SELLING TO THE COURT: LATE-SIXTEENTH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION IN SHIRAZ

Transcription

1 LALE ULUQ SELLING TO THE COURT: LATE-SIXTEENTH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION IN SHIRAZ In modern scholarship, the adjective most frequently attached to sixteenth-century manuscript production in Shiraz is "commercial," a label thought to bejustified by the sheer number of extant Shiraz manuscripts lacking a patron's name, suggesting that they were made to be sold on the open market. ' The label, however, should not also be used to imply a mass production of indifferent quality, for that is ajudgment that cannot be applied to the luxuriously produced examples from sixteenth-century Shiraz. 2 That deluxe Shiraz manuscripts were deliberately made to resemble the royal manuscripts produced in the reign of Shah Tahmasp and intended for consumption by courtly circles will be argued here. I will also demonstrate that both the Safavid and Ottoman courtly elites sought them and, by placing them in the historical context of their production, propose a possible group of supporters for the Shiraz workshops. Around the end of the 1560's, Shiraz manuscripts began to display a degree of richness that reached its zenith in the 1580's. 3 During this decade a remarkable number of illustrated manuscripts were made, incorporating all the outward trappings of sumptuous court production. To this end, Shiraz workshops spared no expense in the use of costly materials and the appropriation of the courtly style of painting, its fashions, and its architectural settings. The imitation of courtly models combined with lavish decoration was meant to enhance the book's value and establish its status as a "luxury" object. A comparison between the individual features of luxurious Shiraz manuscripts produced between the end of the 1570's and the 1580's with corresponding royal manuscripts from the reign of Shah Tahmasp ( ) reveals close parallels. 4 Both were written on heavily sized, gold-flecked paper and began with a number of decorated bifolios. All had a doublefolio frontispiece, which in the Shiraz examples often depicted Solomon and Bilqis enthroned, 5 always followed by an illuminated bifolio at the beginning of the text. Some would have still another bifolio of illuminated medallions, increasing to three the number of decorated bifolios before the text proper began. Manuscripts which comprised several poems, such as Nizami's Khamsa or Jami's Haft Awrang, were given additional illuminated bifolios for section headings. These could total as many as seven to eight per manuscript (fig. 1). Shahnama copies did not have these additional illuminated folios, since it was one continuous text, but they had an additional double-folio illustration of an enthronement with illuminated borders midway through the text, which showed Luhrasp enthroned. The manuscripts would then end with a double-folio finispiece. Deluxe Shiraz manuscripts also had numerous illustrations which covered the entire page,just as the illustrations of the courtly examples did, often with marginal decoration of gold floral scrolls and animals. In their outside appearance Shiraz manuscripts looked even more like their courtly counterparts. One reason was that the size of the manuscripts was considerably increased: some equaled the size of the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp, which was forty-seven centimeters high; 6 some were even larger. One Shiraz Shahnama of Firdawsi from circa 1585, now in Istanbul, measured an astonishing fifty-three centimeters in height. 7 A second practice that gave them a courtly appearance was their lacquered bindings, which shared stylistic features with those on courtly manuscripts. Comparing the binding of an anthology from circa , probably produced at Qazvin (fig. 2) with that of a Shiraz copy of the Haft Awrang ofjami from circa 1575 (fig. 3) makes this obvious. 8 Each binding has an outdoor courtly entertainment scene with a black background framed by borders of gold floral designs on black grounds. In each, a princely figure is seated in the center of the composition surrounded by seated and standing courtiers, while musicians perform and attendants serve food. When viewed on a shelf, a Shiraz manuscript with. 1

2 . 74 LALE ULUI ;.~~~~~~~~ a ~ ~ z''. ~ -:i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"--. ji i 4'' 1 j alk_-i~i~l~eq~'. - r~ 1~."I, 5- I Fig. 1. Illuminated bifolio. Haft Awrang ofjami, ca Copied by Hidayat Allah al-katib al-shirazi. Topkapi Palace Library, H (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) a lacquered binding cannot be differentiated from a courtly one. Once their outer covers are opened, however, they display significant variation in their quality of workmanship and style of illustration. The doublures on Shiraz bindings also constitute an additional important difference. During the second half of the sixteenth century, all Shiraz bindings, whether they were leather or lacquer, had identical leather doublures similar to those of the Shiraz Haft Awrang from circa 1575 (fig. 4). The bindings of the courtly manuscripts with lacquered bindings, such as the anthology from circa , however, often have lacquered doublures as well (fig. 5). 9 The juxtaposition of a Shiraz-style leather doublure with a lacquered binding was in fact used so consistently that it became a sort of a trademark for attributing lacquered bindings to Shiraz. The single known exception of a Shiraz manuscript with a lacquered binding and partly lacquered doublures is a magnificent copy of the Koran dated Its binding has floral designs and crushed mother-of-pearl worked into the lacquer. Two conspicuous lines of crushed mother-of-pearl run horizontally across the top and the bottom of the binding, providing additional decoration (fig. 6). Its unusual lacquered doublures were not modeled on the lacquered doublures of courtly manuscripts (fig. 7). Instead, they were closely modeled on a gold blockstamped leather outer cover of a Shiraz binding, like that on a copy of the Shahnama of Firdawsi dated

3 MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION IN SHIRAZ 75 Fig. 2. Binding, upper cover. Anthology, ca Topkapi Palace Library, R (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) (1574) (fig. 8)." The overall design of a central medallion and four corner pieces of this binding and those of the doublures of the Koran appear to have been produced using identical stamps. The border cartouches also have exactly the same shapes. The Koran of is the most lavishly decorated Shiraz manuscript from the sixteenth century. All of its pages without exception are fully illuminated. It opens with a large uninscribed medallion followed by a bifolio of gold oblongs outlined in colors. The next two bifolios, one of which contains medallions, are similar in design to the illuminated frontispieces found in contemporary Shiraz deluxe manuscripts. All of the text pages which follow these opening folios are also Fig. 3. Binding, upper cover. Haft Awrang of Jami, ca, Copied by Hidayat Allah al-katib al-shirazi. Topkapi Palace Library, H (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) fully illuminated, where the entire surface of each page is covered with decorative motifs (fig. 9).'2 Turning the pages of this Koran is almost like looking through a kaleidoscope. These luxuriously produced Shiraz manuscripts could at times be richer in appearance than some of their courtly counterparts. Not all royal manuscripts had the exceptional quality of the Tahmasp Shdhnama. An unpublished copy of the Gulistan and Bstn of Sa'di dated 961 (1554) has two colophons, both of which state that it was copied by a certain 'Abd-al Vahhab al-husaini al-mashhadi for Shah Tahmasp.' 3 It is a royal manuscript with deluxe lacquer painted bindings and doublures. Its illustrative style also shares I I I _

4 76 LALE ULU Fig. 4. Doublure. Haft Awrang of Jami, ca Copied by Hidayat Allah al-katib al-shirazi. Topkapi Palace Library, H (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) Fig. 5. Doublure. Anthology, ca Topkapi Palace Library, R (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) a common aesthetic with other Safavid royal manuscripts from the same period. For example, the ruler's throne in the Sa'di illustration of a sufi dreaming of a heavenly king closely resembles similar thrones from earlier court manuscripts (fig. 10).1 The golden arabesque decoration below the throne in the Sa'di manuscript and its golden legs are also found on a throne depicted in the Tahmasp Shahnama.' 5 The copy of the Khamsa of Nizami of , which bears Shah Tahmasp's name in the architectural frieze on one of its illustrations in the high court style of the period, also contains such a throne in the illustration depicting Nushaba recognizing Iskandar from his portrait. In sharp contrast to the complex compositions found in the royal manuscripts of the earlier Tahmasp period, all of the twenty-seven illustrations of the royal Gulistan and Bustan of Sa'di occupy only a small area in the text and are simple compositions representing only the basic elements of the incident that is being illustrated. A striking example is the illustration depicting Zulaikha soliciting Yusuf's attention, which represents this scene using only the most basic figures and elements (fig. 11).17 The illustrations of the 1554 Sa'di are also much simpler than those from the copy of the Haft Awrang of Jami produced for Shah Tahmasp's nephew, Sultan Ibrahim Mirza b. Bahram Mirza, when he was governor of Mashhad between 1556 and 1565.l' The comparison of one of the more complicated renditions of architecture from the 1554 P11IL

