# Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting)

> The court book painting of Iran and Timurid Herat, formed in Mongol Tabriz from Islamic, Byzantine and Chinese models: from Rashid al-Din's Jamiʿ al-tawarikh (1314) and the Great Mongol Shahnama to Behzad's Herat and the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp, ending in the album pages of Safavid Isfahan. Small, elegant figures crowd a picture set into ruled columns of verse and framed by coloured rules and gilded margins. Space climbs the page under a high horizon, without linear perspective or cast shadow, in lapis, vermilion, malachite, gold and silver.

- Period: c. 1300–1700
- Where: Middle East & North Africa, South Asia
- Origin: Court ateliers (kitābkhāna) of Ilkhanid (Mongol) Tabriz, Injuid and Timurid Shiraz, Timurid Herat and Safavid Tabriz and Qazvin, ending in the single-page album painting of Safavid Isfahan
- Branch: Traditions & vernacular
- Also known as: Persian book painting, Negārgari, Timurid and Safavid book painting, Shahnameh illustration, Herat school, Isfahan album painting
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/persian-miniature/

## Use it with care

Some histories and poems in this tradition depict the Prophet Muhammad, such as his Night Journey (Miʿraj) on Buraq (a Bustan of Saʿdi folio of c. 1525–35, made probably in Bukhara and Herat rather than in Safavid Iran; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974.294.2); after about 1500 Persian painters usually veiled his face, and many Muslims consider any image of him forbidden, so do not adapt or generate such scenes, never supply a face for the Prophet, and keep holy figures off trivial products. Verses, names of God and Qur'anic phrases in the text panels are real texts: have them written or checked by a fluent reader of Persian and Arabic and never fill panels with pseudo-script. Many famous folios are dispersed: George Demotte broke up the Great Mongol Shahnama and altered its pages, and Arthur Houghton gave folios of the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp to the Metropolitan Museum and sold others one by one before the remains of the manuscript went to Tehran in 1994, so credit each leaf to its manuscript as well as to its present collection. The court tradition declines from the 17th century, which is why the period ends in 1700, but the art of miniature is still practised (Abu'l-Hasan Khan Gaffari in 19th-century Qajar Iran, Mahmoud Farshchian (1930–2025) in our own time); it is living heritage, inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2020 on a joint nomination by Azerbaijan, Iran, Türkiye and Uzbekistan and passed on from master to apprentice, so commission or credit practising painters rather than tracing their work, credit the court and city (Tabriz, Herat, Shiraz, Isfahan) rather than a single modern nation, and never present a generated image as a historical folio.

## How it works

- Build the page on the scribe's text block: verse in ruled columns, a heading panel across them, and the painting set into a field reserved within the columns; in later Safavid pages let a tree, a rock or a banner break past the ruled frame into the margin.
- Frame the picture with several fine ruled lines in colour and gold, inside wide margins of coloured or gold-flecked paper, or margins painted in muted gold and brown grisaille.
- Show depth by stacking, not by perspective: put distant figures higher up the page under a high, undulating horizon, view palaces from above with inside and outside in one cutaway, and light everything evenly, without cast shadows or chiaroscuro.
- Fill the field: flowering meadows, patterned carpets and tiled walls, and the motifs taken from Chinese painting under the Mongols (cloud bands, writhing dragons, trees with knotted trunks and stylised, jewel-coloured rocks), with many small, youthful figures in three-quarter view gathered into groups.
- Paint in pure, opaque mineral colours (lapis blue, vermilion, malachite green, pinks and lilacs) under skies of gold or lapis, and use silver for water, knowing that it tarnishes to black.
- For a single-page album picture in the Isfahan manner, isolate one or two figures in a curved posture with only a few plants around them, often as a pen drawing with light tints of colour rather than a full painting, and mount the sheet in an album beside calligraphy.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (defining)
- [Column grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/column-grid/) (characteristic)
- [Dynamic asymmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dynamic-asymmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Broken grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/broken-grid/) (occasional)
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (defining)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (characteristic)
- [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (characteristic)
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (occasional)
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (occasional)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Brush & pen calligraphy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/brush-and-pen-calligraphy/) (defining)

