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Khamsa of Nizami
Dublin, Ireland
The Chester Beatty Library
About The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
Hegira 936 / AD 1529
CBL Per 195
Coloured pigments and gold on paper
29.7 x 18 cm
Safavid
Iran
Early sixteenth-century copies of the Nizami’s Khamsa often begin, as does this manuscript, with a double-page painting depicting, on the right, the Prophet Sulayman (Solomon) and, on the left, Bilqis (the Queen of Sheeba), seated on gold thrones supported by jinn and surrounded by various worldly and other-worldly creatures. (Sulayman is said to have understood the speech of the birds.) The other paintings included here depict the Abbasid caliph Ma’mun at the hammam, the Persian prince Khusraw hunting, and the story of Iskandar (Alexander) attacked by giant birds.
"Khamsa of Nizami" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;ir;Mus21;24;en
MWNF Working Number: IR 24
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