Literature

Iskandar (Alexander the Great) was regarded as a great hero; his stories appear in several works, such as Firdausī’s Shāhnāma (Book of Kings), the Persian national epic, and Niẓāmī’s Khamsa. Firdausī wrote the epic—in some 50,000 couplets—between 980 and 1010. Shown here are the first two battles between the armies of Iskandar and Dārā (Darius), those at Issus (333 B.C.) and Gaugamela (331 B.C.) Both were won by Iskandar. Lahore flourished under the Mughals, but when this manuscript was made it was the capital city of the Sikhs, who were much indebted to Mughal culture. (LINK)

One of the exercises practiced by Persian athletes was bow flexing. Such bows, clearly not meant for hunting, were supplied with discs that produced pleasant sounds when shot. According to Sufi belief, a beautiful adolescent is seen as a mirror reflecting a ray of Allāh’s beauty and was to be gazed upon. The line of accompanying poetry expands the Sufi idea of gazing at a youth (naẓar ila’l-murd): If it is a sin to gaze upon your face, Then let my eyes be ever drenched in sin. The miniature is after Ḥabīb-Allāh al-Mashhadī, a major painter at Ḥusain Shāmlū’s court. (LINK)

Part of a Persian prince’s education included gaining proficiency in a craft. For example, Ibrāhīm Mīrzā, the nephew of Shah Tahmāsp (r. 1524–76), excelled in carpentry and made musical instruments. Here a youth in a bright orange robe and henna-stained fingernails is making a horseshoe. This painting and three others in the Read Persian album appear to be copies of lost works by Ḥabīb-Allāh al-Mashhadī, an important painter at Governor Shāmlū’s court. (LINK)

Although the kneeling prisoner is secured by a wooden yoke, he still has his bow (in a case decorated with a simurgh, a mythical phoenix-like bird, chasing a rabbit), quiver, dagger, sword, and a red riding crop (whip). His large white turban features the typical Uzbek striated cone support with a dimpled tip. Although such representations of Uzbek prisoners date back to about 1550, they remained popular until the late sixteenth century, when Uzbek rule came to an end in Herat. (LINK)

Sa˓dī Shīrāzī, Anwari, and Firdausī were regarded as the three Persian Prophets of Poetry. There are no integral miniatures in this copy of Sa˓dī’s Kulliyyat, but some of its major textual divisions are marked with ornate double-page headings (sarlauḥs). Such is the case with his two most famous works, the Būstān (The Orchard) and the Gulistān (The Rose Garden). In the latter, Sa˓dī wrote that “The children of Adam are limbs to each other, having been created of one essence.” This was quoted by President Obama in an address to the Iranian people in 2009, when he argued that differences should not define us. (LINK)

This miniature appears in a sixteenth-century manuscript of Firdausī’s Shāhnāma (Book of Kings), the Persian national epic, written between 980 and 1010. He tells the story of Mani (ca. 216–276), a painter and prophet from China, who sought an audience with the king, Shapur, to seek his support as a prophet of a new religion. Shapur had doubts about his creed, however, and Mani was unable to address Shapur’s remarks concerning the faith of Zoroaster. (LINK)

Kitab Qiṣṣat Dhū al-Qarnayn is a 12th-century rendition of the Alexander romance (legends about the mythical exploits of Alexander the Great that were popular in the Middle Ages) based on information from the Qur’an and medieval Islamic sources. (LINK)

In Qasīdah (Poem), Sayyid al-Mukhtār ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr al-Kuntī al-Kabīr instructs students of Islamic law about the rights of orphans and of married women. He uses verse as a memory aid for the students. (LINK)