Shah Tahmasb I

This essay addresses the significance and status of Chinese art in sixteenth-century Iran through the lens of Safavid scholars, painters and album compilers, as well as their patrons. It focuses on the album that Dust Muhammad compiled for Bahram Mirza, completed in 1544/45 and largely preserved in its original arrangement. A close examination of the relationship between the Chinese and Persianate paintings in this album and comparisons with other paintings and drawings demonstrate the ways in which Chinese artworks were perceived, adopted and self-consciously adapted during Shah Tahmasp’s reign (1524–1576). Furthermore, my analysis of Dust Muhammad’s preface to the Barham Mirza Album and other important contemporary primary sources, such as the poem Āyīn-i Iskandarī (The Rules of Iskandar, 1543/44) by ʿAbdi Beg of Shiraz, reveals an early Safavid reluctance to embrace optical naturalism, which was strongly associated with the Chinese aesthetic. This analysis also elucidates the growing sense of a very distinct pictorial style in Safavid Iran, which was thought to derive from an inner vision situated in the mind or heart of the painter. The mimetic abstraction of this Safavid-Shiʿi aesthetic, initially connected to Imam ʿAli, was considered as superior to the optical naturalism of the Chinese aesthetic.

This article analyzes a group of Ottoman inserts added to the Shahnama-i Shahi, the famous copy of Firdawsi’s Book of Kings made for the Safavid shah Tahmasp I. It is well known that this manuscript was given by Tahmasp to the Ottoman sultan Selim II in 1568 and remained in Istanbul for over three centuries, and yet almost no attention has been paid to this period of ownership. This neglect is all the more remarkable given the Ottomans’ own intense engagement with the book, for in 1800–01, Selim II’s namesake successor, Selim III, commissioned his chief gunkeeper, Mehmed ʿArif, to provide all 258 of the manuscript’s paintings with Ottoman-inscribed inserts. Most of these inserts were lost with Arthur Houghton’s dismemberment of the book, but forty-one of them are preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. While ostensibly intended as a Turkish abridgment of the Persian text, the inserts also provide an important record of how the Shahnama-i Shahi was received in its late Ottoman context. This in turn yields invaluable information on how illustrated manuscripts, as well as Firdawsi’s epic, were more generally viewed and understood in the Islamic world.

Babürlü Devleti’nin kurucusu Babür’ün 1530 yılında ölümünün ardından
en büyük oğlu olan Hümayun tahta geçti. Hümayun, tahta çıkışı ile birlikte çevresindeki güçlü dış rakipler ve Timurlu mirzaların yarattığı iç huzursuzluklar ile uğraşmak zorunda kalmıştı. Hümayun’un bu süreç içerisinde de en güçlü rakipleri, Afgan Şir Han ve kardeşi Kamran Mirza olmuştu. 1540 yılında Şir Han ile yapılan savaşta Hümayun, mağlup olmuş ve tahtını kaybetmişti. Tac ve tahtını kaybeden Hümayun, Kuzey Hindistan’da tutunmaya çalışmış, ancak başarılı olamamıştı. Ortaya çıkan bu durum üzerine Hümayun, İran’a giderek, Şah Tahmasb’a sığınmıştı. İran’da ortaya çıkan ittifak ile birlikte Hümayun, Kandahar ve Kabil’i ele geçirerek kardeşlerinin yarattığı tehlikeyi bertaraf etmeyi ve Hindistan’daki tahtını geri kazanmayı amaçlamıştı. Bu çalışmada Babürlü Devleti’nin ikinci hükümdarı olan Hümayun’un, Hindistan’daki tahtını kaybettikten sonra yaşadığı sürgün hayatı ve Babürlü Devleti’nin yeniden tesisi için verdiği mücadele incelenmeye çalışılacaktır. Makalemizde Babürlü saray tarihçileri tarafından kaleme alınan ana kaynaklara başvurularak, Hümayun dönemi ile ilgili araştırma eserler incelenmeye
çalışılmıştır.

The Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp (1524-1576): the World's most Beautiful Miniatures

ΑΝΑΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΣΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΣΗΜΕΡΑ ΑΝΕΝΕΡΓΟ ΜΠΛΟΓΚ “ΟΙ ΡΩΜΙΟΙ ΤΗΣ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΗΣ”
Το κείμενο του κ. Νίκου Μπαϋρακτάρη είχε αρχικά δημοσιευθεί την 19η Αυγούστου 2019.

Στο κείμενό του αυτό αφιερωμένο στο κορυφαίο καλλιτεχνικό μεγαλούργημα του 16ου αιώνα, δηλαδή το διακοσμημένο με εντυπωσιακές σμικρογραφίες χειρόγραφο του Σαχναμέ του Φερντοουσί, το οποίο είχε φιλοτεχνηθεί για τον Σάχη Ταχμάσπ, ο κ. Μπαϋρακτάρης αναπαράγει την ερμηνεία του μυθικού έπους, την οποία έχω παρουσιάσει σε δύο ομιλίες μου το 2017 στην Μόσχα και την Αστάνα (σήμερα Νουρσουλτάν) και σε συζητήσεις μας για το θέμα. Σε μικρή έκταση, έχω επίσης αναφερθεί σχετικά σε ένα εκλαϊκευτικό κείμενο ευχών για το νέο έτος, το οποίο έστειλα σε φίλους και το οποίο εδημοσίευσα εδώ:
Ferdowsi, Shahnameh, Key Qubad, and the Return of the Great Emperor – Wishes for 2021! https://www.academia.edu/44823550/Ferdowsi_Shahnameh_Key_Qubad_and_the_Return_of_the_Great_Emperor_Wishes_for_2021_

Στο μέλλον προδιατίθεμαι να δημοσιεύσω ένα άρθρο – πρότυπο ερμηνευτικής ανάλυσης των ‘ηρώων’ του Φερντοουσί τους οποίους πολλοί ιρανολόγοι κακώς επιχειρούν να ταυτίσουν με ιστορικά πρόσωπα ή οντότητες του προϊσλαμικού (σασανιδικού) ιρανικού θρύλου. Ο καθένας ‘ήρωας’ του Φερντοουσί δεν είναι ένας αλλά πολλοί. Ως ιδιαίτερη σύνθεση διαφορετικών αρετών και αμαρτιών και ως ποικιλότροπη ενσάρκωση ψυχικών ιδεών, οι αέναοι ήρωες του Φερντοουσί επαναλαμβάνονται μέσα στην Μυθική Ιστορία της Ανθρωπότητας, την οποία συνέγραψε ο Πέρσης επικός ποιητής, εξαλείφοντας κάθε εντύπωση εξέλιξης και κάθε έννοια χρόνου, εκμηδενίζοντας κάθε αίσθηση ‘γίγνεσθαι’ και κάθε αναζήτηση ‘λογικής’, και επιβάλλοντας από την πρώτη στιγμή της Δημιουργίας έως την Συντέλεια μία ατελεύτητη ανακεφαλαίωση του κάθε τινός.
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First republished on 6th October 2021 here:
https://profmegalommatistextsingreek.wordpress.com/2021/10/06/το-σαχναμέ-του-σάχη-ταχμάσπ-1524-1576-οι-πιο-όμ/

Bu məqalənin orijinalı “L’ Evolution de la garde royale des Safavides” adı ilə fransız dilində, 1984 –cü ildə “ Moyen Orient et Océan Indién” jurnalında dərc olunmuşdur. Los Ancelesdəki Kaliforniya Universitetinin əməkdaşı Rudi Mətyu bu məqaləni ingilis dilinə tərcümə edərək, onu “İranian Studies” jurnalında nəşr etdirmişdir. Bu tərcümə əsərinə görə R.Mətyu 1990-cı il üçün “İranian Studies” jurnalı tərəfindən təqdim olunan “Malkolm Kerr” mükafatına layiq görülmüşdür.