5 MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION IN SHIRAZ 77 Fig. 6. Binding, upper and flap covers. Koran, dated Copied by 'Abd al-qadir al-husaini. Topkapi Palace Library, E.H. 48. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) Sa'di (fig. 12) 19 with any of the illustrations containing a pavilion from Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang shows the more competent composition of the latter illustration. 2 0 A second significant manuscript is a copy of the Dfvn of Hafiz dated ( ), which was produced for a Sultan Sulayman at Tun. 2 1 This Sultan Sulayman was the governor of Tun and Tabas, which were both provincial centers in Khurasan, in Iskandar Munshi refers to him as Sulayman Khalifa Turkman b. Suhrab Khalifa Turkman and says that he was made the governor of Qum after Shah 'Abbas Fig. 7. Doublure. Koran, dated Copied by 'Abd al- Qadir al-husaini, Topkapi Palace Library, E.H. 48. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) ascended the throne in Although the patron of this manuscript was not a member of the Safavid royal family, it has a lacquered binding with lacquered doublures, both of exceptional, or so-called royal, quality. Additionally, its illuminations as well as its illustrations display the highest standard of manuscript production current at the time. This was clearly because Sulayman Khalifa had accumulated an impressive corps of artisans for his library, many of whom appear to have previously worked for royal patrons. 2 3 The illustrations of this sub-royal manuscript also have more complex compositions than the royal Gulistan 1_1_1 ^_1 _ _1_

6 78 LAXLE ULUC Fig. 8. Binding. Shahnama of Firdawsi, dated 982 (1574). Copied in the city of (balda-i) Shiraz by Hasan al-husain alkatib. Topkapi Palace Library, H (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) Fig. 9. Text folio. Koran, dated Copied by 'Abd al- Qadir al-husaini. Topkapi Palace Library, E.H. 48, fol. 4v. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) and Bistan of Sa'di, which carries the name of Shah Tahmasp. The differences in their level of complexity become particularly striking when the Sa'di painting depicting a pavilion (fig. 12) is compared with a similar one from Sulayman Khalifa's Hafiz (fig. 13).24 This subroyal volume of demonstrates that the high quality of a manuscript does not always constitute proof that it was made for royal clientele. Conversely, the illustrations of Tahmasp's Sa'di indicate that even though a manuscript may have been produced for a royal owner it may not have been produced at the highest possible standards of its time. The luxurious Shiraz manuscripts of the 1580's which emulated the top quality court manuscripts also contained considerably more complex compositions than those of Tahmasp's Sa'di (figs. 14, 15, and 17). However, even though some of the Shiraz illustrations had more complicated compositions than those of this particular royal manuscript of 1554, Shiraz manuscripts could not reach the same level of refinement as the royal examples in their general conception, calligraphy, and illumination. The only components of the Shiraz manuscripts which displayed a courtly level of luxury were the lacquered bindings of some, but even they were less luxurious than the courtly bindings since they all had leather Shiraz-style doublures. _111

7 MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION IN SHIRAZ 79 Fig. 10. A sufi dreams of a king in heaven. Gulistin and Bastan of Sa'di, dated 961 (1554). Copied by 'Abd al-vahhab al- Husaini al-mashhadi for Shah Tahmasp. Topkapi Palace Library, H. 673, fol. 41r. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) Fig. 11. Zulaikha soliciting Yusuf's attention. Gulistdn and Bfstdn of Sa'di, dated 961 (1554). Copied by 'Abd al-vahhab al-husaini al-mashhadi for Shah Tahmasp. Topkapi Palace Library, H. 673, fol. 300v. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) Luxury Shiraz manuscripts which contained lavish decoration appear to have been produced for courtly consumption because they reflected the contemporary court fashion, architectural settings, and in general the architectural environment with which their intended clientele was familiar. One striking example is found in a copy of the Haft Awrang of Jami from circa 1580 (fig. 14).25 This Shiraz depiction of a leisure scene in and around a pool pavilion matches the description given by a sixteenth-century Italian traveler of courtly activities in Tabriz. The pavilion has two stories and a terrace with a canopied structure. In both stories are open galleries which encircle the walls of the structure. In the upper story is a small balcony which projects into the gallery space. A bridge which links the pavilion to the side of the pool and outside stairs which connect the lower balcony to the upper one are also represented. In the interior of the lower floor attendants are preparing food. Around the pavilion are also people rowing in boats. Lakes or pools with pavilions at their center are referred to in the documentary sources. An earlier ruler of Mazanderan, the Bavandid Husam al-daula Ardashir ( ) had a pleasure garden which contained an artificial lake stocked with fish. A pavilion on an island in the center of the lake was reached by a drawbridge. 2 6 The account of an anonymous Italian merchant who visited Persia in the sixteenth century mentions another pavilion in the center of a pool, this time in the center of a fountain in the courtyard of a I I_

8 80 LALE ULUQ Fig. 12. An uninvited sufi joins a social gathering. Gulistan and Bfzstan of Sa'di, dated 961 (1554). Copied by 'Abd al- Vahhab al-husaini al-mashhadi for Shah Tahmasp. Topkapi Palace Library, H. 673, fol. 225v. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) Fig. 13. Dancing dervishes. Dvan of Hafiz, dated Copied by Sultan Husain b. Qasim al-tuni for Sultan Sulayman at Tun. Topkapi Palace Library, H. 986, fol. 21v. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) mosque called "Imareth alegeat" (sic) in Tabriz. This text describes a Tabriz pool and fountain within a court setting which is very similar to the one depicted in the Shiraz Haft Awrang of circa 1580 (fig. 14). The Italian merchant writes: "[The mosque in Tabriz is] very large, but has never been covered in the centre... In the midst of the edifice is a large fountain, not springing there naturally, but brought artificially, as the water comes in by one pipe and is emptied by a second, as they please. This fountain is a hundred paces in length and as many in breadth, and is six feet deep in the middle, where is built a beautiful platform or pedestal on six pilasters of the purest marble, all over- laid, and carved inside and out. The building is very ancient, but the platform has been recently put up, and there is a bridge leading from the side of the fountain on to the platform. There is a beautiful boat like a bucentaur, which Sultan Sciech Ismael [sic] used often when a boy (as he still does now) to get into, with four or five of his lords, and row about the fountain. 2 7 This description of a courtly activity which matches a Shiraz picture shows the degree of specificity of the court milieu in Shiraz illustrations and supports the hypothesis that these manuscripts were intended to represent court life. A number of other Shiraz manuscripts of this period also carry unmistakable echoes I i_

9 MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION IN SHIRAZ 81 Fig. 14. Rowing in a fountain pool. Haft Awrang ofjami, ca Topkapi Palace Library, R. 911, fol. 152r. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) Fig. 15. Iskandar and the Seven Sages. Khamsa of Nizami, ca Topkapi Palace Library, A. 3559, fol. 398v. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) of the ambiance and life of the court. The meticulous rendition of architectural detail in the representation of the pool pavilion implies that some of the unusual sixteenth-century Shiraz images of pavilions can be utilized to explore aspects of sixteenth-century Safavid architecture for which little archaeological evidence survives. 2 8 In addition to representing courtly subjects and activities, Shiraz illustrations carried strong echoes of the Tabriz and Mashhad courtly styles of painting. Some were clearly generated from specific royal models. These models could have reached Shiraz through the movement of artists, through manuscripts, drawings, or pounces, or all of those. An example is from a deluxe copy of the Khamsa of Nizami from circa 1585 depicting Iskandar with the Seven Sages (fig. 15).29 It shows Iskandar enthroned in a chamber within a centrally placed octagonal pavilion. The walls of the two-story pavilion are represented from the outside; it also has a roof terrace with a small dome. Five courtiers sit in two oblique lines on either side of the waterway and an ornamental pool in front of the pavilion. The vertical axis is established by the dome, the window and the door on the back wall, the ruler on his throne, three steps leading down from the throne, and the waterway with the pool. A garden wall behind the building has two symmetrically placed gates on either side. The representation of a chamber embedded in an octagonal structure was a totally new feature in the Shiraz repertoire of the 1580's. It was I I

10 act z5l, LALE ULUS Fig. 16. Yusuf's escape from the well. Haft Awrang of Jami, ca Copied by Hidayat Allah al-katib al-shirazi. Topkapi Palace Library, H. 751, fol. 149r. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) _~

