Artwork Page for An Episode from the Story of the Sasanian King Khusrau and His Beloved Shirin, from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami (1141–1209) (verso); Persian verses from a Haft Awrang (Seven Thrones) of Jami (d. 1492) (recto)

Details / Information for An Episode from the Story of the Sasanian King Khusrau and His Beloved Shirin, from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami (1141–1209) (verso); Persian verses from a Haft Awrang (Seven Thrones) of Jami (d. 1492) (recto)

An Episode from the Story of the Sasanian King Khusrau and His Beloved Shirin, from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami (1141–1209) (verso); Persian verses from a Haft Awrang (Seven Thrones) of Jami (d. 1492) (recto)

1540–70

Iran, probably Shiraz, Safavid period

(1501-1722)
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Medium
opaque watercolor, gold, silver, and ink on paper; double-sided
Measurements
Sheet: 29.6 x 16.2 cm (11 5/8 x 6 3/8 in.); Image: 21 x 13 cm (8 1/4 x 5 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1947.500
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
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Did You Know?

Khusrau’s turban has the anachronistic baton worn by Safavid royalty and the egret feather, an emblem of nobility instituted by the Mongols in the 1200s.

Description

The Khamsa is a collection of five narrative poems, one of which is dedicated to the romance of Khusrau Parviz (590–628), a Sasanian king of Iran, and Shirin, his beloved Armenian princess. The lovers are seated in a nocturnal landscape, indicated by the dark blue sky dotted with stars, painted with now tarnished silver. Shirin serves figs and pomegranates, symbolic of fertility, to Khusrau as attendants bring more figs and wine. Next to Shirin’s black horse, the musician at bottom right plays a tanbur, a long-necked, fretted lute.
Vertically oriented page with Persian calligraphy on one side and a scene of people with light skin tones outside a tent on the other. Behind the white tent rise grey mountains and a blue sky. In front, Khusrau Parviz, a man wearing a white turban, faces Shirin, a woman holding a bowl of figs and pomegranates. Left stand two more people. In the lower right are a black horse and person playing a stringed instrument.

An Episode from the Story of the Sasanian King Khusrau and His Beloved Shirin, from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami (1141–1209) (verso); Persian verses from a Haft Awrang (Seven Thrones) of Jami (d. 1492) (recto)

1540–70

Iran, probably Shiraz, Safavid period (1501-1722)

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