Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami of Ganja

Folio 322a: The Byzantine and Chinese painters vie in a trial of skill.

Front Cover

Front Inside Cover

Title-page with medallion in center containing names of Nizami's five works; angels at corners.

Title-page illuminated in blue and gold, giving name of Nizami's earliest work, Makhzan al-Asrar.

Title-page illuminated in blue and gold, containing an invocation of blessing upon the author.

Anushirwan the Just (King Chosroes I, 531-579 AD) and his Vizir, who teaches a lesson from teh talk he overheard between two owls.

Illuminated 'unwan, or title piece to Nizami's second work, Khusrau and Shirin.

Page of Ms.: end of poem Makhzan al Asrar, decoration in color and gilt.

Khusrau II (590 - 628 AD) kills a lion in Shirin's presence.

Khusrau victorious over Bahram Chubin.

Shirin and her horse carried on the shoulders of her sculptor-lover, Farhad.

Khusrau arrives at Shirin's palace as she stands on the balcony.

Khusrau and Shirin united.

Decorative title-piece to Laila and Majnun.

Laila and Majnun as children neglecting their lessons.

Majnun's father takes the lovelorn youth on a pilgrimage to Mecca in the hope to restore his reason.

Naufal, the Arab cheiftain, champions Majnun's cause in battle.

Majnun gives himself as prisoner to an old woman in order to release another.

Majnun mourns his father's death.

Majnun's mother visits him in the wilderness shortly before she dies.

Laila and Majnun, long separated, swoon when they meet.

Majnun mourning at Laila's tomb.

Laila and Majnun united in Paradise, as seen in a vision by Zaid.

Tail-piece of the poem Laila and Majnun, painted and gilded.

Decorative head-piece to the 'Haft Paikar'.

Decorated page of manuscript from the poem 'Haft Paikar'.

Bahram Gur transfixes a deer's hoof to its ear with an arrow in the presence of his sweetheart Fitnah, who plays the harp.

Bahram and the Indian Princess in the Black Palace on Saturday.

Bahram and the Chinese Princess in the Yellow Palace on Sunday.

Bahram and the Khwaramian Princess in the Green Palace on Monday.

Page of the Haft Paikar.

Page of the Haft Paikar.

Bahram and the Russian Princess in the Red Palace on Tuesday.

Bahram and the Persian Princess in the Turquoise Palace on Wednsday.

Bahram and the Moorish Princess in the Sandal Palace.

Bahram and the Byzantine Princess in the White Palace on Friday.

Decorative tail-piece of the Haft Paikar.

Decorative head-piece to the first section of the Book of Alexander--the section being her entitled Sharaf-namah.

Battle between Alexander and the Zangis (Ethiopians or Egyptians).

Alexander and the daughter of Darius III united.

Discussion in Alexander's presence about the difference between Occidental and Oriental art. The Byzantine and Chinese painters vie in a trial of skill, and the latter use mirrors to reflect the art of the former.

Alexander's combat against the Russians.

Alexander visits the land of Darkness in search of the Fountain of Life.

Decorative tail-piece to the first part of the Book of Alexander--here entitled Sharaf-namah.

Decorative title-piece to the second section of the Book of Alexander--here entitled Iqbal-namah.

Alexander and the Seventy Wise Men of Greece.

Alexander's return from the East to the North and his shutting out of the Gog and Magog by a wall.

Decorative tail-piece to the second section of the Book of Alexander--here entitled Iqbal-namah. Seal of Mohammed Husain, son of Mohammed Ibrahim.

Back Inside Cover

Back Cover

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