#safavid

Illuminated folio from a Qur'an (F1932.65). Iran, Safavid period. 1598.

Depiction of Nizami's "Bahram and the Indian Princess in the Black Pavilion", Khamsa, mid-16th century, Safavid era. Nezami Ganjavi, born Nizām ad-Dīn Abū Muhammad Ilyās ibn Yusūf ibn Zakī ibn Mu'ayyid (1141–1209), was a pre-eminent Iranian poet and writer, universally esteemed as one of the towering figures of Persian literature.

He was born in 1141 in the city of Ganja—now in Azerbaijan—where he would also die on 12 March 1209 at the age of sixty-eight. Nizami stands among the foremost poets of medieval Persia: a legendary master whose verse moves effortlessly between mysticism, romance, and epic narrative. His poetry profoundly shaped the Persian-speaking world, and generations of poets across a vast cultural sphere—from the Ottoman to the Mongol realms (encompassing present-day Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and India)—looked to him for inspiration, striving to emulate his artistry.

His enduring fame rests chiefly upon his celebrated quintet of narrative poems, collectively known as the Khamsa(“Quintet”) or the Five Treasures. These masterworks are:

Makhzan al-Asrār (“The Treasury of Mysteries”), 1163–1176

Khosrow o Shirin (“Khosrow and Shirin”), 1177–1180

Leyli o Majnun (“Layli and Majnun”), 1192

Eskandar-Nāmeh (“The Book of Alexander”), 1194 (or 1196–1202)

eid mubarak everyone! to celebrate, here's an

🐏 eid postcard set 🌟💫

all except one featuring actual paintings from historical manuscripts! i thought this would be a wonderful way to celebrate the eid while honoring islamic art.

download here

you should be able to find them in the build-buy catalogue by searching for "postcard". i actually wrote descriptions for each, giving credit to the original artworks but couldn't find a way to make them appear in the game 😒

@alwaysfreecc

so for anyone curious, here's the credits for the artworks:

A 17th-century Safavid brass Mecca Centred World Map, Persia,

The circular brass base plate with centrally-pivoted rotating brass diametrical rule fixed with removable pin, a glazed circular recess for compass to lower part, the base plate finely engraved and chased with an elliptical grid overlaid with inscriptions in thuluth naming the geographical locations on the grid, vertical and horizontal axis denoting longitude and latitude,.

The elliptical grid surrounded by four cartouches filled with fine inscriptions in thuluth on stippled grounds with scrolling tendrils, the border with a series of further inscription-filled cartouches denoting the bearings, applied hinged sundial to upper edge, hinged latitude arc to left hand side, two applied splayed brass feet to upper side of reverse

22.5 cm. diam.; the box 25.5 cm. diam.

The Ardabil Carpet, the recorded as the oldest carpet in the world. Dates back to the Safavid era in Iran