Esoteric Images: Decoding the Late Herat School of Painting (Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture, 25)

In Esoteric Images: Decoding the Late Herat School of Painting Tawfiq Daʿadli decodes the pictorial language which flourished in the city of Herat, modern Afghanistan, under the rule of the last Timurid ruler, Sultan Husayn Bayqara (r.1469-1506). This study focuses on one illustrated manuscript of a poem entitled Khamsa by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, kept in the British Library under code Or.6810. Tawfiq Daʿadli decodes the paintings, reveals the syntax behind them and thus deciphers the message of the whole manuscript. The book combines scholarly efforts to interpret theological-political lessons embedded in one of the foremost Persian schools of art against the background of the court dynamic of an influential medieval power in its final years. Contents Acknowledgments Figures Introduction Chapter 1 Historical and Cultural Contexts 1 The Timurid Empire 2 The City of Herat 3 The Kitāb-khāna in Herat 4 Niẓāmī Ganjāvī Chapter 2 Focusing the Gaze in Late Timurid Painting 1 Hārūn al-Rashīd in the ḥammām 1.1 The Motif of the Treasure Discovery 1.2 The ḥammām Motif: a Liminal Space 1.3 The Night Motif: Hārūn al-Rashīd’s Nighttime Entry to the ḥammām 1.4 Secrets behind the Curtain 2 The King Who Turned into a Parrot 3 The Garden Master and the Maidens 3.1 The Garden 3.2 Love 4 Conclusion Chapter 3 The Iskandar Cycle 1 Iskandar and the Philosophers 2 Iskandar Beats the Drum 3 Iskandar Meets the Dervish 4 Conclusion Chapter 4 Making Justice 1 Khusrau before His Father Hurmuz-Shāh 2 Sultan Sanjar and the Old Lady 2.1 Naqshbandiyya Chapter 5 Death and Annihilation 1 Farhād’s Death 2 Laylī’s Husband’s Death 3 The Death of Majnūn 4 Building the Khawarnaq Palace 5 Conclusion Chapter 6 Concluding the Poetics of Painting 1 Enhancing the Meaning 1.1 Replies (Javāb) 1.2 Highlighting an Idea 1.3 The Plane Tree 2 Observations on Space 2.1 Intermediate Space 2.2 The Gate (Way In) 2.3 The Building (Way Out) 2.4 Three-Dimensional Worlds 2.5 Separate Spaces in Nature 2.6 Perspective 2.7 Back to Narratology 3 Conclusion Epilogue Bibliography Index In Esoteric Images: Decoding the Late Herat School of Painting Tawfiq Daʻadli decodes the pictorial language which flourished in the city of Herat, modern Afghanistan, under the rule of the last Timurid ruler, Sultan Husayn Bayqara (r.1469-1506). This study focuses on one illustrated manuscript of a poem entitled Khamsa by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, kept in the British Library under code Or. 6810. Tawfiq Daʻadli decodes the paintings, reveals the syntax behind them and thus deciphers the message of the whole manuscript. The book combines scholarly efforts to interpret theological-political lessons embedded in one of the foremost Persian schools of art against the background of the court dynamic of an influential medieval power in its final years