Читать книгу Memory of the World: The treasures that record our history from 1700 BC to the present day - UNESCO - Страница 56

Persian illustrated and illuminated manuscripts

Inscribed 2007

What are they

A collection of seventy-one Persian manuscripts each containing (on average) 100 miniature paintings in exquisite and vibrant colours, produced in art centres and royal ateliers in Asia Minor, Central Asia, Persia and India over a span of almost 500 years.

Why were they inscribed

The collection is a treasure trove of the ‘art of copying’, a widespread activity for distributing iconography and information, and is of great importance for its authentic copies of Persian illustrated and illuminated manuscripts from different royal ateliers. It is culturally significant for the evolution of art schools and ateliers in the Islamic world.

Where are they

National Library and Archives of Egypt, Cairo, Egypt

This unique collection of Persian illustrated and illuminated manuscripts from different royal ateliers comprises seventy-one rare illustrated and illuminated Persian manuscripts that highlight the development of royal ateliers from the 14th century to the 19th century. The collection is unique as it tells the history of Persian Islamic miniature painting, the development of Persian calligraphic script styles and the art of single folios and album compilation (muraqqa’). The collection was produced at renowned art centres and royal ateliers that flourished in a vast geographical region: from Baghdad and the Mosul area to Central Asia (Samarkand and Bukhara), to Iran and Afghanistan (Herat, Shiraz and Isfahan) and to the Indian Subcontinent. All of these geographical areas considered the Persian language as the literate and refined language to be used by the elite. The collection includes miniature paintings from the Mosul and Baghdad School which was devastated by the Mongol invasion in 1258, from the Timurid school which flourished in 1368 under Shah Timur, in Iran, Turkistan and Khurasan, and from the Safavid dynasty (1502–1736 ) as well as from the Mughal Empire of India (15th–18th centuries). Among the rare manuscripts are a copy of Khalila wa Dimna (which includes 112 miniatures) inscribed in the 12th century by Abu al Muzafar Bahramshah of Ghaznah, a Shâhnâmeh of Ferdowsi (with 166 miniatures) inscribed and illustrated by Mani during the 15th century and a copy of the Bustan of Sa’adi al-Shirazi inscribed by Sultan Ali al Katib in 1488 and illustrated by the renowned Behzad who proudly signed and dated his miniatures to 1489.

‘The king of Egypt with his entourage welcoming Zulaykha on her arrival to Egypt’: an illustration from a 1533 text in this Egyptian collection of Persian manuscripts.

The collection comprises epic poems (shâhnâmeh), love poems (quintets and rhyming couplets), mystic poems (Sufi) and religious aphorisms and wise sayings. The manuscripts are illuminated by geometric frontispieces, opening medallions, gold rulings and illuminated end pages. They are further illustrated with exquisite, colourful and vibrant miniature paintings. The miniatures range from royal gatherings in famous courts, depictions of hunting and themes of festivities, anthologies of the lover and beloved, as in Majnun and Layla (Nezami's Khamsah), astronomical images, images of wise men, plants and animals.

The collection includes anthologies inscribed by some of the most renowned calligraphers of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries in the region and dedicated to the shahs and leaders of key dynasties. It fills an important gap in history and in the relationship between calligraphers and ateliers. The miniatures are important to the development of Islamic miniature paintings; names found in this collection such as Mani and Behzad are rarely found in other collections around the world.

The collection is of great significance; the manuscripts and the muraqqa’ albums recollect the history of the region, the history of calligraphy and miniature paintings and the relationship between the artist and the royal ateliers. It is irreplaceable because these items are the joint work of ateliers, where painters, calligraphers, illuminators, paper makers and cover producers jointly worked for years to produce a single text. While the collection ranges from the 14th to the 19th centuries, much of the content of the muraqqa’ manuscripts was compiled before this. The copying of famous stories of kings in the shâhnâmeh or famous poems of Sa’adi and Nezami by famous scribes safeguarded the original manuscripts from destruction or disappearance. The collection illuminates the different styles of the royal ateliers, as guided and dictated by outstanding calligraphers and painters, and the taste of the Mosul, the Timurids, the Safavids, the Shaybanids and the Mughal empires.

Battle scene, from 1553 Persian manuscript by Shah Mahmud al Nishapury.