Folio from Yusuf u Zulaykha by Jami (d.1492); recto: Leaf and flower scrolls; verso: Birds, hares and landscape motifs

Detached folio from a dispersed copy of Yusuf u Zulaykha by Jami; text: Persian in black nasta’liq script; recto: Leaf and flower scrolls, 2 columns, 14 lines; verso: Birds, hares and landscape motifs, 2 columns, 14 lines; one of a group of 13 folios.
Border: The recto is set in gold and black rulings on a paper with gold leaf and floral scrolls, silhouetted against a brown background. The verso is set in gold, blue and black rulings on a paper with landscape, hares and bird motifs, silhouetted against a brown background.

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Maker(s)
Author: Jami (died 1492)
Historical period(s)
Safavid period, 1557
Medium
Ink and gold on paper
Dimensions
H x W: 25.2 x 15 cm (9 15/16 x 5 7/8 in)
Geography
Iran, Qazvin
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1936.12
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Manuscript
Type

Manuscript folio

Keywords
bird, egret, Iran, landscape, pelican, rabbit, Safavid period (1501 - 1722), WWII-era provenance, Yusuf, Zulaykha
Provenance

To 1936
Dr. Jacob Hirsch, New York. [1]

From 1936
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Dr. Jacob Hirsch, New York. [2]

Notes:

[1] See undated folder sheet note, object folder F1936.9, Collections Management Office.

[2] See note 1. See also, Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List file, Collections Management Office.

Previous Owner(s)

Dr. Jacob Hirsch 1874?-1955

Description

Detached folio from a dispersed copy of Yusuf u Zulaykha by Jami; text: Persian in black nasta'liq script; recto: Leaf and flower scrolls, 2 columns, 14 lines; verso: Birds, hares and landscape motifs, 2 columns, 14 lines; one of a group of 13 folios.
Border: The recto is set in gold and black rulings on a paper with gold leaf and floral scrolls, silhouetted against a brown background. The verso is set in gold, blue and black rulings on a paper with landscape, hares and bird motifs, silhouetted against a brown background.

Label

After the fifteenth century, the favored script for copying poetry in Iran and the rest of the Persian-speaking world, which extended from Mughal India to Ottoman Turkey, was nasta'liq, or the "hanging" script. This elegant cursive writing style is governed by strict rules of proportions that determine the relationship of the vertical and horizontal strokes and the spacing between letters and words. Notable features of nasta'liq are the abrupt change of letters from maximum to minimum width in a single stroke and razor-sharp points.

Each folio is set in carefully illuminated borders, replete with birds and beasts in a landscape setting. These designs, silhouetted against a brown background, further enhance the overall aesthetic appeal of the page-an important requirement of poetic manuscripts.

Collection Area(s)
Arts of the Islamic World
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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