The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
This painting depicts courtiers of the Safavid ruler Shāh ʿAbbās I (r. 996 AH / 1588 CE -- 1038 AH / 1629 CE). It is the right side of a double-page composition, which most likely served as a frontispiece to a manuscript. Certain courtiers of Shāh ʿAbbās I are identified by name. In the far upper right two men stand wearing turbans with vertical extensions held at the center, who are identified as Alpān Bīk (Beg) (in a blue robe) and Qarajaghāy Khān (in a red robe). Their headdress is distinctive of high-ranking members of court during the early eleventh century AH / seventeenth CE. Qarajaghāy Khān, an Armenian of the royal household, held a number of political positions at court and was an important patron of the arts. Standing lower down on the right side is Shāh Vardī Bīk Ishik Aqāsī (literally master of the threshold, or master of ceremonies) (in a gold and black robe). An Uzbek envoy (īlchī-yi Ūzbak) (in a beige and blue patterned robe) is seated on the carpet. Falconers, grooms, and a musician (Qubād-i Kurd) standing beside a man identified as Mīrzā ʿUmar (?) Shaykh (in a red and gold robe) are also shown. There are two seated female figures, identified as Gulparī and Dukhtardallālah. The latter seems to denote a woman who procures slave girls for the palace. This single leaf has been associated with Reception at the court of Shah`Abbas I, also housed at the Walters Art Museum (W.771, fol. 50a). However, it is unlikely that the two ever formed a double-page composition.
Written in nastaʿlīq script
Principal cataloger: Gacek, Adam
Cataloger: Landau, Amy
Cataloger: Smith, Sita
Editor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Barrera, Christina
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Simpson, Shreve
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Contributor: Valle, Chiara
Conservator: Jewell, Stephanie
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Schmitz, Barbara. “On a Special Hat Introduced During the Reign of Shah ʿAbbās the Great.” Iran: Journal of Persian Studies 22 (1984): 103-112.
Simpson, Marianna Shreve. "Shah 'Abbas and his Picture Bible." In The Book of Kings: Art, War, and the Morgan Library's Medieval Picture Bible. (Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2002), 200, cat. 41.
Robinson, B.W. and E. Sims. The Windsor Shahnama of 1648. (London: Azimuth Editions for the Roxburghe Club, 2007), 202, figs. 1 and 1a.
Canby, Sheila R. Shah 'Abbas: The Remaking of Iran. (London: British Museum Press, 2009), 133, cat. 51.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
Iran
Mid 11th century AH / 17th CE
leaf
The primary language in this manuscript is Persian.
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest
Iran
Mid 11th century AH / 17th CE
leaf
The primary language in this manuscript is Persian.
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest
This painting depicts courtiers of the Safavid ruler Shāh ʿAbbās I (r. 996 AH / 1588 CE -- 1038 AH / 1629 CE). It is the right side of a double-page composition, which most likely served as a frontispiece to a manuscript. Certain courtiers of Shāh ʿAbbās I are identified by name. In the far upper right two men stand wearing turbans with vertical extensions held at the center, who are identified as Alpān Bīk (Beg) (in a blue robe) and Qarajaghāy Khān (in a red robe). Their headdress is distinctive of high-ranking members of court during the early eleventh century AH / seventeenth CE. Qarajaghāy Khān, an Armenian of the royal household, held a number of political positions at court and was an important patron of the arts. Standing lower down on the right side is Shāh Vardī Bīk Ishik Aqāsī (literally master of the threshold, or master of ceremonies) (in a gold and black robe). An Uzbek envoy (īlchī-yi Ūzbak) (in a beige and blue patterned robe) is seated on the carpet. Falconers, grooms, and a musician (Qubād-i Kurd) standing beside a man identified as Mīrzā ʿUmar (?) Shaykh (in a red and gold robe) are also shown. There are two seated female figures, identified as Gulparī and Dukhtardallālah. The latter seems to denote a woman who procures slave girls for the palace. This single leaf has been associated with Reception at the court of Shah`Abbas I, also housed at the Walters Art Museum (W.771, fol. 50a). However, it is unlikely that the two ever formed a double-page composition.
Written in nastaʿlīq script
Principal cataloger: Gacek, Adam
Cataloger: Landau, Amy
Cataloger: Smith, Sita
Editor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Barrera, Christina
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Simpson, Shreve
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Contributor: Valle, Chiara
Conservator: Jewell, Stephanie
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Schmitz, Barbara. “On a Special Hat Introduced During the Reign of Shah ʿAbbās the Great.” Iran: Journal of Persian Studies 22 (1984): 103-112.
Simpson, Marianna Shreve. "Shah 'Abbas and his Picture Bible." In The Book of Kings: Art, War, and the Morgan Library's Medieval Picture Bible. (Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2002), 200, cat. 41.
Robinson, B.W. and E. Sims. The Windsor Shahnama of 1648. (London: Azimuth Editions for the Roxburghe Club, 2007), 202, figs. 1 and 1a.
Canby, Sheila R. Shah 'Abbas: The Remaking of Iran. (London: British Museum Press, 2009), 133, cat. 51.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
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