بهرام گور
Painting by Muhammad Zaman dated 1086 (1675/76). Bahram Gur proves his worthiness by killing a dragon and recovering treasure from a cave. (Or.2265, f.203v)
Some paintings by the 17th century Safavid artist Muhammad Zaman
Perhaps the best known of all the British Library’s Persian manuscripts is Or. 2265, a copy of the Khamsah (‘Five Poems’) by the 12th century poet Nizami, copied and illustrated for the Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp (ruled 1524-76). In a recent codicological study of this manuscript Priscilla Soucek and Muhammad Isa Waley (see Soucek and Waley below) have convincingly argued that the copy is in fact a composite volume: initially copied by the royal scribe Shah Mahmud al-Nishapuri in 1535-43, and subsequently augmented by the addition of 14 full page illustrations by some of the most famous court artists of the mid-16th century. Further pages were inserted probably during the 17th century, and again at a later stage, perhaps when the manuscript was rebound in the early 19th century at the court of Fath ʻAli Shah Qajar.
It was possibly during this last refurbishment that three paintings by the artist Muhammad Zaman were added to illustrate Nizami’s poem the Haft paykar (‘Seven Beauties’). Damage to the upper part of these folios suggests that that they were most probably removed from an album or from another copy of the same poem (Soucek and Waley, pp. 199-200; 208).
