The British Library continues to digitise its manuscripts – the latest is an illustrated 14th century Khamsah (Add.18113), containing three of the five poems from the Khamsah of Khvaju Kirmani (1290-1349?). Khvaju drew extensively on traditional Iranian folklore and this manuscript contains the story of Humay and Humayun, the Kamālnāmah (‘Book of Perfection’) and the Rawżat al-anvār (‘Garden of Lights’).
As the BL blog says: “Humāy u Humāyūn was completed in 1331 in response to a request to enchant Muslim audiences with a Magian theme”. Whilst hunting, Prince Humay is led by a “ruby-lipped onager” to the Queen of the Fairies. There, he sees a portrait of Humayun, daughter of the Emperor of China and falls deeply in love with her. He has many adventures on his quest to find her, but eventually he wins her and becomes ruler of the Chinese empire.
What I really want to show you in this posting, though, is two images of garden meetings – the first from the newly digitised manuscript, the second from the Musee des Arts Decoratifs. The first was probably painted 1350s-70s (and refurbished for the Safavid prince Bahram Mirza (1517–49), the youngest of the four sons of Shah Ismaʻil (r. 1501–24). The image now in the Arts Decoratif is from 1430-40.
The two images may have very similar content – but look how very very different they are! This is poles apart from Western, especially contemporary, ideas of ‘original’ art. Comparing the two images here gives the tiniest of insights into what Persian artists were trying to achieve, when they repeatedly created images of the same stories.