Goobi - ba0d8 - 2020-08-02 18:16:45+0000 Goobi The poet with his friends in the orchard at night, from Prince Baysunghur’s Rose Garden (Gulistan). The prologue of the Gulistan tells how one night the middle-aged poet was feeling anxious about his life's achievements so far, when his friend called in and began to cheer him up. They went out, and sat in another friend's orchard, enjoying the spring flowers and the night air. Heading home at dawn, Sa`di resolved (to his friend's delight) that he would write a book called the Rose Garden (Gulistan), with chapters on friendship, good conversation, happiness, youth and age, education, kingship and piety. Detached folio, ink, pigments and gold on paper, Persian text in nasta`liq calligraphy, with blue and gold headings, illumination panels and full-page painting (on verso), calligraphy by Ja`far al-Baysunghuri, from a manuscript dedicated to Timurid prince Baysunghur, Herat, Afghanistan, dated 830H, 1427. Sa`di (d.1290) of Shiraz is one of Iran's greatest classical poets. Pithy as well as ethical, the distinctive lines of the Rose Garden (Gulistan) combine prose tales (hikayat) with inserted poetry (bayt), and have been admired for centuries. This beautiful illustrated manuscript was produced in Herat, at the court of the Timurid prince Baysunghur (d. 1433), a renowned book-lover, art patron and bon vivant. The Persian text was copied out (and signed) by Baysunghur's head librarian, the master-calligrapher Farid al-Din Ja`far al-Tabrizi (known as Ja`far al-Baysunghuri). The illustrations and the illuminated panels are the work of several different court painters: Amir Khalil, Khwaja Ghiyathuddin, Khwaja Ata and Mawlana Shihab. Although they have not signed their work in this manuscript, a separate court document (written by Ja`far to prince Baysunghur, c. 1430) reported that these specific artists were currently finishing a copy of the Gulistan: for example Amir Khalil was completing "two sea scenes of the Gulistan", surely referring to the two such paintings in this manuscript (Per 119.15 and Per 119.29). The poet with his friends in the orchard at night, from Prince Baysunghur's Rose Garden (Gulistan) by Sa`di Per 119.3 Per_119_3 Persian collection Persian (language) Approved Category 2017/Manuscript/Codex/Folio / Bi-Folio (Codex) Approved Place 2018/Asia/Central Asia/Afghanistan/Herat Folio / Bi-Folio (Codex) Nasta'liq script 1427 (830H) 1427 1427 true Approved Material 2018/Organic/Plant (material)/Plant fibre/Paper (material) Approved Material 2018/Materials/Colourant (material)/Pigment (material) Approved Material 2018/Materials/Coating material/Ink (material) Approved Material 2018/Inorganic/Metal (material)/Non-ferrous metal/Gold Paper (material) Pigment (material) Ink (material) Gold GOOD 248 mm x 154 mm (height x width) cll Ja`far al-Baysunghuri Ja`far al-Baysunghuri Herat Chester Beatty Library https://viewer.cbl.ie/viewer/resources/themes/cbl/images/template/fullscreen_logo.png https://chesterbeatty.ie/ mailto:photographicservices@cbl.ie https://viewer.cbl.ie/viewer/ppnresolver?id=Per_119_3 https://viewer.cbl.ie/viewer/ppnresolver?id=Per_119_3