11 MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION IN SHIRAZ 83 clearly adapted from earlier courtly models, for example, the one from the Tahmasp Shahnama depicting Firdawsi before Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna. 3 0 This painting also has a ruler enthroned in a chamber in a centrally placed octagonal pavilion with courtiers sitting in two oblique lines on either side of the ornamental pool in front of the pavilion. Even the gardener who can be seen through one of the gates in the Tabriz illustration is repeated in the Shiraz image. An example that closely emulates the Mashhad style is the scene depicting Yusuf's escape from the well, from a Shiraz copy of the Haft Awrang of Jami, circa 1575 (fig. 16).3 1 The Shiraz copy can almost be considered a condensed version of the Mashhad illustration of the same subject from Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang of The Shiraz scene reverses the Mashhad composition, and both place the well to one side of the page, instead of in the more usual central position. Both are set in a rocky landscape; the tall rocks on one side of the composition are balanced by a chinar tree on the other side. The three tents pitched close together in the middle and left foreground of the Mashhad scene are echoed by the two on the right foreground of the Shiraz composition. In front of the foremost one in both, a man tickles a young boy under the chin. He is accepting ajug from the boy in the Mashhad scene, while he just holds the boy's hand in the Shiraz version. The youth in an orange robe who sleeps against a patterned pillow or saddlebag and the man collecting wood at the left in the Mashhad scene are both repeated exactly-but on the right-in the Shiraz scene. The well shows Yusuf and Gabriel with the bucket. Above them, a youth carries a water ewer which matches the one carried by a similarly placed youth in the Mashhad illustration, but he leads a donkey instead of a horse. 3 3 In addition to emulating the Tabriz and Mashhad courtly styles of painting, some of the Shiraz illustrations of the 1580's made distinct references to a series of illustrations found in earlier courtly manuscripts. One example is a Mi'raj scene found in a Shiraz Yfisuf and Zulaikhd of Jami from circa (fig. 17). 34 It depicts the Mi'rdj of the Prophet over the Ka'ba enclosure, a combination used in a number of manuscripts in earlier high court styles. The earliest extant rendition is found in an anthology dated ( ), which was made for the Timurid prince Iskandar Mirza while he was the governor of Shiraz. 3 5 The next courtly example is from a copy of the Khamsa of Nizami dated ( ) (fig. 18).56 Its Herat style illustrations indicate that it was begun at that city, but it then came into the possession of the Qaraqoyunlu prince Pir Budaq b. Jahanshah b. Qara Yusuf, probably during the Qaraqoyunlu occupation of Herat in 1458, when Pir Budaq was serving as the governor of Shiraz. Its first colophon is dated 866 (1461) and signed by the scribe Shaykh Mahmud Pir Budaqi, who may have made some minor additions, presumably at Baghdad since his patron Pir Budaq resided in that city from 1460 until his death in It then entered the library of the Aqqoyunlu prince Khalil Sultan b. Uzun Hasan, who was the governor of Shiraz between 1471 and Its second colophon at the end of the manuscript is dated 881 (1476) and signed by Fakhr al-din Ahmad, who says that the manuscript was written for Uzun Hasan on Khalil's orders. Since Khalil was then resident in Shiraz as its governor, the Istanbul Khamsa of must have been completed there. 3 8 The third relevant rendition of the Mi'raj of the Prophet over the Ka'ba enclosure is in the Bihzadian tradition of the reign of the Timurid sultan Husain Mirza and is found in the Herat-based Khamsa of Nizami dated 900 ( ). 3 9 The last one is on a detached folio removed from a royal Aqqoyunlu copy of the Khamsa of Nizami. 40 The copying of this manuscript was probably begun at Shiraz for Khalil Sultan b. Uzun Hasan Aqqoyunlu, while he was the governor of the city between 1471 and Khalil then ruled the Aqqoyunlu domains from Tabriz for a few months in When his brother Ya'qub eliminated Khalil after a short time and ascended the Aqqoyunlu throne, he must have inherited Khalil's Tabriz workshop, as well as this manuscript. Its first colophon at the end of the third poem, Laild and Majnfin, bears the date 880 ( ), when Khalil was the governor of Shiraz. The epithet al-sultani used by its scribe, 'Abd al-rahim b. 'Abd al-rahman, in this colophon refers to Sultan Khalil, since this scribe was affiliated with Khalil's workshop until the latter's death in The manuscript's second colophon at the end of the last section, Iqbal-nima-i IskandarT, is dated 886 (1481), which falls in the reign of Khalil's brother Sultan Ya'qub. This colophon gives the manuscript's place of completion as Tabriz. Its scribe 'Abd al-rahim signs his name with the epithet al-ya'qubi, which refers to Sultan Ya'qub and shows that work on the manuscript must have continued in Tabriz. 4 2 The manuscript also contains a discursive postscript which further discusses - -_--_--_--_1_1_ (

12 S 84 LALE ULU t 7, I, r t _a::rl, I'V -"el. -.-i---rc= i I iv_1 i 4_ iw>jr'is Go A.. -I ' _, Z A- J' '.r,i I "f; 6 ;. HriS$U V--llll' Fig. 17. The Mi'raj of the Prophet. Yftsufand Zulaikha ofjami, ca Topkapi Palace Library, H. 1084, fol. I r. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) Fig. 18. The Mi'raj of the Prophet. Khamsa of Nizami, dated 866 (146I). Copied by Shaykh Mahmud Pir Budaqi. Topkapi Palace Library, H. 761, fol. 4v. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) the circumstances of its production. It says that the manuscript was begun for the Aqqoyunlu prince Khalil; its scribe was known as Anisi; and it was completed at Safavid Tabriz for presentation to Shah Isma'il I by one of his high officials. 4 3 Contemporary sources, Qadi Ahmad, Dust Muhammad, and Sam Mirza all mention a close association between the scribe 'Abd al-rahim b. 'Abd al-rahman Khwarazmi whose pen name was Anisi, and Sultan Ya'qub. 44 The folio detached from this manuscript which has the Mir'aj scene was evidently completed during the early Safavid stage. It records the date 910 (1505) on a small building at the lower left of the picture frame. At the time the late-sixteenth-century Shiraz ren- dition of the Mir'aj was produced, Shiraz was ruled by a Turkman governor from the Zu'lqadir tribe. This line then connects the early Timurid court of Iskandar Sultan, the Qaraqoyunlu court of Pir Budaq, the late Timurid court of Sultan Husain, the Aqqoyunlu courts of Khalil Sultan and Sultan Ya'qub, the Safavid court of Shah Isma'il I, and finally the provincial manuscript production center, Shiraz, under the governorship of the Zu'lqadir tribe. Three of the earlier four manuscripts had been owned by governors of Shiraz at a time when the manuscripts produced in Shiraz were at a royal level. Later inscriptional notes on Shiraz manuscripts attest that they were owned by members of both the I L I-I i j

13 MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION IN SHIRAZ 85 Safavid and Ottoman ruling elites. 4 5 One of the most significant of these notes is found on a luxury Shiraz copy of the Shahndma of Firdawsi dated 998 ( ), which attests that it was owned by a member of the Safavid royal family. 46 It was then purchased by Khayrat Khan, an ambassador to the Safavid Shah Safi from the ruler of Golconda 'Abdallah the Qutb Shah ( ), during his stay in Isfahan, from the daughter of Khan Ahmad Khan of Gilan and the wife of the late Shah 'Abbas, for fifty-five tumans, in 1040 (1631).47 The Shiraz Shahnama of must have been acquired by Khan Ahmad or his daughter, but the absence of their names in the colophon implies that it was bought after it was already completed. Khan Ahmad had become the ruler of Gilan with the support of Shah Tahmasp, but had subsequently incurred the shah's wrath and been imprisoned at Istakhr, near Shiraz. He languished there for almost ten years, but was finally released after Muhammad Khudabanda's ascension since he was related to the new shah's wife, was appointed governor of the province of Gilan, and was married to Maryam Sultan Begum, a daughter of Shah Tahmasp. 4 8 He rebelled again in 1592, during the reign of Shah 'Abbas I, and tried to form a military alliance with the Ottomans, 4 9 but was defeated in battle by the Safavid forces and fled to Shirvan, abandoning his household. His Safavid wife and daughter were taken to the royal headquarters and treated as royal princesses of the Safavid line. 5 0 The note on this manuscript indicates that Shah 'Abbas later took one of Khan Ahmad's daughters as one of his wives. 5 ' Khan Ahmad Khan of Gilan had been educated at the court of Shah Tahmasp as a child, had married one of Shah Tahmasp's daughters, and was related to Shah 'Abbas's mother, Shah Muhammad Khudabanda's wife. 5 2 According to Sadiqi Bek's biography of the court poets, Majmf'at al-khavdss, he was himself an art patron of some significance. Sadiqi Bek mentions three poets and a historian as being in attendance at his court and Sadiqi Bek may have been there himself as well. 58 Iskandar Munshi also mentions a calligrapher, a doctor, and a musician, who had all previously been in royal service, as being in Khan Ahmad's service later. 5 4 He came from a local dynasty of Sayyids, the Kar-Kiya, at Lahijan in Gilan. According to Dickson and Welch, the Kar-Kiya was an important source of patronage in the late fifteenth and throughout the sixteenth century. 55 A painting of a dragon in a private collection may also have been executed for him. Its inscription reads, "Done by this humble servant at the Court of Heavenly Resort of His Excellency, Khan Ahmad the Husaini, [signed] Mir Sayyid Muhammad the painter (naqqash)." 56 A second Safavid name is mentioned in an ownership note in an illustrated Shiraz Shlahnama of Firdawsi dated 971 (1563), 57 which says that the manuscript once belonged to a certain "Rustam b. Ahmad Shirvani." The same name can be found in three illustrated Persian manuscripts from the Topkapi Palace Library. 58 Although it has not been possible to identify this person, he appears to have been a discerning collector of books. The first of these three manuscripts is a copy of the Naqsh-i Badi' of Muhammad Ghazali Mashhadi dated 982 (1574). 5 It was written by Sultan Muhammad Khandan at Sabzavar for Sultan Ibrahim Mirza, the most significant royal patron of the time.' Ibrahim Mirza had been sent as governor to Sabzavar in 1567 by his powerful relative, the shah, where he had stayed until The other two books that bear Rustam b. Ahmad's name are a copy of the 7Tmiirnama of Yazdir from circa 1570 and a copy of the Salaman and Absal of Jami from circa 1590, both illustrated in the metropolitan court style of their time. 6 2 It is therefore significant that his library contained a Shiraz manuscript as well. Both the archival documents from the Topkapi Palace Library and its existing Persian holdings indicate that Ottoman bureaucrat-intellectuals were avid collectors of Persian luxury manuscripts. Almost every archival booklist from the Topkapi collection includes names of the works of Persian authors. The library houses approximately two hundred sixteenth-century illustrated Persian manuscripts," almost half of them produced in Shiraz. This ratio increases when only copies of the Persian classics are considered; sixty percent of the total number of this group are from Shiraz workshops. Approximately one hundred of the sixteenth-century illustrated Persian manuscripts from the Topkapi collection have later notes and marginalia which indicate that they once belonged to members of the Ottoman ruling elite before becoming palace property. Fifty of these were produced in Shiraz. Inscriptional notes testify that Sinan Papa, who served five terms as the grand vizier between 1579 and his death in 1596, during the reigns of Murad III (r ) and his son Mehmed III (r ), owned luxury Shiraz manuscripts. He was one of the top-ranking, richest, and most influential Ottoman bureaucrats of the last quarter of the sixteenth century. Sinan Papa was executed by imperial decree in I I C_ C I C

