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Lot Essay
After being banned from seeing his childhood love Layla, Qays ibn al-Mulawwah’s obsessiveness drives him mad and makes him run away into the wilderness. His tribe gives him the epithet of Majnun (crazy).
The scene of our jewel-like illustrated folio depicts Majnun’s father’s attempt to cure him, by taking him on pilgrimage to Mecca, to seek God's help in freeing him. However, Majnun strikes the Ka'ba and cries and demands to be allowed to love. He continues to wander in the wilderness, chanting poems about Layla’s love and beauty.
Our painting provides an intricate and detailed depiction of the Safavid architecture and tile-work, the kiswa covering and the heavily jewelled angles, and must have belonged to an exquisite Safavid copy of Nizami’s Khamsa. A very closely comparable illustration of the same scene is found in the Walter's Art Museum’s Khamsa, signed by Yar Muhammad al-Haravi, dated AH 922/1516 AD (Ms. 609, fol.137a).
The scene of our jewel-like illustrated folio depicts Majnun’s father’s attempt to cure him, by taking him on pilgrimage to Mecca, to seek God's help in freeing him. However, Majnun strikes the Ka'ba and cries and demands to be allowed to love. He continues to wander in the wilderness, chanting poems about Layla’s love and beauty.
Our painting provides an intricate and detailed depiction of the Safavid architecture and tile-work, the kiswa covering and the heavily jewelled angles, and must have belonged to an exquisite Safavid copy of Nizami’s Khamsa. A very closely comparable illustration of the same scene is found in the Walter's Art Museum’s Khamsa, signed by Yar Muhammad al-Haravi, dated AH 922/1516 AD (Ms. 609, fol.137a).