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Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy

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Bahram Gur in the yellow pavilion

AUTHOR/CREATOR
Calligrapher: unknown

CREATED/PUBLISHED
16th century

NOTES
Dimensions of Written Surface: Recto: 13.5 (w) x 22 (h) cm

Dimensions of Painting: Verso: 16.2 (w) x 28.8 (h) cm

Script: nasta'liq

This text describes an episode from the "Haft Paykar" (Seven Thrones) of Nizami (d. 614/1218), the fourth book from his "Khamsah" (Quintet). In this romantic allegory of love and frustration, the Sassanian ruler Bahram Gur (r. 420-438) visits seven pavilions on each of the seven days of the week.

Here, Nizami describes the ruler's visit of the yellow pavilion (gunbad-i zar) on a Sunday (ruz-i yakshamba), an anecdote represented on the folio's verso (1-04-713.19.29 V). In this tale, Bahram Gur is disappointed by his concubines and convinces a woman, who first refuses his advances, to marry him (Meisami 1995: xvii-xviii). The ruler is shown seated in the upper left, surrounded by women offering food and playing musical instruments. The yellow dome of the pavilion breaks through the top horizontal margin, and a number of verses describing the events frame the painting at the top and bottom. (Meisami 1995: xvii-xviii).

The verses are executed in black nasta'liq script in four columns separated by gold gutters. Four verses in the paper's center are written diagonally, providing a clue to the end of one section, as well as the beginning of the subsequent tale of the yellow pavilion (whose title appears in the illuminated chapter heading in the bottom center).

This text page and the painting on the folio's verso are typical of Persian illustrated manuscripts of Nizami's "Khamsah" produced during the Safavid period. A great number of such works were made in 16th-century Shiraz (southwestern Persia/Iran) for export to Ottoman Turkey and Mughal India.

SUBJECT
Illuminated Islamic manuscripts
Islamic calligraphy
Islamic manuscripts
Nasta'liq
Arabic script calligraphy
Arabic calligraphy

MEDIUM
20.4 (w) x 30.7 (h) cm

CALL NUMBER
1-04-713.19.29

REPOSITORY
Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division, Washington, D.C. 20540

DIGITAL ID
ascs 022
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.amed/ascs.022

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