Prince Baysunghur's Rose Garden (Gulistan) by Sa`di

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Manuscript

Object no:: Per 119

Title:: Prince Baysunghur's Rose Garden (Gulistan) by Sa`di

Calligrapher and production place:: Ja`far al-Baysunghuri
Herat

Production date:: 1427 (830H)

Dimensions:: 252 mm x 159 mm x 17 mm (height x width x depth)

Material:: Paper (material) Gold pigment Pigment (material) Ink (material)

Language:: Arabic (language) Persian (language)

Script type:: Nasta'liq script

Collection:: Persian collection

Document type:: Manuscript

Object name:: Codex

Description:: Prince Baysunghur's Rose Garden (Gulistan) by Sa`di. Codex, 48 folios, ink, pigments and gold on paper, eight paintings (all on detached folios), later leather binding, Persian text, nasta`liq calligraphy signed Ja`far al-Baysunghuri, dedicated to Timurid prince Baysunghur Mirza, Herat, Afghanistan, dated 830H, 1427. The radiating medallion (shamsa) on folio 1r announces that the book was produced on Baysunghur's orders, by his book treasury (khizanat al-kutub) - referring the court workshop of artists. 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).

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