All Collections
Back to Publications

The Tale and the Image Volume Two. Illustrated manuscripts and album paintings from Iran and Turkey

VOLUME XXVI
2024

Part One
J.M. Rogers with contributions by Manijeh Bayani and Emily Shovelton

Part Two
J.M. Rogers with contributions by Manijeh Bayan, Emily Shovelton, Behnaz Atighi Moghaddam and Tim Stanley

This volume, which is in two parts, is mainly devoted to the Collection’s illustrated manuscripts and detached folios with painted illustrations – primarily romantic poetry and anthologies – and single page compositions – mostly portraiture and genre painting – from Iran, dating from the 14th to the mid-19th centuries. Many items are of major artistic importance.

Illustrated Persian manuscripts include several copies of the Khamsah of Nizami and a Divan of Hafiz dated ah 975 (ad 1567–8) with superbly illuminated margins and two exquisite paintings, one by Muhammadi and the other by ‘Abdallah al-Mudhahhib al-Shirazi.

The large group of detached folios from Iran includes several of the late 15th century in the style of Muhammad Siyah Qalam (otherwise best represented in albums in the Topkapı Palace Library). Particularly strong in drawings from 17th-century Isfahan, it includes works by its most famous painters, Riza-yi ‘Abbasi, Muhammad Qasim, Mu‘in Musavvir, and the eclectic artists Muhammad Zaman, ‘Ali Quli Jubbah-dar and Shaykh ‘Abbasi.

Ottoman paintings include two folios from the Siyer-i Nebi (‘Life of the Prophet’) made for Sultan Murad III, and an exquisite 16th-century drawing of a dragon in foliage in the style of Süleyman the Magnificent’s court painter, Shah Quli.

About the author(s)

The late Professor J.M. Rogers † – Fellow of the British Academy; Honorary Curator, Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art; Former Deputy Keeper of the Department of Oriental Antiquities, British Museum, London; inaugural Nasser D. Khalili Chair of Islamic Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; specialist in many aspects of Islamic culture and history, especially Seljuk and Ottoman arts

Manijeh Bayani – Specialist in Persian and Arabic epigraphy; contributor to most of the catalogues in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art series

Dr Emily Shovelton – Independent researcher and lecturer, currently tutor for the Islamic Art module at the Victoria and Albert Museum; specialist in illustrated Persian and Indo-Persian manuscripts

Behnaz Atighi Moghaddam – Head of Sale in the Islamic and Indian Art department, at Christie’s King Street, formerly Assistant Curator and research assistant at the Victoria and Albert Museum; specialist in calligraphy and painting from Iran and South Asia up to the 19th century

Tim Stanley – Senior Curator, Middle Eastern collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London; specialist in Islamic manuscript production, calligraphy and the decorative arts and has a longstanding interest in Ottoman culture

Details

Set two parts; 583 pages plus bibliography and index (the set); fully illustrated in colour, section on documentary inscriptions with translations; hardback with dust jackets (slipcased); 36 × 26 cm; ISBN: 978-1-874780-81-6

Gallery

Share this page

Share this page