Persian Art: Image-Making in Eurasia

200 Pages·2018·60.868 MB·English

by  Yuka Kadoi

PERSIAN ART

PERSIAN ART
Image-making in Eurasia
Edited by Yuka Kadoi
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© editorial matter and organisation Yuka Kadoi, 2018
© the chapters their several authors, 2018
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
The Tun – Holyrood Road
12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry
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Typeset in Trump Mediaeval by
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and printed and bound in Slovenia at Svet Print d.o.o.
by arrangement with Associated Agencies Ltd Oxford
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4744 1115 8 (hardback)
The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related
Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
Published with the assistance of a grant from the Iran Heritage Foundation.
Contents
List of Figures vii
Abbreviations x
Preface and Acknowledgements xi
Note to the Reader xiii
CHAPTER 1 The Visual Culture of Greater Iran: Some Examples of
Kushano-Sasanian Art 1
Judith A. Lerner
CHAPTER 2 The Late Sasanian Figurative Capitals at Taq-i Bustan:
Proposals Regarding Identification and Origins 20
Matteo Compareti
CHAPTER 3 Architecture of the Wider Persian World: from Central Asia
to Western Anatolia in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 37
Richard Piran McClary
CHAPTER 4 From Acquisition to Display: the Reception of Chinese
Ceramics in the Pre-modern Persian World 60
Yuka Kadoi
CHAPTER 5 Devotion and Protection: Four Amuletic Scrolls from Safavid
Persia 78
Tobias Nünlist
CHAPTER 6 The Minarets of Hurmuzgan 102
Iván Szántó
CHAPTER 7 Persian, Indian or Indo-Persian? The Study of Sixteenth- and
Seventeenth-century Knotted Pile Carpets 116
Raquel Santos
vi ConTEnTs
CHAPTER 8 The Calligraphic Art of Mishkin Qalam 133
Francesco Stermotich-Cappellari
CHAPTER 9 The Kashan Mihrab in Berlin: a Historiography of Persian
Lustreware 157
Markus Ritter
List of the Contributors 179
Index 181
Figures
1.1 Relief of the king’s horse at Rag-i Bibi, Afghanistan 3
1.2 Painting in cave at Ghulbiyan, Afghanistan 5
1.3 Silver-gilt plate with investiture and banquet scenes 6
1.4 Silver-gilt plate with Shapur II hunting boars 8
1.5 Silver-gilt plate with Warahran hunting boars 9
1.6 Silver-gilt plate with hunting scene 12
1.7 Copper-gilt plate with horseman hunting lions, Mes Aynak,
Afghanistan 13
2.1 The site of Taq-i Bustan after renovation 22
2.2 Stone relief fragment on the bank of the pool at Taq-i Bustan 22
2.3 Figurative capital kept in the garden of Chehel Sotun Palace, Isfahan;
drawing of an inscribed gold coin of Khusro II 23
2.4 Sketch of the rock reliefs Taq-i Bustan III; Taq-i Bustan IV 23
2.5 Figurative capital from Kermanshah: Sasanian king 27
2.6 Figurative capital from Kermanshah: Zoroastrian deity 27
2.7 Photo of a figurative capital from Bisutun taken in the park at Taq-i
Bustan 27
2.8 Third-century ce Roman column capitals reused in the medieval
church of Santi Felice and Regolo, Pisa 28
3.1 Qarakhanid Minaret, Uzgend; Burana Minaret, Balasagun 38
3.2 Tepsi Minaret, Erzurum; Harput Great Mosque Minaret 39
3.3 Tepsi Minaret, Erzurum; damaged area to right of clock face on upper
shaft 43
3.4 EÌri Minaret, Aksaray; Yivli minaret, Antalya; Kesik Minare Mosque
Minaret, Aksaray 44
3.5 Kesik Minare Mosque Minaret, Aksaray; balcony detail 48
3.6 Bekar Sultan Tomb, GülaÌaç; Selime Sultan Tomb, Selime 50
3.7 Selime Sultan Tomb portal moulded tile detail 52