14 86 LALE ULU; 1596, and his considerable estate devolved to the state. 6 4 Five manuscripts in the Topkapi collection with Shiraz-style illustrations contain later notes bearing his name. 65 Inscriptional notes also show that Shiraz manuscripts were privately owned by individual members of the Ottoman royal family. For example, two Shiraz copies of the Khamsa of Nizami dated ( ) and 941 (1540) were inscribed "the late (erhume) Sah Sultan" on their back flyleaves. 6 6 Sah Sultan was the daughter of Selim I and sister of Sfileyman the Magnificent. These two copies of the Khamsa of Nizami were later bought for the royal collection for fifty gold sovereigns each from her estate. 67 The flow of Shiraz manuscripts into Ottoman territories slowed down after the second Ottoman-Safavid peace of 1590 and stopped by the end of the sixteenth century. 6 8 However, they continued to circulate within the empire. A deluxe Shiraz copy of the Khamsa of Nizami from circa 1585 carries a flyleaf note stating that the book once belonged to the library of Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Papa, a son-in-law of the sultan and one of the most influential Ottoman grand viziers of the seventeenth century. 6 9 The ownership note on the Shiraz Khamsa is dated [10]95 (1684) and says that the book came to the palace from the estate (muhallefat) of this personage, who had been executed the year before, indicating that his estate devolved to the state after his death. 7 0 The notes on two manuscripts, a copy of the Khamsa of Khusraw Dihlavi dated 970 ( ) and a Yiisuf and Zulaikha of Jami from circa 1575,71 suggest that Shiraz manuscripts were also used as diplomatic gifts by the ruling elite and even the shah. The flyleaf note on each is dated 990 (1582) and says, "The book that came from the Shah." The notes and their dates indicate that these two manuscripts were among the eighteen books which were sent by Shah Muhammad Khudabanda to be presented to the sultan by the Safavid ambassador Ibrahim Khan on the occasion of the circumcision festival of ehzade Mehmed in The use of luxury Shiraz manuscripts as diplomatic gifts for the Ottomans must have increased demand for them, since a substantial number of Safavid envoys were sent to the Ottoman realm during the sixteenth century. Some may even have been hurriedly prepared for the purpose. The last two pages of text and the finispiece of a dispersed Shiraz Shiahnama of Firdawsi bear some evidence that it may have been intended as a gift for the Ottoman sultan. 73 One dated colophon testifies that it was copied in 970 (1562) and another that it was enlarged, illustrated, and illuminated in 991 (1583).74 The finispiece of the manuscript was added during its enlargement and depicts the triumphal entry of a personage into a city accompanied by his army. 75 The outfits and headgear of both the leader and troops are in a strange style vaguely reminiscent of Ottoman uniforms. Especially the headgear of the soldiers resembles that of an Ottoman janissary. Panegyric verses written to a sultan (rather than a shah) on the finispiece miniatures themselves suggest that this manuscript was intended as a gift for the bibliophile Ottoman Sultan Murad III.76 The date 1583 for the enlargement of the manuscript is also significant: a year later the Safavid ambassador Ibrahim Khan Tavaji reached the Ottoman capital bringing a letter from Shah Muhammad Khudabanda asking for peace." The now dispersed Shahnama would have been an appropriate gift for that occasion. One of the Shiraz manuscripts which once belonged to the grand vizier Sinan Pasa (d. 1596), a copy of the Khamsa of Nizami dated (1591), also bears some evidence indicating that it was hurriedly turned into a luxury manuscript after its initial production. 7 " At the time of its completion it was a manuscript of modest proportions. Its eighteen textual illustrations, which appear to date from this time, are all contained within the text block and are very small in proportion to the present size of the manuscript. It was then transformed into a luxuriously produced, large manuscript, measuring thirty-nine centimeters in height. To achieve this, it was remargined with the typical pink margins of the early Shah 'Abbas I period and given a pair of illuminated pages at the beginning of the text, a double-folio frontispiece, a double-folio finispiece, and designs around each of its six colophons. All the stylistic characteristics of the manuscript, other than the designs added to the colophon pages, clearly point to a Shiraz idiom. 7 9 Its frontispiece and finispiece, which are in an easily recognizable Shiraz style, were created at the time of the manuscript's enlargement. All four images used for this purpose were chosen from already existing material. Even though they were different sizes, each was individually enlarged to create two pairs of matching folios, which were then framed by unifying illuminated borders. The illustrations do not represent incidents which are found in this text. For example, the left folio of I

15 MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION IN SHIRAZ 87 z~~~~~~~~~: ~ ~ ~ :,: ''" %"' Wg *; - i: -1 _,,,,_,.. ; -'I.. IS: : 6~~~ Fig. 19. Frontispiece. Possibly a scene from a Ysuf and Zulaikha ofjami; Zulaikha in chains. Khamsa of Nizami, dated (1591). Topkapi Palace Library, H. 749, fol. 2r. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) Fig. 20. Frontispiece. An enthronement scene from a Shahnama. Rustam before a ruler. Khamsa of Nizami, dated (1591). Topkapi Palace Library, H. 749, fol. lv. (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) the frontispiece seems to depict an episode from the Yilsuf and Zulaikha of Jami, where Zulaikha is shown in chains and attended by her ladies-in-waiting. The right folio of the frontispiece was probably originally meant to illustrate a Shahnama, since it depicts Rustam, easily identified by his tigerskin coat and leopard hat, seated before a ruler (figs. 19 and 20). The most luxurious addition was a top-quality lacquered binding, which truly brought'the book up to the level of a deluxe manuscript (fig. 21). 80 It is closely related to a number of bindings attributed to courtly centers, such as a copy of the Duval Ranf Khizr Khan of Amir Khusraw Dihlavi dated 992 ( ) (fig. 22). 8 ' However, this magnificent binding has the typical doublures found on all Shiraz manuscripts of the second half of the sixteenth century, 82 further evidence that Shiraz is its provenance. Sinan Paa's Khamsa must have been transformed soon after its completion in 1591, since he died in It is impossible to determine the exact reason for the change. It appears, however, that a deluxe manuscript with the outward trappings of a courtly production was needed quickly, to be either presented or sold to the influential Ottoman grand vizier and that the productive Shiraz workshops were capable of meeting such a demand in a short time. Ottoman sources indicate that luxury books were among the most valuable of the gifts that were brought I CIIU I_ III II -.1-

