by Sherveen Ashtari

The word Persia is associated with a variety of things in peoples’ minds: Persian cats, Persian Caviar, Persian food, Persian oil and the Persian Gulf. When it comes to Persian art, most people immediately think of Persian carpets; those hand-made, detailed, colorful, and intricately-woven masterpieces. What most people don’t know is that this love for detail, precision, meaning, scope, depth and color is manifested in almost every form of art in Iran, from music and literature to embroidery and painting.

This reality is most profoundly evident in the art of Persian miniatures. A Persian miniature is any small piece of painting, be it an illustration on paper, on carpets or on carved wood. The pieces are richly-detailed and often —depending on the period in which they were painted— portray various themes, such as hunting, love affairs, royal gatherings, religion, and mythology.

The art of miniature is said to have made its way into Persia in the 11^th century on the hands of the Turkish Seljuks who came in with books containing small illustrations of events and stories. In the 13^th century, during the Mongol conquests, Mongolian rulers brought Chinese art into Iran fueling this period of artistic awakening.

However, the art itself truly reached its peak in the 15^th and 16^th centuries, during the Teimurid and Ilkhanid dynasties in Iran and when an abundance of Persian literature was being created by writers, philosophers and poets alike.

When one looks at older Persian miniatures, it is fairly easy noticing the early Chinese influences on it.

Mongol Miniature: Mongol khan Hulago with his wife Dokuz: Rachid Ad-Din’s History of the world, 14th century

Persian Miniature: Girl smoking by Muhammad Qasim, Isfahan

During the 15^th and 16^th centuries, Persian miniature art became a means for Persians to add a visual aspect to that wealth of literature and poetry which to this day distinguishes the Persian culture. It was a way of bringing to life poetic, mythological and religious characters and events, giving them faces and in a way immortalizing them.

Human beings are visual creatures, and while we can forget the verses of the most beautiful poem, the message conveyed in that same poem can be burnt into our memories if it is accompanied by a striking picture that sums up its entire plot.

Iran is a country of poetry, and epic tales, it is also without question the land of mystics. A plethora of Sufi poets were natives of Iran, and the poetry of those ascetic Drunk-on-Love men is constantly portrayed in Persian miniatures. In fact, almost every single book I have on mystic poetry is decorated by these rich and finely-detailed illustrations.

Artists received the influence for their paintings from sources such as biblical and Qur’anic stories, in addition to books of verse and mysticism by famed poets such as Hafez, Rumi, Sa’di, Omar Khayyam, Nezami, Jami, and Amir Khusrow. The most significant and favorite source for mythology-themed art remains the work of Ferdwosi; Iran’s most important poet and the preserver of Persian literary identity in his epic the Book of Kings (Shahnameh).

Back in the day, Persian miniature was reserved for the Mongol royalty who could afford to commission artists to create such splendid pieces for their palaces.

In many instances, real gold and silver were used in the creation of these pieces, whether for the borders of the piece or in the actual coloring. One can’t help but feel the expensiveness of these paintings even when just opening one of these grand books or when simply admiring the replicas.

“The Distant Drummer”, poet, mystic and philosopher Mawlana Rumi ~ Mahmoud Farshchian

Mahmoud Farshchian ~ Prophet Moses

There existed three main schools for Persian miniature in three different Persian cities: Shiraz, Tabriz and Herat, each with a distinct style, influence and tradition. There were many influential and famous painters throughout the centuries who established, revolutionized and reinvented the art of Persian miniature, adding their own personal touch and making it an art-form unique in its Persian-ness.

For instance, it’s common now in the more contemporary pieces to find tangles of flowers and birds decorating the frames and corners of these paintings, adding to the mystery, complexity and color.

Some of these Masters include old artists such as Kamaleddin Behzad, founder of the Safavid school of Iran and a very important miniaturist of the Timurid dynasty, Reza Abbasi, a very famous painter in Iran during the Safavid dynasty, and contemporary miniaturists such as Hossein Behzad, Mahmoud Farshchian, Ali Karimi, Farah Kimiaghalam, Jalil Jokar, Alireza-Pishahang, and one I had the absolute privilege of meeting several years ago in Isfahan, Master Taghizadeh.

The following painting by Master Mahmoud Farshchian is one of my personal favorites. Whenever I look at it I find myself thinking of these verses by Mawlana Rumi and feeling that the universe must have indeed been practicing something bewitching and of extraordinary beauty through Master Farshchian when he was painting this:

Birdsong brings relief
to my longing.

I am just as ecstatic as they are,
but with nothing to say!

Please, universal soul, practice
some song, or something, through me!

Morning Blossom 1986 by Mahmoud Farshchian