history question essay ( only who is good in history make shake hand )

01

Miniature from a copy of al-Sarai’s Nahj al-Faradis (The Paths of Paradise). “The Prophet Muhammad Before the Angel with Seventy Heads” (recto)

Iran, Herat; c. 1465
Leaf: 40.8 × 30 cm

On this painting, signed by Ali al-Sultani, Gabriel points to a gigantic angel, who in turn points to the Angel with Seventy Heads.

The manuscript was written in Middle Turkish with the Uighur alphabet, which was used in Timurid Central Asia. It was commissioned by Timur’s great-grandson Abu Said and in many respects is a copy of a manuscript that was made for Timur’s son Shah Rukh in around 1437. The latter manuscript is now in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris. Both manuscripts have Ottoman Turkish notes at the top of the pages.

Scholars traditionally assumed that there was no studio in Herat under Abu Said capable of producing book art on a high level. These miniatures refute this assumption and explain how there could be an artistic renaissance during the reign of Husayn Bayqara (r. 1469-1506) in which Iran’s greatest painter, Bihzad, also played a part.

“The Prophet Muhammad Encounters the Angel with Ten Thousand Wings and the Four-Headed Angel” (14/2012 verso)

Inv. no. 14/2012 recto & 14/2012 verso

Miniature from a copy of al-Sarai’s Nahj al-Faradis (The Paths of Paradise). “The Prophet Muhammad at the Gates of Paradise” (verso)

Iran, Herat; c. 1465
Leaf: 41.2 × 29.8 cm

The miniature, which like 13/2012 and 14/2012 comes from a manuscript describing Muhammad’s mystical ascension to heaven (miraj), shows the Prophet and the Archangel Gabriel (Jibril) at the pond of al-Kawthar before one of Paradise’s richly ornamented gates. Both the ribbed domes and tiled walls are covered with rich vegetal ornamentation of various types, in keeping with contemporary architecture from Central Asia. Beside the pond are countless vessels of gold and jade and celadon-glazed ceramics from which the believer can quench his thirst after the tribulations of the Day of Judgment.

The Garden of Paradise itself, with its many spiritual and sensual delights, is not depicted in this beautiful painting, and no artist would probably have been able to describe it to the believer as intensely as accounts in the Koran and later writings.

Of the museum’s seven paintings from this manuscript, the refined “Gates of Paradise” is the one that most clearly points toward the artistic zenith of Timurid painting at the end of the 15th century.

Text page (15/2012 recto)

Inv. no. 15/2012 verso & 15/2012 recto