16 88 LALE ULU, Fig. 21. Binding, upper and flap covers. Khamsa of Nizami, dated (1591). Topkapi Palace Library, H (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) by the Safavid envoys to the Ottoman court. When gifts are enumerated in contemporary Ottoman chronicles or archival estate inventories, book names always appear at the top of the lists, if they are included at all. The first mention is always given to the copies of the Koran, followed by the rest of the books. In illustrations showing Safavid envoys presenting the royal Safavid gifts frequently found in Ottoman chronicles, large books are often prominently represented held by men at the head of the presentation group. 8 3 The hypothesis that the Shiraz production of especially the 1570's and 1580's was for the consumption of court circles is supported by the fact that the years coincide with two significant events. The Fig. 22. Binding, upper cover. Duval Rant KhzrKhan of Amir Khusraw Dihlavi, dated 992 ( ). Topkapi Palace Library, H (Photo: courtesy Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul) first was the appointment of Muhammad Mirza, the future Safavid Shah Muhammad Khudabanda, as the nominal governor of Shiraz in He was in residence in Shiraz until he ascended the Safavid throne in During his six years in Shiraz, the level of ostentation of Shiraz manuscripts noticeably increased. The presence of a "royal" figure at Shiraz may have generated a new group of customers who were familiar with court manuscripts and created some impetus for a similar taste at Shiraz, while the arrival of a princely governor with his private library at Shiraz may have provided additional models for Shiraz artists. After his ascension, many Shiraz nobles who had become intimate with the future shah during his tenure in Shiraz ---D-^-"-r-l-- ---ar*q- ac- -ra

17 MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION IN SHIRAZ 89 were given important positions at court. 8 5 It is possible that the demand for luxury Shiraz manuscripts increased in Safavid court circles when these Shiraz notables moved to the capital. Other important officials already at the capital also had Shiraz roots. The most notable of these was Mirza Salman Jabiri, whose father Aga Mirza 'Ali Jabiri Isfahani was the vizier of the governor of Shiraz, Ibrahim Khan Zu'lqadir, in Mirza Salman had been educated in Shiraz and then gone to the court of Shah Tahmasp in Tabriz. After holding other administrative posts, he was appointed the supervisor (nazir) of most of the royal workshops, a post he held until the death of Shah Tahmasp. He was grand vizier during the reign of Isma'il II and one of the first to reach Shiraz to pay his respects to the new shah when Isma'il II died. He was reconfirmed as the grand vizier, 8 6 and was closely allied with the crown prince Hamza Mirza, since his daughter was married to the prince and his son was the prince's vizier. 87 Until his murder in 1583, Mirza Salman was an extremely influential figure at the Safavid court. The first year of Shah Muhammad Khudabanda's reign marked the beginning of the twelve-year Ottoman-Safavid war ( ). 8 For these twelve years, the Ottoman army and its commanders wintered on the empire's eastern border and had frequent contact with their eastern neighbors. This proximity clearly made it easier for a wider group of Ottomans to acquire manuscripts. Thus the intensified Ottoman demand due to war may also have been one of the reasons for the increase in the production of deluxe Shiraz manuscripts. In 1590 the production of luxury Shiraz manuscripts began to decline. In that year Shah 'Abbas I ( ) ended the war with the Ottomans, thus removing the Ottoman army and its commanders from the immediate vicinity of the Ottoman-Safavid border. Much more important was that in the same year, Shah 'Abbas ended the civil war which had started with the death of his grandfather Shah Tahmasp in 1574 and had spanned the two previous reigns of his uncle and his father. 'Abbas I had followed the general policy of subjugating the Turkman tribes from the beginning of his reign, and the end of the civil war established his victory over the entire Turkman military class. 8s From the time of its Safavid conquest in 1503 on, Shiraz had continuously been governed by members of the Turkman Zu'lqadir tribe, who became deeply involved in the last stages' of the power struggle between the Turkman aristocracy and the shah. The last powerful Zu'lqadir governor Ya'qub Khan revolted against the shah, but was captured and executed in Babayan pinpoints Ya'qub Khan's death as the event that marked the end of the civil war of and the final victory of Shah 'Abbas I over the rebellious Qizilbash. 9 ' The Zu'lqadir tribe continued to provide governors of Shiraz for a few more years: they lost the governorship in , but were given it back a year later. 9 2 In the same year, according to Natanzi, the shah farmed out the province of Fars for a three-year period for the sum of 120,000 tumans to a group of notables from the province itself. 9 3 Although these notables who filled the post of governor of Shiraz were members of the Zu'lqadir tribe, they were no longer the tribal leaders but shahisivans whose loyalty to the shah was above their loyalty to their tribes. 9 4 The shah's policy of neutralizing the Turkman military aristocracy meant the abolition of the nearly independent tribal rulers like the Zu'lqadir in Fars. After less than a year of reinstatement as governors of Shiraz, the Zu'lqadir lost the governorship' of Fars altogether in Shiraz was temporarily given to Farhad Khan, until a permanent governor could be chosen. 9 5 The governorship was then transferred to Allahverdi Khan, a Georgian slave (ghulam) who was the first commander (qullar-agasi) of 'Abbas I's new non- Turkman military corps (qullar). 9 ` This marked the total collapse of the Zu'lqadir, together with the other Qizilbash tribal groups. After the downfall of the Zu'lqadir, the region of Fars became the family property of Allahverdi Khan, who was among the officers of state closest to the shah. He had risen to high office under the protection of Shah 'Abbas and followed his lead in many matters. In November of 1595, soon after Allahverdi Khan was given the governorship, artists and craftsmen from "all parts of Iraq and Fars" were assembled in Isfahan to work on the shah's building projects. 9 7 After the conquest of Khurasan in 1598, Allahverdi Khan became the commander-in-chief of the Safavid armed forces and one of the most trusted companions of 'Abbas 1.98 He constantly accompanied the shah and consequently must have been absent from Shiraz for much of the time. As part of his role in building the new capital city, for example, Allahverdi Khan was entrusted with the task of constructing a bridge across the Zayanda river." 9 He also seems to have modeled his activities in Fars on those of the shah in Isfahan. _l a l I1_IP ll _11_1_

18 90 LALE ULU( Along with the bridge in Isfahan, he constructed a dam in Shiraz.' When in , 'Abbas I decided to resettle a community of Armenian merchants he had brought from Julfa in a new suburb south of the Zayanda river in Isfahan, another small colony was established in Shiraz at the request of Allahverdi Khan.'' He also built a madrasa in Shiraz, called the Khan Madrasa, to rival those in Isfahan. 0 2 These activities suggest that the new ghulam ruler of the city was fundamentally different from his Turkman predecessors. The principle interests of Allahverdi Khan were focused on the capital. He was a high official who functioned in proximity to the shah, rather than a provincial governor who principally resided in his province, the model presented by the Zu'lqadir governors. This difference can be seen in the mention of Shiraz in the contemporary Safavid chronicles as well. They only mention Shiraz under the Zu'lqadir rule whenever it falls within the royal orbit, which was relatively rarely. 0 3 The activities of Allahverdi Khan, however, are much more prominent in the chronicles, which is significant in pointing to the fundamental differences in the nature of the new rule in Shiraz. None of the Shiraz manuscripts contain colophons that refer to a particular patron, which could mean that even the deluxe manuscripts were first produced by a workshop and were then acquired by their owners. In other words, different bookmakers may have produced manuscripts underwriting the projects themselves on a speculative basis in the hope that they would be able to sell them. It is difficult, however, to imagine such a large production of expensive manuscripts solely for what would inevitably have been a somewhat unpredictable commercial market. Additionally, the richness and highly refined style of the deluxe manuscripts suggest that they had some financial backing in spite of the absence of patrons' names, since their production involved considerable expense. None of the many extant Shiraz manuscripts bears the name of a Zu'lqadir patron. Consequently, the important question of their contribution to Shiraz manuscript production remains to be definitively answered. It seems unlikely, however, that the powerful members of the Zu'lqadir tribe did not have their own libraries with so many manuscripts being produced on their doorstep, even though there is no inscriptional evidence indicating whether they patronized illustrated-book production or simply collected what they found. Circumstantial evidence, however, suggests that the manuscript production of the city was supported by its Zu'lqadir rulers. In 1590, after the last powerful Zu'lqadir governor of Shiraz, Ya'qub Khan, was executed, the quality of luxury Shiraz manuscripts began to decline. Until 1595, the year when the Zu'lqadir tribe lost the governorship of Shiraz to Allahverdi Khan, they continued to be produced in Shiraz, but no longer at the same level of luxury. After 1595 the quality of Shiraz manuscripts declined rapidly. Illuminated areas were considerably reduced; gold-flecked paper, intercolumnar illumination, marginal gold floral scrolls and animals-all distinct features of the luxury production of the previous decade-disappeared; the quantity of detail was much reduced; the range and intensity of colors so characteristic of the 1580's were lost; and the utilization of precious pigments such as gold, silver, and lapis blue was decreased to the extent that yellow pigments were substituted for gold. By the end of the century, they were no longer produced at all. The fact that the decline in the Shiraz manuscript production coincides so precisely with the Zu'lqadir tribe's loss of power suggests that they were the principal supporters of this enterprise.' 0 4 Even though it is known from colophons in Persian manuscripts in general that kitlbkhanas were not solely part of princely households, but existed in the establishments of provincial governors as well, ' 5 it is not possible to apply this model to Shiraz, since Shiraz manuscripts contain no mention of a kitabkhana. It is equally difficult definitively to define any other environment in which the manuscripts were produced, since they may have been produced in a central kitabkhdna or in individual households, as was remarked by Budaq Qazvini (alive in 1577), ' 6 or perhaps both. It appears that the Shiraz workshops responded to the demand in Safavid and Ottoman court circles for deluxe copies of Persian classics in diverse ways; manuscripts were speculatively produced as luxury objects with anticipated buyers in mind, as well as on request. This process does not seem to have involved a direct contact between the intended owner of a manuscript and the workshop where it was produced, since none of the manuscripts reveal such an involvement. In other words, the book production industry of Shiraz was after all "commercial," but one that was supported by local rulers and intended for consumption by courtly circles. It is therefore possible that generations of Zu'lqadir governors supported the local manuscript production industry, but kept their names out of the I_

