the sandalwood pavilion
19. Bahram Gur in the camphor-coloured pavilion
This heavily illustrated manuscript is a visually arresting example of the intricate decorative details which adorn Shiraz manuscript illustrations in the last quarter of the 16th century. The fourth painting of our manuscript which depicts the meeting of Khusraw and Shirin illustrates the figures wearing variously coloured robes each intricately decorated with gold palmettes or scrolling floral vine. This level of costume detail is echoed in a garden scene from a Khamsa of Nizami copied in Shiraz and dated to 1584, now in the collection of the University of Pennsylvania (Laurence Binyon, J.V.S.Wilkinson and Basil Gray, Persian Miniature Painting, New York, 1971 reprint, no.223, plate.CII-A).
The theme of palmettes is carried through to the decoration of the architecture found on the 6th painting of this manuscript. The archway behind the embracing couple is bordered by a panel of blue and red palmettes issuing from scrolling blue vine on a pink background. This decoration is almost identical to that found in an illustration to a Khamsa of Nizami in the Library of the Topkapi attributed by Lale Uluç to Shiraz circa 1580-85 (Inv. A.3559; fol. 261r. Lale Uluç, Turkman Governors Shiraz Artisans and Ottoman collectors: Sixteenth Century Shiraz Manuscripts, Istanbul 2006, no.297, p.393). Our painting and that illustrated by Uluç also depict a row of fluted gold vessels set in cusped arches which are very closely related.
The character of Shirin is depicted in our manuscript wearing a very distinctive crown with long curved finials which terminate in a split palmette. This form of crown is closely paralleled in a depiction of the Princess of the white pavilion in a copy of the Khamsa of Nizami in the John Rylands Library and attributed by B.W. Robinson to circa 1575 Shiraz (B.W. Robinson, Persian Paintings in the John Rylands Library, London, 1980, no. 649, p. 218).
1. The abstemious hermit is questioned by Khezr about his alleged wine-drinking
2. The widow laments her son who was killed by the King out hunting who mistook him for a bird
3. Khusraw before Shirin's palace
4. Shirin inspects the canal dug by Khusraw
5. Khusraw arrives at Shirin's palace
6. Khusraw and Shirin united
7. Layla and Majnun at school
8. The battle between the tribes of Layla and Majnun
9. Layla takes Majnun's head on her lap and weeps
10. The Farangis lasso the Chinese warrior Palanguy
11. Iskandar pitches camp with Khizir and Ilyas and the local inhabitants approach to complain of Yajuj
12. Alexander orders the scribe to recount the marvels of the sea
13. Bahram Gur hunting
14. Bahram Gur in the yellow pavilion
15. Bahram Gur in the green pavilion
16. Bahram Gur in the pomegranate-flower coloured (Gulnari) pavilion
17. Bahram Gur in the violet pavilion
18. Bahram Gur in the sandalwood pavilion
19. Bahram Gur in the camphor-coloured pavilion
This heavily illustrated manuscript is a visually arresting example of the intricate decorative details which adorn Shiraz manuscript illustrations in the last quarter of the 16th century. The fourth painting of our manuscript which depicts the meeting of Khusraw and Shirin illustrates the figures wearing variously coloured robes each intricately decorated with gold palmettes or scrolling floral vine. This level of costume detail is echoed in a garden scene from a Khamsa of Nizami copied in Shiraz and dated to 1584, now in the collection of the University of Pennsylvania (Laurence Binyon, J.V.S.Wilkinson and Basil Gray, Persian Miniature Painting, New York, 1971 reprint, no.223, plate.CII-A).
The theme of palmettes is carried through to the decoration of the architecture found on the 6th painting of this manuscript. The archway behind the embracing couple is bordered by a panel of blue and red palmettes issuing from scrolling blue vine on a pink background. This decoration is almost identical to that found in an illustration to a Khamsa of Nizami in the Library of the Topkapi attributed by Lale Uluç to Shiraz circa 1580-85 (Inv. A.3559; fol. 261r. Lale Uluç, Turkman Governors Shiraz Artisans and Ottoman collectors: Sixteenth Century Shiraz Manuscripts, Istanbul 2006, no.297, p.393). Our painting and that illustrated by Uluç also depict a row of fluted gold vessels set in cusped arches which are very closely related.
The character of Shirin is depicted in our manuscript wearing a very distinctive crown with long curved finials which terminate in a split palmette. This form of crown is closely paralleled in a depiction of the Princess of the white pavilion in a copy of the Khamsa of Nizami in the John Rylands Library and attributed by B.W. Robinson to circa 1575 Shiraz (B.W. Robinson, Persian Paintings in the John Rylands Library, London, 1980, no. 649, p. 218).