Arts of the book – 1600-1800
The technical aspects of calligraphy, painting, and bookbinding are important facets of the study of Islamic art. Treatises by sixteenth-century Persian authors Qazi Ahmed and Sadiqi Beq are the major sources on the…
The Shah Jehan (Emperor’s) Album
The Shah Jahan Album, also known as the Emperor’s Album or Kevorkian Album, features fifty illustrated and calligraphy folios, forty-one of which belong to the Metropolitan Museum, and nine of which reside in…
Leaf from a Qur’an manuscript, late 9th–10th century
This page is from a dispersed manuscript, many folios of which once belonged to the scholar R. M. Riefstahl. The angular kufic script is moderated by the roundness of several letters that look…
Leaf from Futuh al-Haramain
(Description of the Two Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina) Futuh al-Haramain is an example of a genre of religious writing devoted to the hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage. It serves as a guide to pilgrims…
Leaf from the Shahnama (Book of Kings)
The legendary death of the Sasanian king Yazdegerd I—who was said to have been kicked by a horse that magically emerged from a spring—is charmingly depicted in this leaf from a dispersed manuscript…
Rosette (shamsa)
This shamsa is an exquisite example of the art of illumination in the Mughal period. The profusion and gem-like detail of the floral decoration of the rosette, set along scrolling vines, can be…
