File:Jamal al-Din Abu Muhammad Nizami (d. AH c.613, AD 1217); Khamseh, early Safavid Tabriz, circa 1500-1505.jpg

English: Jamal al-Din Abu Muhammad Nizami (d. AH c.613/1217 AD): Khamseh

Early Safavid Tabriz, circa 1500-1505

Persian manuscript on paper, 275ff. with 23ll. of tiny black nasta'liq arranged in four gold-outlined columns, text within gold rules, titles in blue on panels embellished with gold and polychrome floral decoration, with SEVEN MINIATURES, detached from manuscript and with some repainting, particularly of faces, plus two finely illuminated gold and blue title folios, f.178 with ownership note of library of Ottoman Sultan Sulayman, slight smudging and staining, folios loose, incomplete, in original brown morocco binding with flap with gold tooled decoration and decoupé doublures, probably regilded, modern box case Folio 11¼ x 6¼in. (28.5 x 16cm.); text 7 x 3in. (17.7 x 8cm.)

The miniatures include: Leila and Majnun at school Prince Khusrau visiting the palace of Shirin Iskander comforting the dying Dara Fitna carrying the ox upstairs

This manuscript can be dated to the first five years of the Safavid period on the basis of the strongly Turkman style of painting, and the early type of turban. A Bustan of Sa'di in the Bodleian (MS.Marsh 517) has a parallel for this. (Robinson, B.W.: A descriptive catalogue of the Persian Paintings in the Bodleian Library, pp.82-83). A further unusual feature is the use of mother-of-pearl to highlight flagpoles, doors and windows; this is also to be found in a Nizami in the Bodleian library dated 1504 (MS.Pers.d.105, Robinson, op.cit).

Tabriz fell to the Turks four times, after the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. Sulayman the Magnificent took the city in 1534, 1538 and 1548, and no doubt it was on one of these occasions that the manuscript entered the Imperial library.