SAFAVID IRAN, 16TH CENTURY

The use of gold-decorated coloured paper can be traced back to Chinese originals. This paper was imported into the Islamic lands when embassies were exchanged at the end of the fourteenth century. By the fifteenth century local artists had begun to produce their own imitations, which became increasingly elaborate in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Sheila S. Blair, Color and Gold: The Decorated Papers Used in Manuscripts in Later Islamic Times in Muqarnas, Vol. 17. (2000), pp. 24-36). As seen in our manuscript, gold margins became more complex in the sixteenth century. Many designs incorporate an arabesque, and some examples such as the one seen here have birds and animals cavorting among flowers and trees. One of the most splendid examples of this art is seen in a copy of Nizami's Khamsa made for the Safavid Shah Tahmasp at Tabriz in 1539- 43 (British Library, inv. No. ms. Or. 2265). For a further example of a Safavid manuscript with illuminated marginal drawings see lot 42 in this catalogue. The later owner's inscriptions on folio 1a attributes this copy to Mir 'Ali.