19 MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION IN SHIRAZ 91 colophons on purpose. Since they were not produced for the Zu'lqadir governors to be kept in their libraries permanently, but were planned to be sold to the rich and powerful, their colophons did not contain a Zu'lqadir reference. Deluxe manuscripts that were needed as diplomatic gifts may also have been ordered from the Shiraz workshops and again would necessarily lack a patron's name."' 7 Even the Princeton Shahnama of , which is known to have been owned by a member of the Safavid royal family, does not mention a patron's name.' 8 A manuscript of the Masnavi of Jalal al-din Rumi dated 1011 (1603), which was probably produced in Ottoman Baghdad, provides additional evidence that members of the Zu'lqadir tribe were collectors of books. After an entire century of ruling Shiraz, the most prolific book production center in the Safavid domain, and not having their names mentioned in a single colophon, the name of a Zu'lqadir patron, a certain Imam Verdi Beg b. Alp Aslan Beg Zu'lqadir appears in the colophon of the Masnavi of By this time almost a decade had passed after the Zu'lqadir loss of control of Shiraz and their connection to its manuscript production industry,70 which also suggests that the names of the Zu'lqadir notables were kept out of the colophons of Shiraz manuscripts on purpose. It appears that after 1595, when Allahverdi Khan became the governor of Shiraz, he did not consider the local manuscript production industry important or profitable enough to support. Consequently, by the end of the sixteenth century, only five years after the Zu'lqadir governors were removed from the region, Shiraz manuscripts lost all of their former glory and finally became merely a provincial production. Vew York City NOTES Author's note: I would like to acknowledge the Barakat Foundation for partial funding of my research in Europe in This paper is extracted from my doctoral dissertation, "Arts of the Book in Sixteenth-Cexitury Shiraz," for the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. 1. Basil Robinson first coined the term "commercial" for the fifteenth-century Turkman and sixteenth-century Safavid Shiraz manuscripts (Persian Miniature Painting from Collections in the British Isles [London, 1967], p. 91). Robinson continued to expound this view in "Painter-Illuminators of Sixteenth-Century Shiraz," Iran 16 (1979): ; and Persian Paintings in the John Rylands Libray: A Descriptive Catalogue (London, 1980), p His view was widely accepted and repeated by other authors, such as Norah Titley (Persian Miniature Painting and Its Influence on the Arts of India and Turkey [Austin, Tex., 1984], pp ). 2. Because of their assumed low (or "commercial") quality, Shiraz manuscripts were published only sporadically. S. C. Welch dismissed them completely and argued that Safavid art "struck bottom" between 1564 and 1574 when Ibrahim b. Bahram Mirza was inactive as a royal patron, thus disregarding the prolific Shiraz production of deluxe manuscripts from this period (Wonders of the Age: Masterpieces of Early Safavid Painting [Cambridge, Mass., 1979], p. 30). Sheila Canby's Persian Painting (London, 1993), which is the most recent publication in the field, contains a single paragraph summary of the sixteenth-century Shirazi manuscript production activity, and Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom do not even mention Shiraz when dealing with sixteenth-century Safavid manuscript production in their general study, The Art and Architecture of Islam (London, 1994). Consequently, Grace Guest's Shiraz Painting in the Sixteenth Century (Washington, D.C., 1949) on Shiraz painting alone and Ivan Stchoukine's comparative analysis of Shiraz painting with the other known schools of Safavid painting in his Les Peintures des Manuscrits Safavis de 1502 h 1587 (Paris, 1959) remain the only extensive publications devoted to this prolific school of painting. 3. The local manuscript production of Shiraz continued unbroken from the earlier Aqqoyunlu traditions into the Safavid era. It was not affected by any of the royal disturbances in the second half of the sixteenth century. Therefore the notion of reduced royal interest in the arts of the book and the theory that there were no significant Safavid royal patrons do not seem to have any relevance to the Shiraz idiom. For this theory, see Welch, Wonders of the Age, pp , where he describes the act of "sincere repentence" by the shah. A more recent interpretation is found in Layla Diba, "Lacquerwork of Safavid Persia and Its Relationship to Persian Painting," Ph. D. diss., New York University, 1994, p. 11. Political explanations of this act are offered by Rosemary Stanfield-Johnson, "Sunni Survival in Safavid Iran: Anti-Sunni Activities during the Reign of Shah Tahmasp I," Iranian Studies 27 (1994): 125; and Sayyid A. Arjomand, The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi'ite Iran from the Beginning to 1890 (Chicago and London, 1984), p Here, the term "royal manuscript" refers to those that mention the names of royal owners, such as the Tahmasp Shahnama; the term "courtly manuscript" designates those that show no obvious evidence of royal ownership, but have all the stylistic attributes of the manuscripts produced by the Safavid court workshop. This stylistic distinction is based on all the individual components of the manuscripts, such as bindings, illumination, and illustrations. 5. Some of these frontispieces are reproduced by Serpil Bagcl, "A New Theme of the Shirazi Frontispiece Miniatures: The Divan of Solomon," Muqarnas 12 (1995): This is the copy of the Shahnama of Firdawsi with a dedicatory page bearing the name and praises of Shah Tahmasp CI I _

