logo
Closed Mondays

Manuscript

Object Number:NEP33.259
Current Location: Collections Storage
Culture:Persian
Provenience: Iran
Shiraz
Period: 16th Century
Date Made: 1584 CE
Section:Near Eastern
Materials:Paper
Ink
Leather
Iconography:Nizami Khamsah
Credit Line:Purchased from H. Khan Monif, 1926
Other Number:259a/259b - Other Number

Description

Khamsah (or Quintet), poems written by Jamal al-din Abu Muhammad Ilyas ibn Yusuf ibn Zaki Mu'ayyad, usually know by the pen name, Nizami. The greatest Persian poet, he spent most of his life (b. 575-613H [1141-1146 CE]; d. 575-623H [1180-217CE]) in Ganja, (former Elizabehtpol), present-day Azerbayjan. This copy, without its original cover, comprises 359 folios, with two-double paged illumination interleaved with a double-page frontispiece paingtin showing throne scene, and with a double-page finispiece painting showing a banquet. Every one of the five poems begins with an elaborate title heading, and ends with a carpet page and a place for a colophon. The manuscript is written in nasta'liq script and has twenty-seven paintings. Copied in Shira, Iran, by Qasim Katib (uncertain) in teh months of Muharram to Jumada II, 992 H [1584 CE].

Bibliography:

[Article] Negahban, Ezatollah O. 1989. "Persian Caligraphy: the Development of an Art Form". Expedition: The Magazine of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Philadelphia. The University Museum. Vol. 31. no. 1. pg. 26-39 Actual Citation : Page/Fig./Plate: 34View Objects related to this Actual Citation
[Book] Quick, Jennifer. 2004. Magnificent Objects from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.. Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. ed. 1st. Actual Citation : Page/Fig./Plate: 157View Objects related to this Actual Citation
[Book] Guest, Grace D. 1949. Shiraz painting in the sixteeth century.. Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution. Vol. 4. Actual Citation : Page/Fig./Plate: 62View Objects related to this Actual Citation
[Book] Dorling Kindersley Limited. 2014. History of the World in 1,000 Objects.. London. Dorling Kindersley Limited. Actual Citation : Page/Fig./Plate: ForewardView Objects related to this Actual Citation

You may also be interested in these objects:


Report problems and issues to digitalmedia@pennmuseum.org.