3.8 Selime Sultan Tomb portal cross-section 53
3.9 Ferruh S¸ah Mescidi and Kileci Mescidi window spandrels,
Ak∞ehir 54
viii FiguREs
4.1 Bowl, stonepaste, blue and black painted under transparent glaze, Iran,
779 (1377) 63
4.2 A Garden Feast at the Court of Sultan Husayn Mirza, double-page from
the Bustan of Sadi, Herat, 893 (1488) 66
4.3 Porcelain ‘moon flask’ with birds and flowering branches, China, Ming
dynasty (Yongle period, 1403–24) 67
4.4 The chinikhana, the Shrine Complex of Shaykh Safi al-Din, Ardabil 68
4.5 The mihrab at the Masjid al-Qasr, Manal, Samail province, Oman 70
4.6 The chinikhana, 1897 72
5.1 Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cologny, frontispiece 81
5.2 Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cologny, square (wafq) with 3 × 3 cells
containing several of God’s Beautiful Names written diagonally in
black and red ink 82
5.3 Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cologny, rectangular cartouche quoting the
beginning of the Throne Verse (Sura 2: 255) 82
5.4 Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz –
Orientabteilung, cartouche alluding to the concept of tawakkul (trust
in God) 86
5.5 Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz –
Orientabteilung, rectangular cartouche containing Sura 2: 137 (end)
copied in golden letters on a bluish background 86
5.6 The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, decorative frontispiece 91
5.7 The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, fourfold mention of Ali in golden
letters 91
6.1 Jan Baptist Weenix: The Dutch Ambassador on his Way to Isfahan 106
6.2 General view of the Friday Mosque of Bardistan, Bushehr province,
Iran 107
6.3 Friday Mosque of Bardistan, elevation of façade 108
6.4 Minaret of the Malik b. Abbas Mosque, Bandar Linga, Hurmuzgan
province, Iran 109
6.5 Malik b. Abbas Mosque, section 110
7.1 ‘Vine Scroll’ carpet, with unidentified coats of arms, Iran, early
seventeenth century 118
7.2 Single quarter plan of ‘Vine Scroll with Central Void and Clouds’
carpet, Iran, seventeenth century 126
7.3 Scheme for single quarter design belonging to ‘Vine scroll with Central
Void and Clouds’ carpet, Iran, seventeenth century 126
8.1 Mishkin Qalam: The Name of Baha-Allah in the Form of a Rooster,
Palestine, 1887–8 134
8.2 Mishkin Qalam: Husayn ‘Ali waw, Palestine, nineteenth century 140
8.3 Mishkin Qalam: Bismi’llah al-bahiyyu al-abha, Palestine, nineteenth
century 141
8.4 Mishkin Qalam: Ya baha al-abha, Palestine, nineteenth century 142
FiguREs ix
8.5 Mishkin Qalam: Two Roosters with Tree of Life, Palestine, 1889–90 146
9.1 The lustre mihrab in situ in the Masjid-i Imad al-Din at Kashan in
1881 158
9.2 Lustre mihrab from Kashan, before restoration tiles assembled 161
9.3 Lustre mihrab from Kashan, after first restoration 162
9.4 Lustre mihrab from Kashan, after second restoration 163
9.5 Advertisement of the London exhibition in American Art News 163
9.6 Lustre mihrab from Kashan, present state, signed by al-Hasan ibn
Arabshah and dated 663 (1226) 168
9.7 Front cover of Islamic Art and Architecture 650–1250 171
9.8 The Kashan lustre mihrab in the present exhibition of the Museum of
Islamic Art, Berlin 172
9.9 Copy of the Kashan lustre mihrab by Abbas Akbari 173
Abbreviations
EIr Encyclopeadia Iranica
EI2 Encyclopeadia of Islam, second edition
EI3 Encyclopeadia of Islam, third edition
SPA Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman (eds), A Survey of Persian
Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present, 6 vols, London and New York
1938–9; repr. 16 vols, Ashiya, 1981.