20 92 LALE ULU b. Isma'il, the second Safavid shah (r ). Scholars generally agree that this manuscript was commissioned during the later part of the reign of Shah Isma'il I and was finished sometime in the mid-1530's (Martin B. Dickson and Stuart Cary Welch, The Houghton Shahnameh, 2 vols. [Cambridge, Mass., 1979], 1: 3-8). 7. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, R and H The binding of the anthology (R. 1986) is assigned to Qazvin by both Filiz Cagman and Zeren Tanindi, Topkapz Palace Museum: Islamic Miniature Painting (Istanbul, 1979), cat. no. 101, p. 48; and Diba, "Lacquerwork of Safavid Persia," cat. no Some of the courtly manuscripts with lacquered bindings had leather doublures. These differed considerably from the Shiraz type, however, and were of a higher quality with finer workmanship. 10. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, E.H Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H The colophon of this manuscript mentions that it was completed at Shiraz. 12. Fols. 4v and 5r. 13. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 673, fols. 131r and 308r. The same scribe has also copied a Gulistan of Sa'di, which has one illustration. This manuscript is said to contain the name of Shah Tahmasp's nephew Sultan Ibrahim Mirza (Marianna Shreve Simpson, Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang [New Haven and London, 1997], p. 241, fig. 145). 14. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 673, fol. 41r. 15. Fol. 404r, illustrating Gushtahsp before the Qaisar; Dickson and Welch, Houghton Shdhndmeh, 2: pl London, British Library, Or. 2265, fol. 48v. Stuart Cary Welch, Persian Painting: Five Royal Safavid Manuscripts of the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1976), reprinted as Five Royal Persian Manuscripts (New York, 1978), pp , pl Fol. 300v. The pages measure 34 x 21 cm; the illustrations measure around 13 x 11 cm. 18. Washington, D.C., Freer Gallery of Art, 46.12; Simpson, Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang, pp , and appendix A.1.14, pp Fol. 225v. 20. For example, fol. 120r (Simpson, Sultan Ibrahim MiTza's Haft Awrang, pp ). 21. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H Iskandar Munshi, Tnrikh-i Alam-drayi 'Abb.si (History of Shah Abbas the Great ), trans. Roger M. Savory, 3 vols., vols. 1-2 (Boulder, Colo., 1979); vol. 3 (Index) (New York, 1986), 1: 224 and 2: Filiz Qagman and Zeren Tanmndl, "Remarks on Some Manuscripts from the Topkapi Palace Treasury in the Context of Ottoman-Safavid Relations," Muqarnas 13 (1996): , figs. 4-7 and 10. The manuscript has three signatures. the first is that of its scribe, Sultan Husain b. Qasim al-tuni, whose name is found in the colophon. He was a well-known Khurasani calligrapher who had also worked in the library of Farhad Khan (Vladimir Minorsky, trans., Calligraphers and Painters: A Treatise by Qdi Ahmad, Son of Mir-Munshi (circa A.H /A.D. 1606) [Washington D.C., 1959], p. 170). Farhad Khan was one of the highest ranking officials in Shah 'Abbas's court until his fall from favor and consequent execution in The second signature is that of one of its illustrators, who signed himself "Bihzad Ibrahimi" on two illustrations (fols. 21v and Il v). He may have worked for Ibrahim Mirza, as his nisba "Ibrahimi" seems to imply. The third is of its illuminator-illustrator, 'Abd-Allah Shirazi, who signed his name on one of the fully illuminated opening pages. Qadi Ahmad writes that 'Abd-Allah Shirazi was employed in the kitjbkhana of Ibrahim Mirza for twenty years (Minorsky, trans., Calligraphers and Painters, pp ). He had worked in the production of this prince's Haft Awrang of Jami dated to at Mashhad (Washington, D.C., Freer Gallery of Art, 46.12) (Simpson, Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang, pp ). 24. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, R. 986, fol. 21v. Four other paintings from this manuscript are reproduced in Gagman and Tanindl, "Remarks on Some Manuscripts from the Topkapi Palace Treasury," figs. 5, 6, 7 and Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, R. 911, fol. 152r. For an earlier reproduction of the miniature, see Gfiner Inal, "Realistic Motifs and the Expression of the Drama in Safavid Miniatures," Sanat Tarihi Yzllgz 7 ( ): fig Lisa Golombek, "The Gardens of Timur: New Perspectives," Muqarnas 12 (1995): 142 from Ibn Isfandiyar, Ta'rikh-i Tabaristan, ed. A. Iqbal, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1941), 2: Anonymous, A Narrative of Italian Travels in Persia, in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, trans. Charles Grey, Hakluyt Society, vol. 49 (London, 1873), pp This will be the subject of a study jointly with Sussan Babaie, which we hope to complete in the near future. 29. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, A. 3559, fol. 398v. 30. Fol. O1r. Dickson and Welch, Houghton Shahnameh, vol. 2, pl. 3; Welch, Five Royal Safavid Manuscripts, p. 35, pl Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 751, fol, 149v. 32. Washington, D.C., Freer Gallery of Art, 46.12, fol. 105r. Simpson, Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang. pp ; Welch, Five Royal Safavid Manuscripts, pp , pl A detached double-folio representation of a second camp scene which appears stylistically to belong to the Shiraz idiom also contains many of the individual motifs from the Mashhad illustration. Sotheby's sale catalogue, London, 26 April 1990, lot Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 1084, fol. lr. For an earlier reproduction of the miniature, see inal, "Realistic Motifs," fig. 14, and Gfiner inal, "Topkapl Sarayl Mfizesindeki H No.lu Yusuf ile Zfileyha Yazmasmin Minyatfirleri," Hacettepe Beeri Bilimler Dergisi 10, 2 (June 1979): fig London, British Library, ms. Add , fol. 6r; Norah M. Titley, Miniatures from Persian Manuscripts: A Catalogue and Subject Index of Paintings from Persia, India and Turkey in the British Library and the British Museum (London, 1977), cat. no. 98, p. 39. The same anthology also has a second, similar illustration which covers a double folio (fols. 362v and 363r) reproduced by Basil Gray, Persian Painting (Geneva, 1961), p Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 761, fol. 4v. Cagman and Tannndi, Topkapz Palace Museum: Islamic Miniature Painting, cat. no. 37, p Filiz bagman, "Sultan Sencer ve Yalh Kadin Minyatfirlerinin Ikonografisi," in Sanat Tarihinde Ikonografik Arastzrmalar. Giiner inal'a Armagan (Ankara, 1993), p. 98; Priscilla Soucek, "The Arts of Calligraphy," in Basil Gray, ed., Arts of the Book in

21 MANUSCRIPT PRODUCTION IN SHIRAZ 93 Central Asia (Paris and Boulder, Colo., 1979), p. 26; Priscilla Soucek, "Illustrated Manuscripts of Nizami's Khamseh: ," Ph. D. diss., New York University, 1971, pp Cagman, "Sultan Sencer ve Yahli Kadln Minyatfirlerinin Ikonografisi," p London, British Library, Or. 6810, fol. 5v. Stchoukine, Les Peintures des manuscrits safavis, pl. LXIX; Basil Gray, ed., The Arts of the Book in Central Asia, p. 199, fig. 110; Thomas W. Lentz and Glenn D. Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision (Los Angeles, 1989), cat. no. 140, p Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H The detached folio bearing this painting is now in the Keir Collection in London. Basil W. Robinson, ErnstJ. Grube, Glyn M. Meredith- Owens, and Robert W. Skelton, Islamic Painting and the Arts of the Book: The Keir Collection (London, 1976), p. 178, cat. no , pl Filiz Cakman, "Topkapl Sarayl Mizesi Hazine 762 no.lu Nizami Hamsesi'nin Minyatiirleri," Ph. D. diss., Istanbul University, 1971, pp. 19 and 29-30; Cagman and Tanindi, Topkapz Palace Museum: Islamic Miniature Painting, p. 29, cat. no Cagman, Hazine 762, p Priscilla Soucek, "Sultan Muhammad Tabrizi: Painter at the Safavid Court," in Sheila Canby, ed., Persian Masters; Five Centuries of Painting (Bombay, 1990), p. 58. Soucek thinks that the postscript was probably added to enhance its prestige for its presentation to the Safavid Shah Isma'il. Part of the colophon text has been translated in Wheeler M. Thackston, A Century of Princes: Sources on Timurid History and Art (Cambridge, Mass., 1989), p Minorsky, trans., Calligraphers and Painters, pp Quoted by Priscilla Soucek, "'Abd-al-Rahim b. 'Abd-al-Rahman Khwarazmi," in Encycloptedia Iranica, ed. Ehsan Yarshater, 1: Documentation of the artistic patronage of the sixteenthcentury Safavid ruling elite has been the subject of considerable scholarship from the beginning of the twentieth century onwards. The existence of Safavid royal and princely libraries is attested in primary sources. (For the various meanings ascribed to kitabkhana and its usual translation as "library," see Marianna Shreve Simpson, "The Artist's Workshop," Studies in the History of Art 38 [1993]: ) Further evidence can be found in the large number of Persian manuscripts and single-page paintings acquired for Western collections in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the albums of calligraphy and painting in Istanbul libraries. Lastly, contemporary chronicles which include the careers of artisans as well as documents left by the calligraphers and painters themselves also contribute significantly to the understanding of the Safavid royal patronage; they were most recently reviewed and discussed by Diba, "Lacquerwork of Safavid Persia," pp I1 examined the evidence indicating Ottoman ownership of Shiraz manuscripts in a short paper at the Tenth International Congress of Turkish Art in Geneva in 1995 (Lale Uluc, "The Ottoman Contribution to 16th-Century Shirazi Manuscript Production," in Art Turc/Turkish Art: 10e Congris international d'art Turc [Geneva, 1999], pp ). I treated the same material in greater depth in Lale UluC, "Ottoman Book Collectors and Illustrated Sixteenth Century Shiraz Manuscripts," Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Mediterranee: Livres et Lecture dans le monde ottoman (1999): Princeton, University Library, Persian 1, fol. 474v. 47. Louise Marlow, "A Persian Book of Kings: The Peck Shahnameh," Princeton University Library Chronicle 46, 2 (Winter 1985): ; and idem, "The Peck Shahnameh: Manuscript Production in Late Sixteenth-Century Shiraz," in Intellectual Studies on Islam: Essays Written in Honour of Martin B. Dickson, ed. M. M. Mazzaoui and V. B. Moreen (Salt Lake City, 1990), pp Iskandar Munshi, Trkh-i Alam-ra-yi 'Abbasz, pp , and Bekir Kitfikoglu, Osmanh-Iran Siyasi M2inasebetleri (Istanbul, 1962), p Iskandar Munshi, Trikh-i Alam-ard-yi 'Abbasz, p According to Marlow, "The Peck Shahntmeh: Manuscript Production in Late Sixteenth-Century Shiraz," pp ; in 1591, Shah 'Abbas sent an embassy to Khan Ahmad "laden with presents" and asked him to send his five-year-old daughter to become engaged to the Safavid prince Safi Mirza. In 1601, when Safi Mirza reached marriageable age, he refused to marry her; the shah decided to marry her himself in Iskandar Munshi, Tdrkh-i Alam-drd-yi 'Abbasf, pp , 219, Anthony Welch, Artists for the Shah (New Haven and London, 1976), p Iskandar Munshi, Trzkh-i Alam-r&dyi 'Abbasi, pp , 272 and Dickson and Welch, Houghton Shahnameh, 1: 239a, n. 2. According to Dickson and Welch, Sultan 'Ali Mirza ( ), a ruler from this dynasty, sponsored two well-known historical works on the Caspian provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran and a copy of the Shiihndma of Firdawsi produced in two volumes, both of which are in Istanbul (University Library F and Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum 1978). They also suggest that a second copy of the Shahnama of Firdawsi dated ( ) "was completed for him at Herat" (Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 1491). This is a luxuriously produced illustrated manuscript with a lacquer painted binding, and it carries an inscription saying that it was produced for the library of a Sultan Ahmad. However, the fact that its illustrations are in the Aqqoyunlu style encourages the thought that Sultan Ahmad may have been Ahmad Padishah (d. 1497) from the Aqqoyunlu dynasty (see the genealogical chart provided by Thackston in Khwandamir, Habibu's-siyar, trans. and ed. Wheeler M. Thackston, 3 vols. (Cambridge, Mass.: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, 1994), 3: xxiv). 56. Dickson and Welch, Houghton Shahnameh, 1: 256b, n. 1. Reproduced by Ernst Grube, "Miniatures in Istanbul Libraries: A Group of Miniatures in Albums Hazine 2147, 2153 and 2162 in the Top Kapl Saray Collection and Some Related Material," Pantheon 20 (1962): 221, fig. 15. The note does not have a date. If, as Dickson and Welch have assumed, the patron is one of the khans of Gilan, then it could have been made for Khan Ahmad 1 ( ) as well. The father of the princess who sold the Princeton Shahnama of (University Library, Persian 1) was Khan Ahmad II (r , ). 57. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H This is one of Ilq

