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Walters Ms. W.678, Single leaf from Mantiq al-tayr by Farid al-din `Attar

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Shelf mark

W.678


Manuscript

Single leaf from Mantiq al-tayr by Farid al-din `Attar


Text title
Manṭiq al-ṭayr

Vernacular: منطق الطير


Author

Authority name: ʻAṭṭār, Farīd al-Dīn, ca. 1230

Supplied name: Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār, d. 618 AH / 1221 CE

Name, in vernacular: فريد الدين عطار


Abstract

This Timurid leaf depicting a funeral procession is from a copy of Manṭiq al-ṭayr (The language of the birds) by the Persian Sufi poet Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (d. 618 AH / 1221 CE). It represents a son’s lamentation at his father’s funeral. The parent manuscript was likely produced in Timurid Herat or Bukhara in the late ninth century AH / fifteenth CE. There are fewer than ten known illustrated copies of the Manṭiq al-ṭayr. In the bottom right corner is a later attribution to the famous Persian artist Bihzād (d. 942 AH / 1536-7 CE). The painting is surrounded by a biscuit-colored, gold-sprinkled border. The Walters' leaf is comparable to the same scene illustrated in the copy housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (63.210.35).


Date

Late 9th century AH / 15th CE


Origin

Herat or Bukhara


Artist

As-written name: Bihzād

Name, in vernacular: بهزاد

Note: Inscription is a later attribution to Bihzād (d. 942 AH / 1536-7 CE)


Form

Leaf


Genre

Historical


Language:

The primary language in this manuscript is Persian.


Support material

Paper

Gold-sprinkled border


Extent

Foliation: Not applicable


Dimensions

19.0 cm wide by 28.5 cm high


Layout
  1. Image: 19.0 cm wide by 28.5 cm high

Contents:
fols. W.678a - W.678b:
  1. Title: Manṭiq al-ṭayr
  2. Author: ʻAṭṭār, Farīd al-Dīn, ca. 1230
  3. Artist: Bihzād
  4. Hand note: Written in nastaʿlīq script
  5. Decoration note: Biscuit-colored, gold-sprinkled border (trimmed)

Decoration:

fol. W.678a:

  1. W.678, fol. W.678a
  2. Title: Son’s lamentation at his father’s funeral
  3. Form: Illustration
  4. Label: In the bottom right corner is a later attribution to the famous Persian artist Bihzād (d. 942 AH / 1536-7 CE). The inscription reads ʿamal-i Bihzād … [?].

fol. W.678b:

  1. W.678, fol. W.678b
  2. Title: Son’s lamentation at his father’s funeral (back)
  3. Form: Back

Acquisition

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest


Bibliography

Lukens, Marie G. "The Language of the Birds: The Fifteenth-Century Miniatures." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 25, no. 9 (1967): 331-332, fig. 23.

Canby, Sheila R. The Rebellious Reformer: The Drawings and Paintings of Riza-yi Abbasi of Isfahan. (London: Azimuth, 1996), 235, fig. 30.

Bahari, Ebadollah. Bihzad: Master of Persian Painting. London: I. B. Tauris, 1996.


Contributors

Principal cataloger: Gacek, Adam

Catalogers: Landau, Amy; Smith, Sita

Editor: Bockrath, Diane

Conservators: Jewell, Stephanie; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Barrera, Christina; Emery, Doug; Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William; Simpson, Shreve; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara


Publisher

The Walters Art Museum


License

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.