Esoteric images : decoding the late Herat school of painting / by Tawfiq Daʻadli.

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2019]

xi, 177 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cm.

Based on the author's thesis (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2012) under alternative title: Pictorial language of the Herat school of painting.

In 'Esoteric Images: Decoding the Late Herat School of Painting' Tawfiq Da'adli decodes the pictorial language which flourished in the city of Herat, modern Afghanistan, under the rule of the last Timurid ruler, Sultan Husayn Bayqara (r.1469-1506). This study focuses on one illustrated manuscript of a poem entitled 'Khamsa' by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, kept in the British Library under code Or.6810. Tawfiq Da'adli decodes the paintings, reveals the syntax behind them and thus deciphers the message of the whole manuscript. The book combines scholarly efforts to interpret theological-political lessons embedded in one of the foremost Persian schools of art against the background of the court dynamic of an influential medieval power in its final years.

English

June 07, 2019

Includes bibliographical references ([163]-173) and index.