22 94 LALE ULUq the few names of Safavid owners found on a Shiraz manuscript from Istanbul libraries. My research on Shiraz manuscripts in Istanbul yielded primarily Ottoman, rather than Safavid, owners since it was conducted in Turkey. Similar research in Iran would undoubtedly uncover additional Safavid owners. 58. Filiz Cagman and Zeren Tanindl, "Topkapl Sarayi Mfizesi Kfitfiphanesi Minyatfirlfi Yazmalar Katalogu" (in preparation). I would like to thank the authors for letting me work with the manuscript of their catalogue, which contains the relevant information about the later seals and notes found on all the manuscripts under discussion. 59. Istanbul, Topkapl Palace Library, R Gagman and Tanlndl, Topkaps Palace Museum: Islamic Miniature Painting, cat. no. 105, p. 49; Simpson, Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang, pp , and figs , This scribe, however, should not be mistaken for an older and more celebrated calligrapher by the same name who spent his entire life in Herat and worked at the court of the last Timurid ruler Husain Mirza ( ). Simpson, Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang, p. 299, n Ibid., pp. 232; Dickson and Welch, Houghton Shahnameh, 1: 252, n Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, R and R Fehmi E. Karatay, Topkapz Sarayz Mfizesi Kfitphanesi Farsfa Yazmalar Katalogu (Istanbul, 1961); Gagman and Tanmndl, "Topkapl Sarayl Mfizesi Kftfiphanesi Minyat-irli Yazmalar Katalogu." 64. Selaniki Mustafa Efendi, Tarih-i Selaniki, ed. M. Ipsirli, 2 vols. (Istanbul, 1989), p. 585; Ismail H. Danismend, Izahlz Osmanls Tarihi Kronolojisi, 6 vols. (Istanbul, 1947), 3: These are a Shahnama of Firdawsi dated 950 (1543) (Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 1481); a Khamsa of Nizami, dated 980 ( ) (Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 780); an 'Ajd'ib al-makhlftqdt of Qazvini dated 976 ( ) (Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 403); a Kulliyat of Sa'di dated 978 ( ) (Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, R. 924); and a Khamsa of Nizami, dated (1591) (Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 749). The patronage of Sinan Paa is also discussed by Cagman and Tanindl, "Remarks on Some Manuscripts from the Topkapl Palace Treasury," p. 145, n Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 758 and H An entry dated 3 Ramazan 985 (24 November 1577) from a sixteenth-century account book (hesap defteri) from the Topkapi Palace Museum Archives cites the purchase (D. 34, fol. 35r). The date of the entry shows that they must have been bought for the palace at the time of Sah Sultan's death (Filiz Cagman, "The Saljuk and Ottoman Periods," in Woman in Anatolia: 9000 Years of the Anatolian Woman [Istanbul, 1993], p. 229). 68. None of the illustrated Shiraz manuscripts found in the Istanbul libraries are dated later than Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, A S. v. "Kara Mustafa Pasha" Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. 71. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 794 and H Mustafa 'li, Cdmi' u'l-buhfr der Mecdlis-i Sir, dated (Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, B. 203, fols. 24v-36v); Mustafa 'li (Gelibolulu), Cdmi' u'l-buhfir der Meca^lis-i Sir, ed. A. Oztekin (Ankara, 1996), pp and ; 0. S. G6kyay, "Bir Saltanat Diguini," Topkapt Sarayz Miizesi, Yzlhgz 1 (1986): New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art a-d, and Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, A, B, and Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Les Miniatures orientales de la Collection Goloubew au Museum of Fine Arts de Boston, Ars Asiatica 13 (Paris, 1929), pp , pls. LIV-LVII; ErnstJ. Grube, "Four Pages from a Turkish 16th-Century Shahnamah in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York," in Beitriige zur Kunstgeschichte Asiens. In Memoriam Ernst Diez, ed. Oktay Aslanapa (Istanbul, 1963), pp ; Anthony Welch, Calligraphy in the Arts of the Muslim World (Austin, Tex., 1979), pp Boston, Museum of Fine Arts B (verso) and A (recto). Coomaraswamy, Les Miniatures orientales de la Collection Goloubew, pls. LIV-LV. There is a mistake in Coomaraswamy's catalogue regarding the accession numbers of these pages. Since he had used to refer to two folios, the present curator Julia Bailey differentiated them by adding the letters A and B, and kindly supplied me with the new numbers. Therefore, the numbers A and B refer to two separate folios rather than the recto and verso of the same one. 76. Lale Uluc, "A Persian Epic, Perhaps for the Ottoman Sultan," Metropolitan Museum Journal 29 (1994): Selaniki, Tarih-i Selaniki, p Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H The designs that embellish the manuscript's six colophons are in a style which was more commonly seen in the Khurasan area, but the overwhelmingly Shirazi characteristics of the manuscript, augmented by its Shiraz style of doublure, encourages the thought that the manuscript was completed in two separate stages in Shiraz. The Khurasan-style colophon drawings can be attributed to a Khurasan artist working there. 80. Diba, "Lacquerwork of Safavid Persia," cat. no. 49. Diba has included the binding of this manuscript in her catalogue attributing it to Isfahan. However, the images in her dissertation which are labeled as the Khamsa manuscript of 1591 belong to another manuscript, a copy of the Shhndma of Firdawsi dated 1006 (1597) (Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 1492). The binding of the Shahndma of 1597 is very closely related to that of the Khamsa of 1591 (Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H. 749). Therefore it is hard to understand whether her comments really pertain to the Shiraz Khamsa (H. 749) or to the one she reproduces which is the Shhndma (H. 1492). Both the binding and the illustrations of the Shahnema of 1597 may be in "the early Isfahan style," as Diba says. The Shahndma of 1597 also has leather doublures, but the central field is entirely covered with leather filigree work on a polychrome ground and inlaid with little pieces of mirror. Diba reproduces the doublure of the Shahnema of 1597 labeled Shiraz Khamsa of 1591 ("Lacquerwork of Safavid Persia," cat. no. 49). 81. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Library, H Diba, "Lacquerwork of Safavid Persia," cat. no. 48. The illustrations of this manuscript, which are also in the metropolitan Qazvin style, support Diba's hypothesis that this is a courtly manuscript. 82. Similar to that of H. 751 reproduced in fig For example, large volumes are seen in the representations II_ --- -