Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft awrang : a princely manuscript from sixteenth-century Iran /

This handsome volume is a masterly scholarly work and a major contribution, setting new standards in the largely unexplored field of Islamic art history. Simpson (Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore) not only examines the stylistic and iconographic features of the unique miniatures but places them and their text within a sociopolitical, literary, and historic context. The 16th-century Freer Haft Awrang contains seven poems by the celebrated 15th-century Sufi scholar Abdul-Rahman Jami of Herat, Persia. These poems include allegorical romances, such as the popular Yusuf and Zulayka, and didactic discourses. Their principal objective was to explore the theme of love, as well as the soul and mind of the lover, whose prime goal was to be spiritually united with God. Five court calligraphers labored for nine years to write the 306 folios. The 28 extant full-page miniatures were painted by several artists. Their variety and iconographic inventiveness have no peer. The author demonstrates how the artistic and literary interests and the life of the patron, Sultan Ibrahim Mirza, are refracted in the miniatures. Included are a codicological analysis of the text, a summary of the contents of the seven poems, a stylistic examination of the miniatures, and invaluable appended lists of Haft Awrang manuscripts and their miniatures in other libraries. Graduate; faculty. J. Gutmann emeritus, Wayne State University