"Khusrau Seated on his Throne", Folio 64 from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami of Ganja

Folio from the Khamza (Quintet) of Nizami

The colophon of the manuscript from which this folio comes establishes that the book was copied by Sultan Muhammad Nur in A.H. 931/1524–25 A.D., a date that also appears in an architectural inscription on one of its paintings. This concurrence suggests that the work was copied and illustrated at almost the same time.[1] Since Sultan Muhammad Nur spent most of his life in Herat, the manuscript was probably produced there. The Timurid dynasty had officially ended in 1506 with the death of its last effective ruler, but aspects of its artistic and literary culture survived for several decades. While some of the illustrations in the manuscript are formulaic, others continue the interest in portraiture initiated in Timurid Herat.

Two scenes from the life of Khusrau Parviz, the hero of the Khamsa’s second section, are of particular interest. In the one shown here (fol. 64a), depicting an open-air court reception, the importance of the enthroned ruler is stressed by the colorful canopy over his head and the elaborately patterned carpet under his throne. The faces of some of the courtiers who stand beside or below his throne have a portraitlike specificity, including that of the bearded man holding a piece of paper in his raised left hand while a youth applies ink to the ring on his extended right hand. These actions identify the man as a chancery scribe entrusted with the transcription and sealing of official correspondence. His unusual prominence implies that he may have been the patron of the manuscript, but further research is needed to link either him or the seated ruler with any specific person.

The other painting of particular interest (no. 13.228.7.6, fol. 104a) contains the date of A.H. Rajab 931/April–May 1525 A.D. and celebrates the union of Khusrau and Shirin, who are seated within an ornately decorated palace. The facade of the building is inscribed with verses appropriate to the occasion that extol the "lofty chamber of nuptial bliss." In addition, the inscription contains puns on the name Shirin, which means "sweetness," comparing Khusrau’s bride to rosewater and sugar.[2]

The elaborate leather binding of the manuscript also links it to the bookmaking traditions of Timurid Herat. The exterior covers depict a landscape inhabited by birds and animals, a common theme on book bindings since the mid-fifteenth century. Inscriptions impressed in cartouches around the periphery of the outer binding allude to the text it encloses, the Khamsa of Nizami. Geometric and vegetal filigree patterns of cut-leather, silhouetted against a blue paper ground, appear on the interior of the covers.[3]

Priscilla P. Soucek in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]

Footnotes:

1. The date appears on fol. 104a; see Williams Jackson, A[braham] V[alentine], and Abraham Yohannan. A Catalogue of the Collection of Persian Manuscripts, Including Also Some Turkish and Arabic, Presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, by Alexander Smith Cochran. Columbia University Indo Iranian Series, 1. New York, 1914, pp. 58–67, no. 8.

2. Ibid., p. 65.

3. For similar bindings, see Aga-Oğlu, Mehmet. Persian Bookbindings of the Fifteenth Century. Ann Arbor, 1935 , pls. 1, 2, 5, 11; Jenkins 1983, p. 135; and Chelkowski 1975, cover ill.




Khusraw on his Throne


This illustration comes from the story of Khusraw and Shirin, the second of the Five Tales (Khamseh) by the late twelfth- to early thirteenth-century poet Nizami. The narrative concerns the love story of the Persian prince, Khusraw, and the Armenian princess, Shirin. As with so much of Persian poetry, the tale centers on the yearning of two potential lovers to achieve union with one another and the many twists and turns of the plot until ultimately they marry and tragically die. The enthronement scene represents Khusraw as the newly crowned king of Iran soon after the death of his father, King Hurmuzd. At this point in the story Khusraw had yet to meet Shirin and his just rule had not yet been undermined by his sedicious general, Bahram Chubin. The composition depicts Khusraw seated on a garden veranda on a throne that has been placed on an elegant carpet, under an equally fine canopy with an array of attendants and courtiers before him. The figure kneeling on the edge of the carpet may be his trusted advisor, Shapur, who acted as an intermediary for Khusraw and Shirin. The designs of the carpet and canopy with a central cartouche on the carpet and medallion on the canopy recall illuminated 'unvans or headings in manuscripts, particularly those of Herat.

