A LOOSE ILLUSTRATED FOLIO OF NIZAMI (D.1209)'S ISKANDAR NAMA
Aq Qoyunlu, Turcoman school, Iran, ca.1500

Persian manuscript on paper, the recto with 6-9ll. and the verso with 19ll. of black ink Persian nasta'liq script divided into four parallel columns, accompanied by an illustration in opaque pigments heightened with gold, depicting the story of Alexander and the wise shepherd’s help in curing the king’s Beloved from a heavy fever, narrated in section 10 of the Kherad Nama, in Nizami's Iskandar Nama, the chapter heading in blue ink nasta’liq script within a rectangular cartouche with polychrome vegetal meanderings, the composition portraying a restless Alexander on a crenelated palace rooftop conversing with the shepherd leaning on his staff between a prunus and a leafy tree in palace garden, his turban and beard white as described in the text, the doorman and attendants clad in Timurid attires, the palace gate inscribed ‘The Sultan is Just’ in Arabic naskh script, the maiden wearing a white headwear seated in the upper window, the shepherd’s flock to the foreground, the gold sky to Alexander’s right, blue above the edifice, separating the architecture from the natural space, the door, and windows’ frames resplendent in crushed mica, set within blue, gold, and black rules, mounted on a white cardboard frame, the text panel 17cm x 9cm, the folio 27cm x 16.5cm, 46cm x 35.5cm including the mount.

Dimensions: the folio 27cm x 16.5cm, 46cm x 35.5cm including the mount