ARTICLES
A Taste for Intricacy
An Illustrated Manuscript of Manṭiq al-Ṭayr in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
2010 Volume 45 Pages 129-175
Details
2010 Volume 45 Pages 129-175
An illustrated manuscript of Farīd al-Dīn ‘Aaaār’s mystical poem, Manṭiq al-Ṭayr in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (63.210) is one of the most important illustrated manuscripts from Timurid Persia (1370-1507). It was transcribed in 1487 and several illustrations were attached; however, the manuscript was for some reason not completed. Over a century later, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, it entered into the possession of Shāh ‘Abbās (r. 1587-1629). His artists remounted the folios, added a frontispiece and four contemporary illustrations. Shāh ‘Abbās presented the manuscript to the Ardabīl shrine in 1608/9 (AH 1017).
This manuscript has the following distinctive features: First, it was initiated under the Timurid court atelier and completed in the Safavid court atelier. Second, this manuscript contains illustrations which are often attributed to the celebrated painter Bihzād, who served the Timurid monarch Ḥusayn Bāyqarā (r.1469-1506) and a nobleman ‘Alīshīr Navā’ī (1441-1501). Third, it is one of the few illustrated manuscripts of Manṭiq al-Ṭayr.
In spite of its significance, the following issues are yet to be investigated. First, the manuscript has not been fully treated as a composite manuscript initially undertaken by the Timurid court atelier and later completed in the Safavid period. Second, the text-image relation of all the illustrations of this manuscript has not been fully considered.
In this paper, the original structure of the manuscript will be reconstructed through a close investigation of all sixty-six folios. Then, each of the eight illustrations will be carefully analyzed in relation to the accompanying text. The goal of this research is to define the characteristics of this manuscript based on a reconstruction of the manuscript and an analysis of the text-image relation. This study will demonstrate the close connections between painting, poetry and Sufism at the end of the fifteenth century in Herāt.
