Khamsah (or Quintet), poems written by Jamal al-din Abu Muhammad Ilyas ibn Yusuf ibn Zaki Mu'ayyad, usually known by the pen name, Nizami. The greatest Persian poet, he spent most of his life (b. 575-613 H/1141-6 CE; d.575-623H/1180-1217 CE in Ganja,( former Elizabethpol), present- day Azerbayjan.
This copy, without its original cover, comprises 359 folios, with two-double paged illumination interleaved with a double -page frontispiece painting showing throne scene, and with a double - page finispiece painting showing a banquet. Every one of the five poems begins with an elaborate title heading, and ends with a carpet page and a place for a colophon. The manuscript is written in nasta’liq script and has twenty-seven paintings.
Copied in Shiraz, Iran, by Qasim Katib (?) in the months of Muharram to Jumada II, 992 H/ 1584 CE.
Current & Past Exhibitions:
4th Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age: Writing the East: History and New Technologies in the Study of Asian Manuscript Traditions (22 Oct 2011 - 22 Oct 2011)
44 Eyes in a Museum Storeroom ( Dec 2000 - 2001)
Sex: A History in 30 Objects (17 Oct 2015 - 31 Jul 2016)
[Article] Negahban, Ezat O. 1989. "Persian Caligraphy: the Development of an Art Form". Expedition: The Magazine of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. 31 (1): 26-39.
: Page/Fig./Plate: 34
[Book] Quick, Jennifer. 2004. Magnificent Objects from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
: Page/Fig./Plate: 157
[Book] Guest, Grace D. 1949. Shiraz painting in the sixteeth century. 4. : Page/Fig./Plate: 62
[Book] Dorling Kindersley Limited. 2014. History of the World in 1,000 Objects. : Page/Fig./Plate: Foreward
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