Stylistically the illustration of Khusraw enthroned, one of 15 in the manuscript, exhibits the strong influence of the Herat master, Bihzad. The composition is spatially logical: each figure's position is understandable in its relation to the whole group. The draughtmanship is meticulous, the scale tiny, and the treatment of arabesque, as in the carpet, awning, and cloak of the figure at the right, is notable in its near mathematical precision. Yet, the humour and dynamism associated with the work of Bihzad are absent from this painting.

The attribution to Shaykh Zadeh of this and all but one of the other paintings in the Khamseh manuscript is based on its stylistic affinity with a painting of an episode in a mosque from the 1526–27 Divan of Hafiz which bears an inscription to the artist.[1] In particular, the figure of Khusraw with his dapper moustache and perfectly arched eyebrows closely resembles that of the figure kneeling on a mat on top of a medallion carpet in the episode in the mosque. Shaykh Zadeh is only mentioned by the sixteenth-century Turkish writer, Mustafa 'Ali, who notes that he came from Khurasan and studied with Bihzad. The Khamseh of 1524–25 was presumably produced at Herat during the governorship of Shah Tahmasp's brother, Sam Mirza. He replaced Tahmasp in Herat and his guardian was Durmish Khan. Ebadollah Bahari has suggested that the figure of Khusraw is a portrait of Durmish Khan, but supplies no evidence to corroborate this claim.[2] Dickson and Welch have proposed that Shaykh Zadeh's style fell out of favour at the Safavid court,[3] and as a result he never emigrated to Tabriz. Instead, he was employed by the Uzbek leader, 'Abd al-'Aziz Khan, at Bukhara, where he was insrumental in the formation of the Bukhara school of painting.

[Thompson and Canby 2003]

Footnotes;

1. Welch, Stuart Cary, Wonders of the Age: Masterpieces of Early Safavid Painting, 1501–1576. Cambridge, MA, 1979, no. 42.

2. Bahari, Ebadollah, Bihzad: Master of Persian Painting. London, 1997, p. 203.

3. Dickenson, Martin B. and Stuart C. Welch, The Houghton Shahnameh. Harvard University Press, Cambridge and London, 1981, pp. 37–39.

F. R. Martin (Swedish), Sweden; Alexander Smith Cochran, Yonkers, NY (until 1913; gifted to MMA)

New York. Asia Society. "Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Safavid Iran," October 16, 2003–January 18, 2004, no. 4.20.

Valentiner, William Reinhold. "The Cochran Collection of Persian Manuscripts." Museum of Metropolitan Art Bulletin, old series, vol. 8 (1913). pp. 80–86.

Pope, Arthur Upham, and Phyllis Ackerman. "The Art of the Book." In Survey of Persian Art. vol. V. 1938. vol. V, p. 893, ill. pl. 893A (b/w).

Dimand, Maurice S. Persian Miniatures. A Picture Book. Metropolitan Museum of Art Picture Books. New York, 1940. ill. fig. 13 (b/w).

Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Muhammadan Art. 2nd rev. and enl. ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1944. p. 47, ill. fig. 24 (b/w).

Chelkowski, Peter J. "Tales from the Khamseh of Nizami." In Mirror of the Invisible World. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975. pp. 30–33, ill. cover ill., no. 2 (color).

Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn. Islamic Art in the Kuwait National Museum: the al-Sabah Collection. London: Sotheby Publications, 1983. p. 135.

Bier, Carol, ed. "Textile Arts of Safavid and Qajar Iran 16th–19th Centuries." In Woven from the Soul, Spun from the Heart. Washington, D.C.: Textile Museum, 1987. p. 35, ill. fig. 1 (b/w).

Ford, P.R.J. "Six Centries of Design Evolution." In The Persian Carpet Tradition. 2019. pp. 228–29, ill. fig. 258.

Brend, Barbara. "Illustrations to Amir Khusrau's Khamsa." In Perspectives on Persian Painting. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. p. 190.

Thompson, Jon, and Sheila R. Canby, ed. "Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501–1576." In Hunt for Paradise. Milan; New York: Skira , 2003. no. 4.20, pp. 104–5, ill. p. 105 (color).

Ekhtiar, Maryam, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby, and Navina Haidar, ed. Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 135, pp. 4, 197–98, ill. p. 198 (color).