Publication Date
1470 (874 AH)
Type
Document
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Physical Dimensions
351 mm x 240 mm (height x width)
Library
Chester Beatty
Record ID
Per 144.1
Library Location
Persian collection
Date
1470 (874 AH)
Notes
Illuminated medallion (shamsa), from Bal`ami's History (Tarikh-i Bal`ami). This complex radiating design has a matching twin on the opposite page. Seen together, the pair of medallions occupy the book's first page-opening, and introduce a magnificent manuscript produced in Timurid Herat (Afghanistan). Formed of four radially-symmetrical quarters, each circular design features two layers of scrolling plant stems, painted in gold and jade green, against a deep blue ground. The medallion on the right has been salvaged from a slightly earlier manuscript, and has been pasted very subtly onto this page. The medallion on the left is a careful copy, made in 1470, along with the rest of this manuscript. Writing in late tenth-century Bukhara at the Samanid court of Mansur ibn Nuh (r. 961-976), the minister and historian Muhammad al-Bal`ami composed an important new work in Persian, translating and supplementing The History of the Prophets and Kings (Ta'rikh al-Rusul wa'l-Muluk, in Arabic) by the `Abbasid scholar Abu Ja`far Muhammad al-Tabari (d. 923). This illustrated copy of Bal`ami's history was produced in Timurid Herat, in the year 1470. Folio, colours and gold on paper, illuminated medallion (on verso), Herat, Afghanistan, dated Sha`ban 874H, February 1470. This is one of seven folios detached from its codex, which is also in the Chester Beatty Persian collection (Per 144).
Materyal
Paper (material), Pigment (material), Gold
Nesne Adı
Folio / Bi-Folio (Codex)