### Colour
- [Jewel & metallic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/jewel-and-metallic/) (defining)
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (defining)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (characteristic)
- [Pastel](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pastel/) (occasional)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Biomorphic curves](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/biomorphic-curves/) (characteristic)
- [Whiplash line](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/whiplash-line/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (defining)

### Ornament
- [Abundant decoration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/abundant-decoration/) (defining)
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (defining)
- [Floral & vegetal](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/floral-and-vegetal/) (defining)
- [Rules & bars](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rules-and-bars/) (characteristic)
- [Geometric tessellation](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-tessellation/) (characteristic)

### Imagery
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (defining)
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (occasional)
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Hand-painted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-painted/) (defining)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (characteristic)

### Tone & intent
- [Romantic & sensual](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/romantic-and-sensual/) (defining)
- [Luxurious & glamorous](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/luxurious-and-glamorous/) (defining)
- [Authoritative & institutional](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/authoritative-and-institutional/) (occasional)
- [Spiritual & sacred](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/spiritual-and-sacred/) (occasional)

Avoids: Illusion of depth, Ornament-free, Full bleed, Straight photography, Grotesque & neo-grotesque, Fluorescent & neon

Palette: #efe4c8, #1f3f8f, #c9a13b, #c8412c, #4f8a4a, #d98f86

Typefaces: Nastaʿlīq, the hanging Persian hand of Timurid and Safavid manuscripts, written in ruled columns around the paintings (the Baysonghor Shahnameh of 1430 and the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp are both written in it), Headings written in an illuminated panel across the full width of the text block, set apart from the text in gold and colour, as on the first text page of the Shiraz Shahnama of 1444, where the basmala heads the preface (Cleveland Museum of Art, 1956.10.b), Album calligraphy: single specimens of verse mounted on album pages beside or behind paintings, as on the verso of a Timurid album folio in the style of Bihzad (Afghanistan or Iran, c. 1485) in the Cleveland Museum of Art (1944.490)

Known for: Rashid al-Din, Jamiʿ al-tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles), Arabic copy, Tabriz, dated 714 AH/1314 CE (Edinburgh University Library, Or Ms 20), which the library describes as marking the birth of a new style within Persian painting; Great Mongol Shahnama (Tabriz, 1330s; dispersed): 'Bahram Gur Slays a Dragon' (1330–35; Cleveland Museum of Art, 1943.658.b), a picture band set between six ruled columns of text, and 'The Funeral of Isfandiyar' (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 33.70); Royal Reception in a Landscape, double frontispiece of a Shahnama (Shiraz, 1444; Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945.169 (right folio) and 1956.10.a (left folio)), a crowded feast stacked up the page under a gold sky with wisps of blue and white cloud; Baysonghor Shahnameh (Herat, completed 1430 for the Timurid prince Baysonghor, written in Nastaʿlīq by Jaʿfar Tabrizi; Golestan Palace, Tehran); Kamal ud-Din Behzad (c. 1455/60–1535), head of the royal atelier in Herat under Sultan Husayn Bayqara from 1486 and later in Safavid Tabriz; Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp (Tabriz, c. 1520s–1530s; 759 pages with 258 paintings, about 48 × 32 cm), with Sultan Muhammad's 'The Court of Kayumars' (c. 1524–25; Aga Khan Museum, AKM165) and folios given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Arthur A. Houghton Jr. in 1970, such as 'Zahhak is Told His Fate' (1970.301.4); Riza-yi ʿAbbasi (Reza Abbasi), 'The Lovers' (Isfahan, dated 1630; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 50.164), a single-page album painting

