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Or 2265
- Record Id:
- 032-001608356
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001608356
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000035.0x000158
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Or 2265
- Title:
- Shah Tahmasp's 'Khamsah' of Niẓāmī
- Scope & Content:
-
The five poems making up the Khamsah by Niẓāmī Ganjavī (1140 or 41-1202 or 3). Originally copied for the Safavid ruler Shāh Tahmāsp (ruled 1524-76) between 1539 and 1543, it was augmented by the addition of 14 full page illustrations by some of the most famous court artists of the mid-16th century. Further pages were inserted probably during the 17th century, and again at a later stage, perhaps when the manuscript was rebound in the early 19th century at the court of Fatḥ ʻAlī Shāh Qājār (ruled 1797-1834). Includes three paintings by the artist Muḥammad Zamān (fl. 1649-1704).
Contents:
- f. 2: Makhzan al-asrār (مخزن الاسرار)
- f. 36 Khusraw va Shīrīn (خسرو وشيرين)
- f. 120 Laylá va Majnūn (ليلى ومجنون)
- f. 193 Haft paykar (هفت پيكر)
- f. 260 Iskandarnāmah (اسكندر نامه)
- (15v) Anūshīrvān and the owls. Inscribed ‘Mīra[k] the painter 946 (1539/40)’.
- (18r) Sulṭān Sanjar and the old woman.
- (26v) The physicians’ duel.
- (53v) Khusraw watches Shīrīn bathing. Artist: Sulṭān Muḥammad.
- (57v) Shāpūr returning to Khusraw. Artist: Mīrak.
- (60v) Khusraw enthroned. Inscription over pavilion: ‘O Lord protect the sovereignty of the mighty Sulṭān, the just Khāqān, the most just and most noble Sulṭān, the son of a Sulṭān, the victorious Sulṭān Shāh Ṭahmāsp al-Husaynī al-Ṣafavī Bahādur Khān, may Allah perpetuate his kingship and sovereignty for ever’. Artist: Mīrak.
- (66v) Khusraw and Shīrīn listening to stories told by Shīrīn’s maidens. Artist: Mīrak.
- (77v) Khusraw listens to Bārbad playing the lute. Artist: Mīrzā ʻAlī.
- (157v) Majnūn brought in chains by the old woman to Laylā’s tent. Artist: Mīr Sayyid ʻAlī.
- (166r) Majnūn with the animals in the desert. Artist: Mīrak.
- (195r) Ascent of the Prophet on Burāq to heaven, guided by Jibrāʼīl and escorted by angels.
- (202v) Bahrām Gūr shoots an ass and lion with one arrow. Artist: Sulṭān Muḥammad.
- (203v) Bahrām Gūr kills the dragon. Artist: Muḥammad Zamān, 1086 (1675/76) ‘in Ashraf, Mazandaran’.
- (211r) Bahrām Gūr (in the likeness of Shāh Ṭahmāsp) pinning an ass’s hoof to its ear with one arrow to prove his prowess to Fitnah. Artist: Mużaffar ʻAlī.
- (213r) The servant girl Fitnah impresses Bahrām Gūr with her strength by carrying an ox on her shoulders. Inscription: ‘In accordance with the most mighty command, time of Sulaymān’. Artist: Muḥammad Zamān, dated at Ashraf, Mazandaran, 1086 (1675/76).
- (221v) Episode from the Indian Princess’s story: King Turktazī’s visit to the magical garden of Turktaz, Queen of the Faeries. Artist: Muḥammad Zamān at Ashraf, Mazandaran, dated 1086 (1675/76).
- (48v, misplaced) Iskandar looks at his own portrait watched by Queen Nushabah. Artist: Mīrzā ʻAlī.
- Collection Area:
- Oriental Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-001608356", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Or 2265: Shah Tahmasp's 'Khamsah' of Niẓāmī" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001608356
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-001608356
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- 396 folios
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Or_2265 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Persian
- Scripts:
- Arabic
- Start Date:
- 1539
- End Date:
- 1543
- Date Range:
- 1539-1543
- Era:
- CE
- Place of Origin:
- Tabriz, dated between Jumada II 946 and Zu’l-Hijjah. 949 (1539-1543).
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Dimensions: 368 x 250 mm [leaf].
Script: Nastaʿlīq, in 4 columns. Copied by Shāh Maḥmūd Nīshāpūrī.
Decorations: 17 illustrations; 6 illuminated headings; shamsahs (f 1v and f 2r); gold ruled frames; outer margins decorated throughout with designs in gold of birds, animals, mythical beasts, trees and plants.
Binding: Painted Qajar covers dated 1797 decorated with floral designs (inside) and representing (outside):
- (front ): Fatḥ ʻAlī Shāh emulating the hunting prowess of Bahrām Gūr. Signed: Sayyid Mīrzā ‘slave of the court’.
- (end cover): Fatḥ ʻAlī Shāh spearing a lion. Signed: Muḥammad Bāqir ‘feeble slave'.
- Custodial History:
-
In a note on f 348v, dated 1243 (1827/28), Maḥmūd Qajar states that he had placed this volume in the palace of the princess Tāj al-Dawlah by order of His Majesty (Fatḥ ʻAlī Shāh).
- Source of Acquisition:
- Purchased from Messrs- Trübner and Co., 9 October 1880.
- Finding Aids:
-
Ch. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1879-1883), pp. 1072-3.
Norah M. Titley, Miniatures from Persian Manuscripts: a Catalogue and Subject Index of Paintings from Persia, India and Turkey in the British Library and the British Museum (London, 1977), p. 139 and p. 393 (binding).
Priscilla Soucek and Muhammad Isa Waley, “The Nizāmī manuscript of Shāh Tahmāsp: a reconstructed history.” In J.-C. Bürgel and C. van Ruymbeke (eds.), A Key to the Treasure of the Hakim: artistic and humanistic aspects of Nizāmī Ganjavī’s Khamsa (Leiden 2011), pp. 195-210.
Amy Landau, “From Poet to Painter: Allegory and Metaphor in a Seventeenth-Century Persian Painting by Muhammad Zaman, Master of Farangi-Sazi”, Muqarnas 28 (2011), pp. 101-131.
B. W. Robinson, “A pair of royal book-covers”, Oriental Art 10.1 (Spring 1964), pp. 3-7.
- Exhibitions:
- Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth, British Library, London, 21 October 2022 - 19 February 2022
British Library Treasures, (online), 27 February 2016-
Epic Iran, V&A, London, 29 May 2021 - 12 September 2021
Traces of the Poet, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 12 February 2016 - 8 May 2016
Traces of the Poet, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 8 November 2015 - 31 January 2016 - Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)