Miscellany of Iskandar Sultan (Shiraz, 1410–11), British Library Add. 27261

The Iskandar Sultan miscellany is a small-format manuscript made for him at Shiraz around 1410–11, when his academy was at its height; it is in the British Library as Add. 27261. ^{3 2} Norah Titley says Iskandar Sultan's illuminators were then unsurpassed in inventive design and in the use of colour and gold. ²

The borders of some pages hold small, lightly painted drawings of subjects from the Shahnama and Nizami — warriors fighting, Khusraw watching Shirin — far outnumbered by varied geometric and arabesque motifs. ¹ Among them is what is probably the earliest example of the waqwaq arabesque, with human and animal heads on its tendrils. ^{1 2} Every folio has a triangular "thumbpiece" of different design, and a deep maroon favoured by Iskandar Sultan's illuminators runs through its decoration. ²

Compositions from the Khvaju Kirmani manuscript (1396) recur in this miscellany, and its own compositions in turn served as models throughout the fifteenth century, in a chain running from Baghdad to Shiraz and Herat. ^{3 4}