Detached folio from a dispersed copy of Yusuf -u- Zulaikha by Jami; text: Persian in black nasta'liq script; recto: Hares, deer and birds in landscape, 2 columns, 14 lines; verso: Floral scrolls, 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 birds, hares, deer and landscape motifs, silhouetted against a brown background. The verso is set in gold and black rulings on a paper with floral 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.
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] Curatorial Remark 1 in the object record.
[2] See note 1.
Collection:
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Exhibition History:
Engaging the Senses (October 14, 2017 - ongoing)
Arts of the Islamic World (May 3, 1998 to January 3, 2016)
Art of the Court of Shah Tahmasp (December 16, 1979 to August 14, 1980)