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Influenced by: [Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition](https://stylogeny.com/styles/islamic-geometric.md) (c. 690–present)
- Led to: [Persian Popular Narrative (Lithographs & Coffeehouse Painting)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/persian-popular-narrative.md) (1843–2012)
- Alike in its design choices: [Armenian Manuscript Illumination](https://stylogeny.com/styles/armenian-illumination.md) (c. 862–1800), 77% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Mithila (Madhubani) Painting](https://stylogeny.com/styles/mithila-painting.md) (c. 1350–present), 65% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Javanese Wayang Kulit (Tatah Sungging)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/wayang-kulit.md) (1500–present), 63% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Burmese Parabaik Painting (Konbaung Folding Books)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/burmese-parabaik.md) (1752–1885), 62% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Bezalel School](https://stylogeny.com/styles/bezalel-school.md) (1906–1929), 61% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Senegalese Sufi Devotional Imagery (Souwère Glass Painting and Amadou Bamba Portraits)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/senegalese-sufi-imagery.md) (1900–present), 59% alike

## Sources

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_miniature
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahnameh_of_Shah_Tahmasp
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baysonghor_Shahnameh
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamāl_ud-Dīn_Behzād
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mongol_Shahnameh
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reza_Abbasi
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Farshchian
- University of Edinburgh Library, The World History of Rashid al-Din, 1314: A Masterpiece of Islamic Painting (2014): https://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/blog/2014/07/14/the-world-history-of-rashid-al-din-1314-a-masterpiece-of-islamic-painting/
- University of Edinburgh Heritage Collections, Or Ms 20: Jami' al-Tawarikh, 714 AH/1314 CE: https://archives.collections.ed.ac.uk/repositories/2/digital_objects/154
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Bahram Gur Slays a Dragon, Great Mongol Shahnama, 1330–35, 1943.658.b ('Iranian painting in the Mongol period borrowed numerous stylistic and spatial elements from Chinese models'; 'writhing dragon'): https://clevelandart.org/art/1943.658.b
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Royal Reception in a Landscape, Shiraz, 1444, 1956.10.a: https://clevelandart.org/art/1956.10.a
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Royal Reception in a Landscape, right folio, Shiraz, 1444, 1945.169: https://clevelandart.org/art/1945.169
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Preface (verso) from a double-page frontispiece of a Shahnama, Shiraz, c. 1444, 1956.10.b ('an illuminated heading containing the basmala'): https://clevelandart.org/art/1956.10.b
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Outside a Royal Encampment, style of Bihzad (active 1470–1506), c. 1485, 1944.490: https://clevelandart.org/art/1944.490
- Aga Khan Museum, The Court of Kayumars, attributed to Sultan Muhammad, Tabriz, c. 1524–25, AKM165: https://remastered.agakhanmuseum.org/themes/the-courageous-spirit/objects/shah-tahmasp-shahnameh/akm165.html
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, Zahhak is Told His Fate, Folio 29v from the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp, Gift of Arthur A. Houghton Jr., 1970, 1970.301.4: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/452113
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Funeral of Isfandiyar, Folio from the Great Mongol Shahnama, Tabriz, 1330s, 33.70: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/448938
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, Riza-yi 'Abbasi, The Lovers, Isfahan, dated 1039 AH/1630 CE, 50.164: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451023
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Mi'raj or The Night Flight of Muhammad on his Steed Buraq, Folio 3v from a Bustan of Sa'di, c. 1525–35, 1974.294.2: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/452670
- UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, Decision 15.COM 8.B.17, Art of miniature (2020): https://ich.unesco.org/en/decisions/15.COM/8.B.17
- Mehdi Abedi and Michael M. J. Fischer, 'Revolutionary Posters and Cultural Signs', Middle East Report 159 (MERIP, 1989) ('a broader palate', 'much more detail, and multiple events portrayed'): https://www.merip.org/1989/07/revolutionary-posters-and-cultural-signs/

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting)”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/persian-miniature/